[Harp-L] Butterfield, some more thoughts

["Bret Littlehales" <blittlehales@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'm 53 years old and bet that, like me, a lot of harp players on this
list got really started on harp by Paul Butterfield. It seems as if
time has not diminished the impact of his music, at least up to the
Better Days period. And yet, especially among younger harp players,
Butterfield has very little influence today. 

I can't tell you how many young players have dissed him to me, saying,
he couldn't tongue block, he didn't learn Little Walter songs
note-for- note, he couldn't sing (!) and he abandoned blues. 

It seems obvious from listening to his playing that he could pretty
much do anything he wanted on the harp. His third position major scale
playing, for instance, is incredible-- there a very, very few current
harp players whose bend intonations are as clean as Butter's. He might
not have played Little note- for- note, but since he actually saw
Walter repeatedly and actually lived on the South side and actually
played w/ all the great blues musicians instead of just listening to
their records, my guess is that note- for- note held little or no
interest for him, although his take on Big Walter's classic break on
"Walkin'" is a cool interpretation. 

Butter, like Mussel, was about the last real unique blues voice in
harp. Everyone else and I mean everyone, is either imitating Walter,
et alia, or they're just playing jive. Not to say that the harp
players in the Chicago or West Coast or Austin tradition, and I'm not
talking about the classic cats like Cotton or Carey Bell, aren't
great-- they are, no question, but they're not what I'd call 
envelope- expanders. Butterfield at age 21 playing "Work Song"... wow!

His passion, his craft, his wonderful singing, his versatility and
ability to sit in w/ Muddy (who loved him) one night and Hendrix the
next, make him unique.

Sadly, he was, like so many other great musicians, an imperfect vessel
for so much talent. His last years were filled w/ pain, disappointment
and lost opportunity, much like Little Walter, whom he idolized.

I like to remember his appearance in BB King's birthday video, filmed
weeks before his death, standing w/ Stevie Ray Vaughn and Albert King
(talk about irony!) doing "The Sky Is Crying". Stevie and Albert have
both sung their verses, and then Paul steps up. "I got a bad, bad
feeling," he sings, "my woman don't love me no more." And the audience
applauds! Because he hits his verse w/ the same impact that I got
years earlier when the needle hit "Born in Chicago" for the first
time. And everyone knows it. Passion and technique. 

Thanks, Paul.