[Harp-L] Potato Potahtoe

[George Brooks <gbrooks1@xxxxxxxxx>]

I expressed the opinion a couple of days back that the only person who 
can play no-excuses jazz on the "diatonic" harmonica in a musical and 
convincing way is Howard Levy.  My post assumed a very high standard 
for no-excuses jazz, which I wrote is the ability to play tunes called 
by others (not "cherrypicked") at any tempo in any key.  There are many 
saxophonists in the world who meet this high standard, as there are 
trumpeters, piano players, and guitarists.  There is, so far as I know, 
only one diatonic harmonica player, Howard.  So I am largely in 
agreement with Richard.  But he goes too far:

>I see post after post in this forum from players
>who are struggling madly to make overblowing
>work for them on every kind of material, and
>coming not quite close enough as often as not.
>Enough already. If you want to play chromatic
>material, get a chromatic harp and learn to use it.

I disagree completely.  Instead of "Enough already" I say "Not nearly 
enough."  Not nearly enough hard and sustained work, not nearly enough 
attention to intonation and articulation, not nearly enough people 
working seriously for enough years to overcome the technical issues 
involved in playing chromatically on the short harp.  There are 
limitations, as there are to all instruments, but many things that 
Richard is viewing as limitations are merely issues that can and will 
be overcome.

>The CX-12 chromatic, which can certainly make a
>very loud, aggressive sound on demand, makes the
>difference in tone between diatonic and chromatic
>almost a non-issue.

No, I disagree.  You can get a great sound out of both instruments, but 
they are *very* different sounds.

I believe it is entirely legitimate for Richard to say that, in his 
opinion, chromatic music played on the diatonic harmonica is deficient 
in this or that way or just plain sounds bad to his ear.  I think it is 
wrong of him, however, to declare that the effort to develop the 
technique to do this musically ought to be abandoned ("Enough already.  
If you want to play chromatic material, get a chromatic harp and learn 
to use it.").

"Enough already?"  No, not enough.  Not nearly enough.  More, please, 
only better.

George