Re: [Harp-L] Re: Overblows in the Blues - Check This Out

[Bob Cohen <bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Feb 15, 2010, at 11:02 AM, Harri Haka wrote:

> Here is one example of how a slow blues is played Blues Style:
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBeuco0PgJs

Great number.  James Cotton is undeniably a master of his craft.  I think of music in the same terms as common law. At the bottom there is a rule.  Layered on top of that are the countless interpretations of the rule that judges use to decide specific cases.  Musicians like lawyers live for creative applications of the rules to suit their intentions. Yeah: that James Cotton piece is a slow blues tour de force.  But so are many other compositions that sound nothing like it. 

The bottom line is that there's room for everyone.  To quote Earl Warren, a former U.S. Supreme Court justice: "We are now at the point where we must decide whether we are to honour the concept of a plural society which gains strength through diversity, or whether we are to have bitter fragmentation that will result in perpetual tension and strife."

Bob