Re: [Harp-L] John Popper Criticism REBUKED....

[Mike Fugazzi <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx>]

Forget about SRV, or Vai... what about Jason Ricci?

I LOVE Jason Ricci's music, but I also LOVE Blues
Traveler.  Why is what Jason does so much
different/better then Popper's in the harp world?  

As a matter of fact, Popper got me into harp and Ricci
made me not quit playing when I realized how much
easier other insturments would be.

I think, personally, Jason plays "blues" and
participates in the blues community.  Popper is
totally rock and not nearly as accessible.  That and
the typical, if I can't do it so it sucks attitude has
hurt him.

I posted the LD Miller to indirectly prove a point. 
LD, in my mind is a "wanker".  He plays the same
couple of riffs a million miles an hour with no
direction.  Of course, he, for any age, hasn't been at
it all that long and phrasing is often the hardest
thing to pick up on.  But I don't like how age is an
excuse.  Would a 50yr old playing those same riffs be
so en vogue???

Popper, on the other hand, has some dynamics and
direction (he may recycle patterns, but the shapes
have a great deal of variation).  I have everything
the band has ever recorded.  To sum up his playing it
goes from slow and low to high and fast in about every
song.  However, the path there is often very textured,
expressive, and even lyrical.  I'll also state again
how wonderful a rhythm player he is!

Listen to a copy of BT doing "No Woman No Cry" and
you'll have a whole different opinion of JP.


Sugar Blue makes me think of wanky riffs (I can't
really dis him because I fall into that too
sometimes).  Guys like Ricci and Popper improv huge,
enormous, and soul laden waves of sound that literal
wash over and cleans those who stop to really listen.

Speed and effects pedals are alright!  There is
nothing wrong with being different or inspiring
endless amounts of harp players.

Mike in MN  



> --- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Richard
> Hunter
> <turtlehill@...> wrote:
> 
> "Noah Hoehn" wrote:
> <So while we're talking about taste...  You made a
> really pathetic
> statement
> <in, "That is not playing.  It is "wacking off" with
> your instrument."
> <It's
> <pathetic because in fact, John Popper is playing. 
> He's blowing and
> drawing
> <air through his instrument.  Or maybe, I'm not
> enlightened enough to
> know
> <what "playing" is.  So won't you please elaborate
> on that?  And wacking
> <off  eh?  Boy...
> 
> First thing: speaking as a longtime (since 1991)
> on-the-record admirer
> of Popper and his music, lighten up, man.  It's only
> rock and roll.
> There are ways to convey one's admiration for Popper
> without
> describing his critics as "pathetic."
> 
> "Wacking off" on your instrument generally refers to
> performances that
> are 1) verbose and 2) musically and emotionally
> irrelevant to the
> music.  One man's wacking off is another man's
> groundbreaking foray
> into the future; a number of critics referred to
> John Coltrane's early
> work as "just scales," for example.  But whatever. 
> If you don't hear
> the emotion in someone's playing, you're a lot more
> likely to think
> they're not emotionally engaged with the music, i.e.
> that they're
> "wacking off."  There's a lot of emotion in Popper's
> playing, but it's
> pretty far from the emotion that you hear in the
> blues, and I think a
> lot of blues-oriented harp players just don't get
> it.  Too bad, but
> it's not pathetic.  It's just too bad that they miss
> the emotional
> content in that music, which incidentally is mostly
> about joy.  As a
> number of recent recordings have demonstrated,
> Popper's playing is
> very influential among the latest generation of harp
> players--meaning
> that a lot of people do get!
>   it--and I'm hearing players now who are
> successfully incorporating
> Popper's discoveries into their own styles, in their
> own ways, which
> is how it's all supposed to work.
> 
> I really don't see why Popper's obvious virtuosity
> should count
> against him--nobody attacks guitarists like Steve
> Vai and Yngwe
> Malmstein for having great chops, do they?  But like
> I said, whatever.
>  If you don't hear the emotional content, the rest
> of it doesn't make
> a lot of sense.
> 
> <... I'd like your opinion on my playing.  That's
> right--I'm willing
> to put myself out there on this
> <one.  So as a Popper guy, I'd like you to listen to
> my stuff at
> <http://www.viciousaloysius.com/  and tell us what
> you think.
> 
> I thought this was a great cut with great harmonica.
> 
> Why is the band--which apparently is deeply
> concerned with spiritual
> issues such as love, self-sacrifice, etc., and picks
> its words
> carefully--named "vicious"?  I don't think of
> viciousness as an
> attractive spiritual quality.
> 
> Regards, Richard Hunter
> hunterharp.com
> www.broadjam.com/rhunter
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
> Harp-L@...
> http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l
> 
> --- End forwarded message ---
> 
> 
> 


Mike Fugazzi
vocals/harmonica

http://www.myspace.com/mikefugazzi
http://www.niterail.com

"Capitalize on your own strengths; develop your own style.
The world needs another harp player doing Little Walter licks
as much as it needs another Elvis impersonator."
-Paul deLay


 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta.
http://new.mail.yahoo.com