Probably not, but we'll see.

common Don don't disappoint your fans it ain't that far away and Gary is a awesome host!!

A great story. It may a a cultrual thing with the black community. No matter what it is, it is a good thing. After all, you said, "Their response to our music made us play like we have never played before." Once in a while, I vist my friend's church. It is a black congregation and my friend minister and organist was a recording artist in Hollywood. What a fantastic B3 player! A mutual friend who is an Italian Jazz organist once commented, "Black musicans can play the wrong note and make it sound good!" Talk about response. It is not just the music but at my friend's church peoplere were responding to announcements!!! I just loved it. Oh, once I had Peter the black B3 player came to my gig. He ended up playing the upright piano. I have never seen my audience 99.9999 White all went wild. Wow. I pondered over it for some time later. It had to be the funky rhythm he was playing more than the complex harmonies he was playing...

I can't see how the color of your skin can make you a better player, but the experiences that many have had in their lives, and their musical upbringing certainly can. I know there are a lot of great musicians and singers that started in all or predominately black churches.
The first musical experiences I remember was sitting by my mom on the big bench behind the church's B3, or C3. She would let me play when she went to practice and showed me how to turn it on even. However, she had no "soul" in her music and had to have the notes in front of her to play. She played it exactly as it was written, no more, no less. As a result, neither she or the choir director inspired a lot of feeling in the hymns or gospel music done in that church. About as far out as they got was saying "let's all stand for the last verse!" Probably why they are still looking for those Sheaves to bring in after all this time!
Some few years ago I went to a wedding in Arkansas with a friend of mine who happens to be black. If I'd had that kind of music at my first wedding, I might not have gotten divorced! They had B3, drums, guitar, bass and piano and a choir that could have toured with Ray Charles! It was the first church I'd been in that had something other than a piano or organ.
Anyway, having said all this, I can't think of a single black musician that I've heard playing anywhere who I thought was really lacking. Well, maybe Chas, but ...
Smile Chas, you know I'm joking and I love you!

I AM smiling. First of all, although I was raised in a non-religious household where you were much more likely to hear Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Count Basie (my third cousin, BTW), Billy Eckstein, Lester Young, ect., than Muddy Waters, (early) Ray Charles, or B.B. King, I had very limited exposure to blues and gospel music (and by 'gospel', I mean real, honest-to-god 'Black' gospel music (where the pianist or organist could play in any key someone started a song in ). As an adult, I came to love gospel music, blues, Italian Opera,,,in fact, any music that was SOULFUL and performed with the emotional investment required for the genre'. I think that is what accounts for my eclectic tastes in music AND artists. I love Willie Nelson, BB King, Pavarotti, Aretha, Joe Cocker, Les McCann, Rev. James Cleveland, Nina Simone, Eva Cassidy, Sam and Dave, etc., etc. just about equally. What they all share is SOUL. It's why I rather listen to Brother Jack McDuff than Barbara Dennerlien, even though technically, she could blow his doors off.

As far as Black (notice that I CAPITALIZE 'Black' when used to describe a race) music and Black musicians being more soulful or expressive, I think the first sentence of Don's post above says it very well. 200 years of oppression probably does have an influence on your music (and culture in general). I see the same haunting/soulful quality in a lot of Celtic music with some Irish folk tunes being some of the most soulful songs I've ever heard. I think all of these minor themed genre's are born out of the same kind of suffering and hardship.

In the end, I think what is important in music is not so much the genre' or WHO'S playing it, but the quality of the music and the skill and authenticity of the performer. JMO.

chas (still smiling)