Fwd: RE: [Harp-L] Media Editorial - Denver news and video coverage

Sorry, Bill, your critique of something you didn't experience is
flawed because - you weren't there.

The media always does a story that seems to emphasize the silly and
the old when there is a harmonica festival in town. But don't blame
SPAH. One yar Douglas Tate gave a lucid and thoughtful interview to
the Detroit TV station. They got him to do something silly and said
they wouldn't use it - but it was the only thing they did use. And
don't blame the old guy in the video, Al Smith. He's an old-timer (age
74) with a very hip attitude. He and Jason Ricci traded lessons on
Saturday, just to give you an idea where Al is at. Jason is taking up
the chord harmonica - and no, that is not a joke.

As to the stuff about diatonic receiving second-class treatment, well,
again you weren't there. Nearly everyone who was there and who has
posted to this list is a diatonic player, and nearly all gave glowing
reports. The jazz jam was the one unfortunate part, but you may notice
that new SPAH President Tom Stryker has already addressed the issue
on-list. Note that the main issue was one not of SPAH vs. diatonics
but of incidentals.

My experience of Buckeye is quite different from yours. At least there
you are speaking from experience. But then I haven't been to every
Buckeye in the last few years. 

My experience is that Buckeye was first to hire the Bunch O'Guys - a
group of diatonic players, and first to cultivate the circle blues jam
that is now an integral feature of SPAH. (Buzz tells me that this
actually started at SPAH, but it came to fruition at Buckeye.)

Also, many of the top diatonic players have been fervent Buckeye
supporters, including Filisko, Jason, Dennis Gruenling, Allen Holmes,
Jimmy Gordon, Buzz, fjm, Chris Michalek, Paul Messinger, Steve Guyger
. . .

Winslow

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Bill Hines" <billhines4@...>
wrote:

I agree 100% and said the same thing to another member off-list
yesterday. I cringed when I saw this footage from the Denver TV show
(although there was a short part where a guy was playing some nice
blues). Talk about reinforcing old stereotypes that we want to get away
from, especially with the exciting harp exposure by Taylor Hicks and LD
Miller! Here's an old guy making train noises with a conductor cap on to
a bunch of kids looking bored out of their skulls. How many of those
kids do you think were asking "WTH, where's the kind of harp Taylor and
LD were playing??"  

Maybe there was more to it and the kids were given some exposure to
that, but that's about all we saw on the news footage (and I bet they
didn't show all of that long clip on tv), at least the old-style
age-of-harmonicats type thing dominated the clip to me. I think that
stuff was great but it's had it's time and should always be present, but
I don't see it coming back any time soon so it shouldn't dominate a
conference or news spot. I think SPAH has to work more on the "A" letter
in it's acronym - advancement, rather than 'preservation'. I went to
buckeye a few years ago because I was in town for work, and was somewhat
disappointed that it was dominated by the really old chromatic stuff and
diatonic/blues was just a stuck-in-the-corner thing. I know some folks
don't go to the spah convention or join because of this, it's getting a
rap (deservedly or not) of being a nostalgia club and some folks have
said offline that the conference, great as it was, still treated blues
or jazz diatonic folks as "second class". So much has been hinted in
some of the posts here as well. I think we need to get past this to
really move things along, if in fact that's what people do, and take
advantage of the recent exposure to get past the stereotype of harmonica
for making train sounds and playing age-old diddys.

I think that if SPAH doesn't accept the diatonic styles more, then soon
there will be a separate conference or even organization by some
enterprising individual. Maybe by next year with the advancing exposure
that jazz/blues diatonic has been getting there will be a lot more folks
at the conference next year looking for that.

PS - This is JUST my opinion, right or wrong, whether you agree or
disagree, they're like (well, you know) we all have one. So please don't
flame me or SPAH or go nuts with rage, but a well thought out discussion
of changes would probably be a good thing. 

Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@... [mailto:harp-l-bounces@...] On
Behalf Of icemanle@...
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2006 9:03 AM
To: harp-l@...
Subject: [Harp-L] Media Editorial - Denver news and video coverage


While I'm of the philosophy that "any exposure is good exposure", it is
disappointing to once again see the media focusing on old men wearing
silly hats, novelty tunes, a quick shot of long hair dude chugging away,
and kids playing harmonicas that sounds like noise.
 
This is exactly what we should be steering the media away from and
towards Robert B. doing beautiful classical work and some of the more
melodic and sophisticated harmonica approaches to try and change the
public's awareness and perception of the harmonica.
 
In the Orlando area, I've been approached by the media (newspaper, TV
and most recently, talk radio FM) for stories. I've been able to frankly
speak about the bad image focused on in the past with these media types
and convinced them to run more responsible stories. The result - 2
beautiful and different articles regarding inspiration and the harmonica
and teaching a young harmonica student (RJ) with his own
profile/article, and a TV spot that focused on what the harmonica can
sound like if you get beyond vaudeville. Most exciting to me is the
recent talk radio in yo' face personalities, who began by putting down
the harmonica (it's not a real instrument - it's like playing a
washboard), and now one of them is taking weekly lessons and talking
about positive aspects on the radio.
 
This is the way to preserve and advance the harmonica, as far as media
coverage is concerned, IMO.
 
The Iceman
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: mce82695@...
To: harp-l@...
Sent: Sun, 20 Aug 2006 6:52 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] Harmonica Lovers Show Off Their Skills In Denver


Check out a short article and long video clip from SPAH. 
ahh! the drone of 200 harpers playing at once. bring back memories of
other conventions. 
 
http://cbs4denver.com/topstories/local_story_230210138.html 
 
mike 
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