Re: [Harp-L] Re: OB style Klezmer on the diatonic - introducing JasonRosenblatt

["Tim Moyer" <wmharps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ben Felten wrote:
> Now many "overblowers" feel, and often rightly so, that they can 
> play things that most laymen can't. The problem, is that they end 
> up playing these things because they can. And that's not musical, 
> that's pure technique. So first of all, there's very often a 
> matter of taste involved. Playing stuff not because it sounds 
> great, or music, but because you can and others can't. 

I have heard a lot of overblowers, and I don't think I've heard 
anyone do something because someone else couldn't.  Yes, there is 
some aspect of pride and ego at being able to pull off a good 
chromatic run, but I don't think it's ever to stick it in the face 
of someone who isn't as technically proficient.  I've heard many a 
great player who didn't use overblows stun a group with something 
particularly tasteful, certainly because they could, but not because 
others couldn't.  

> The other aspect that I often hear listening to records by 
> overblowers is overconfidence. Because they are so proficient 
> technically, they think they can pull off stuff that, in fact, 
> they can't quite pull off. They overreach, of you will. Give me 
> any record by Howard Levy (and I have many) and I'll point out to 
> you the choked notes, the lost rhythmic patterns, etc. They're 
> all in there. Most often, it doesn't affect the overall quality of 
> the music. Sometimes, it does. As you go down the pyramid from HL, 
> which, unfortunately you have to do since nearly all overblowers 
> worship at Howards' fount, these things get more frequent, more 
> annoying, and the overall quality of the music goes down. 

I think there's something to be said for reaching above your 
ability, not below, for practicing and performing and recording 
things that stretch your abilities.  I'd rather hear Carlos Del 
Junco do something really innovative and miss a couple of notes than 
hear the same old rehashed blues number for the umpteenth time 
played "flawlessly".  

> I remember discussing this with one of the top guys of that 
> particular crowd in Europe. The man can play jazz that will make 
> your jaw drop, be-bop at breaking pace, etc. When I asked him why 
> he never played slow, he had the honesty of admitting that the 
> chances that an overblow will squeak or sound odd when playing 
> slow are much higher. How is that a musical decision ? 

I find it hard to believe that a person's entire musical style is 
based on the idea that playing faster makes it easier to "hide" a 
particular type of note or intonation.  That maybe a side effect 
that makes it easier, but, some people like to play a lot of notes 
fast (and not just harmonica players -- check out John Coltrane or 
Ornette Coleman).  In fact, it's very difficult to hit overblows 
quickly and in passing without choking them.  

Something Rosco said to me at the Filisko workshop at SPAH this year 
stuck with me.  He said that when he's got a melody or a line that 
has a note with possibly questionable intonation, like a precise 
bend or overbend, that's a note he's going to lean on, to emphasize, 
to push to the limit.  His demonstration of that was eye-opening 
(and ear-opening).  Now, is that musicality or technique?  In my 
opinion, it is both.  

Anyway, I gave up a long time ago thinking that there was something 
called "perfection" in a musical performance.  There's a line beyond 
which musical nuance and interpretation and precision and perfection 
are all blurred together.  I can point out technical imperfections 
in nearly any performance I hear, regardles of the instrument, but 
those "imperfections" are what I think makes a performance perfect.  
They are what makes it a manifestation of the human condition, an 
expression of human emotion and ideas.  

Instead of a performance being a set of perfectly sculpted cubes 
stacked together in regular rows, it's more like a collection of 
uneven, irregular stones assembled by a skilled mason into a 
beautiful mélange.  

-tim

Tim Moyer
Working Man's Harps
http://www.workingmansharps.com/