[Harp-L] re: jason ricci

[Michael Fugazzi <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx>]

Original Message:

Message: 13
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 16:31:03 -0500
From: "Bill Hines" <billhines4@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: [Harp-L] jason ricci
To: "'Frank Franze'" <Franze52@xxxxxxx>, <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Message-ID: <008501c4e936$b49117d0$6701a8c0@HinesIBMA50p>
Keywords: Personal
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="US-ASCII"

" Jason 
talks
about that quite a bit, discussing Popper and Sugar Blue. Those guys 
are
mostly 'speed' first position type of guys. They don't use the 'blues
harp' type techniques of bending, octaves, things like that very often.

Bill Hines

Hershey, PA"
 
 
I have to disagree with the statements about Sugar Blue.  Much of his playing, especially evident in his albums before "In Your Eyes" is very bluesy and full of blues harp techniques.  I know he plays a lot of untraditional high end runs, and he plays with a lot of speed, but his playing is very blues based.  I love Jason's music, but I don't see much of a difference in what he does compared to Sugar Blue.  If anything, Jason's use of overblows would make him a non blues harp guy.  I think there is room for both of these players in the blues.  They both can play very traditionaly and are technically amazing, but they have both in their own way, helped the evolution of the harp in a blues context.
 
Popper on the other hand, isn't very bluesy at all, but if you listen to his music it is quite evident that he has learned to apply bending, octaves, and such into a rock fashion.  His rhythm playing is amazing (in a rock context) and he uses a lot of octaves in that sound.
 
I guess the point I am trying to make is that both Sugar Blue and Jason Ricci can easily be considered progressive blues players.  The difference between the before mentioned and John Popper compared to more "traditional" players is more their note selection and scales used, and not so much the technique involved in harp playing.
 
Mike

 


Mike Fugazzi
Harmonica/Vocals
		
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