Fwd: Re: [Harp-L] Re: Little Walter

["samblancato" <samblancato@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chris Writes:
  
> <<I'm happy to issue my standard opinion of harmonica 
players."99.4% of all 
>harmonica players on earth are crap musicians. Y'all need to hunker 
down and 
>learn to play your instrument as if it were a horn or something">>

I don't know if this is true or not but there are certianly a lot of 
really bad players out there that somehow manage to get on stage and 
clear out a room with their little harmonica.  

Responding to other comments in this thread, I don't think it's true 
that every player blowing through a tube rig sounds alike and thinks 
he's actually the best tone-wise.  Evan in Pittsburgh what with the 
maybe five harmonica players that are actively playing out there is a 
wide difference in tone and sound quality.  Most of this has to do 
not with their rig but with their personal tone and how they handle 
their mic. and amp.  I've had guys play through my rig and sound 
great and others who sounded not so great.  In national acts I've 
heard a big difference.  Mark Humel sounds very different from Steve 
Guyger and John Nemeth sounds different from both of them.  Nemeth 
played through a Super Reverb with a 545, Humel through a Mateor with 
a JT30, Guyger through something else.  I just caught Kim Wilson 3 
weeks ago playing through a Fender Twin and he sounded better than 
I've ever heard him before both on the Chromatic and on short harp. 

The last thing I wanted to say was about this arguement about weather 
or not LW was a purist. I don't have to have read any interviews or 
even know much about Walter's playing history to know that he most 
certianly was not a purist.  In fact, LW may have been one of the 
first musicians of any kind to really experimant with distotion.  If 
you think this was just an accident of the times and cercumstances 
you're wrong.  All you have to do is listen to him, and not a lot of 
material either; just what's on "His Best" will do.  There is enough 
material on that one album to show that he knew what the distortion 
was doing for him and that he was using it in a diliberate way.  
Perhaps he didn't have a structured plan for what he did form one 
month to the next but he did cool things what he had on hand, and I'm 
not talking about the effects Leonard or Phill Chess added on later.  

But after having said all that, it isn't the tonal stuff that made LW 
so wonderful.  As this recently available video shows it's what LW 
did musically that really set him apart.  The guy really could swing 
and it's this quality that really set him apart.  I know he's playing 
acoustically on the video and there have been comments about how he's 
emulating SB II or SB I.  I don't really hear any similarity there 
other than the fact that he playing a harp acoustically.  It sounds 
like pure Little Walter to me. 

Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh