Re: [Harp-L] re: Improv in Blues

[Jp "Pagán" <jpl_pagan@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Chris Michalek <Chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> >>incorporate this?" i can't think of a single
> musician
> >>that i idolize who didn't listen intently to and
> >>idolize other musicians in his genre and on his
> >>instrument. 
> 
> Which harmonica players did people like Little
> Walter, Stevie Wonder,
> Toots or Howard Levy idolize?  

Little Walter started out playing in the same style
that was popular with alot of other harp players at
the time, according to people who've reviewed his
work, based on Sonny Boy's style (can't recall if it
was I or II). sure, he grew out of that, but he didn't
start from nothing. 
i don't know anything about how Levy got started. my
understanding is he already played the piano very
well, and besides, he's apprently from Mars. i
probably can't pronounce the names of his alien
harmonica influences.
Toots and Stevie i'll have to grant you. Toots played
guitar first, right? Stevie apparently did teach
himself to play. but Toots was a huge jazz guy who,
from my understanding, started out trying to apply the
music he already liked, the jazz of the time, to his
instrument. i'm not sure if/how that applies to Stevie
Wonder, but i get the feeling it was probably a
similar story. 
as an aside, didn't Toots once say something about
wanting but not being able to get a sound like Little
Walter? (it doesn't really matter to me either way, it
just popped in my head.

>Sure they listened to
> other players
> but for the most part they just do what they do and
> we're lucky
> they've chosen our humble little instrument.  For
> tose guys its about
> expression and playing the music of the mind. 
> Listening to other
> people who play the same instrument would have
> hampered thier
> progress.

did it hamper the progress of guys like Miles Davis,
Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Brubeck... i dunno,
maybe these guys didn't learn from other musicians on
their same instrument, or other jazz guys (i doubt
that last part though)... i honestly don't know. but
it just seems to me that not learning from what others
in your genre or on your instrument have done is an
odd way to get off the ground. i would never advocate
becoming a slavish parroter of what others once did,
but i think the idea that harmonica players, or any
other instrumentalist, should stop listening to others
on their instrument to be extreme (i still think
that's not what you meant, but i could be wrong.
haven't you, Chris, also learned from guys like Levy,
etc?)
Ray Charles started out being a great mimic, and went
on garner the nickname "Genius." 

anyway... horses for courses. Chris is certainly a
better player than i am (now. in fifty years, i may
make him swallow his diatonics in shame ;), i just
think that a harmonica player willfully shunning
listening to other harmonica players - or a blues
musician willfully ignoring the history of recorded
blues music - is... counterintuitive.

   --Jp

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