Congrats and a special thanx to SPAH especially Doug Tate and Paul Davies
and Joe Fey's Gateway Club for working so hard and bringing us another
great SPAH. Despite a few technical difficulties, I really enjoyed meeting
& hanging and performing with some new and old members. Also, a big thanx
to Tom Stevens for his hard work all week.
I wanted to thank our President Doug Tate for giving me the
opportunity to perform with Bud Boblink (chord) and Frank Warner (bass)
two great musicians! I learned volumes from this experience.
St. Louis was a cool town with some soulful & friendly folks. (and
some great eateries!)
Everyone sounded so good (all week), I now have a lot of new licks to
steal and new CD's to listen too in the weeks ahead!!
Still, much work is needed in between the:
Diatonic vs. the Chrom/Bass/Chord camps.
I spoke with alot of senior players that felt that the 'Diatonic' guys
have taken over "Their" convention...feeling slighted in some ways. It's
too bad I told them because, if SPAH does not grow with the new
players...it will just fade away and end!
Internet groups like Slidemeister just alienate the the two groups
even further apart. Hats off too Harp-l which keeps an OPEN forum.
The issue here is we NEED each other, the older gang is helping us
"Preserve" the precious and beautiful works on Chord/ Bass & Chrom...the
great Trio arrangements that we can learn so much from.Also, the
diminishing number of Chord and Bass players is a serious problem that we
need to address and attend to. I have learned so much about the
instrument from these older players.
Ofcourse, it goes without saying, MORE promotion and Players are
needed in our Classical realm!
On the other hand we MUST continue to "advance", this is why it's
imperative to encourage ALL the diatonic players to join and attend SPAH
and contribute their innovations and music. Advancement must continue as
well for Chromatic as well as Chord and Bass. On a positive note, I did
see more 'crossover' going on, more diatonic players making the jazz Jams
more Chrom players hitting the late night blues jams.
The same crossover was going on at the seminars which was really nice to see.
This is only going to be a successful merger if both sides REALLY
respect each others contributions, not look down upon them as inferior forms.
SPAH, has gone out of there way to provide equal time, space and
spotlight for both camps, so why the beef?
I spent alot of time talking to ALL sides this last convention, it
IS getting a bit better but NOT enough.
I know the founders of SPAH in the 60's had a vision,
that included ALL Harmonica music and I will continue on this mission to
"unite" not "divide"....
PS.....interesting to note that diatonics are the REAL seniors, you see,
the button thing didn't come along until the 1920's,-))...hmmmmmmm.
Thanx again SPAH
Love & Peace,
Rob Paparozzi
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