Re: Fw: [Harp-L] Harp as toy (young vs older generation) (Protracted)

[Harpmac01@xxxxxxx]

Now find me a single player than can do all of the technical tricks  of:

Little Walter
Sonny Boy II
Sonny Terry

Impossible, no  one alive can do that, fake it maybe but not for real.

pierre
 
thats a mighty statement,in fact i'll say again (in the voice  of foghorn 
leghorn) I SAY MIGHTY! i have not been fortunate enough to see many  of the 
modern masters, but i do have very many bootleg videos of them and have  seen them 
do what you say is impossible and i'm sure very many on this list have  seen 
it as well in person!
 
to follow up on what sonny jr says, he is not blowing his own  trumpet, i 
have him playing on CD live! 21 years i've been listening and playing  harp (i'm 
no great shakes) but his grasp of those 3 styles (and chuck in big  walter) is 
jaw dropping, and there is feeling in there that grabs you by the  short and 
curlies, sonny will probably disagree with this, but guys like  him,estrin,kim 
and so on have surpassed the old masters, those old boys even  said that 
themselves, and were all so proud of the fact that these new young  guns all sat 
at their feet to learn.
 
i would suggest pierre, start a record collection, old school  first then the 
modern masters, get out and see these guys, cos when you see them  play they 
pour their hearts out, and many of them play at least five or six  styles very 
much in the pocket!
buy a copy of sonny jr CD hear him play his incredible sonny  terry style 
then mid song burst into 'somewhere over the rainbow' then back to  sweet notes 
and whoops and hollers every hair on your head will stand on end,  and he ain't 
even a gigging musician!!! open your ears there are some truly  devoted 
players out there who will deliver many styles with near perfect  results, lots 
like estrin have lived the life as well, these guys know every  trick in the book 
and then some, they play with every bit as much passion as the  old masters 
and deliver it in very faithful terms i think!
 
as for tweaking harps, many years ago harps were made on  production lines, 
but by hand, sometimes reeds were set up in the workers own  home, all for 
extra money, but the workmanship was a lot higher then,thats why  back in the day, 
these harps were so good out the box, guys who customise now  are probably 
just as close if not better to what was available in the old  masters day. 
having said that i've heard paul lamb play sonny terry stuff on a  big river that 
sounded as good as any marine band!
 
on another email in this thread, what was that about the old  masters OB & OD?
what songs are they doing that on in particular?
 
mac
_www.thegroovecats.co.uk_ (http://www.thegroovecats.co.uk)