Re: [Harp-L] feasible goals

[Jp Pagan <jpl_pagan@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Jonathan Ross
<jross38@...> wrote:

> People no  
> longer care about instrumental prowess, it simply
doesn't move the  
> masses anymore.  Hasn't for a generation--name one
"Gen X" guitar  
> hero?  
 >You can't, at least not from any major band.  And
that's  
> already a generation ago.  

Steve Vai? John Frusciante? 

>the biggest movement in music for the last ten or
even fifteen  
> years has been anti-technique.  Whether it is
electronica or the  
> return of non-musician punk attitudes, technique
just doesn't matter  
> anymore.  The instruments used barely matters.  It's
about results,  
> nothing else.

i agree, to some extent. while movements like punk
did, to some degree, embrace the "anti-technique"
ideal, i don't think the popularity of the music was a
result of that. hip hop, for example, isn't
philosophically opposed to technique. while technique
in art might have ruled over some cultures, there's
always been art that valued message and impact more
than technique, just as there is art that tries to
meld all three, or just tries to be pretty, or
whatever. even great composers like Mozart worked with
music that was "rustic" or "simple", and they did so
because it was good. there's similar trends, in terms
of turning away from the tyranny of technique, in the
visual arts and in literature. at some point the
perverse idea that virtuosity was everything was being
disproved left and right by "simple" artists, from
Hemingway to Bob Dylan to Pollock. i think it was just
a "democratization" of art, a sense that, you know,
you don't have to be a master technician to make art -
Robert Johnson and Beethoven can both be considered
great artists. nowadays you have art that is all over
the spectrum, from reggaeton simple (hyperbole
warning) - 99% of all reggaeton tunes have the exact
same beat - to more complex, like what Pat Metheny was
doing on his last album (with harmonica player
Gregoire Maret ;)

> 
> I do wonder at how quickly the past is forgotten. 
In the 70's there  
> were three fairly major bands/musicians featuring
harmonica in non- 
> traditional formats: Stevie Wonder, Lee Oskar and
the J. Geils Band.   
> These were as radical as anything I've heard since
compared to what  
> had come before.  And the impact on producers and
the like?  It  
> doesn't seem to have been huge.  


sadly, no. and Stevie's contributions, easily the
greatest of the three, have mostly been in the
non-harmonica vein. (his approach to music and his
vocal style can be heard influencing lots of music out
there.) but, i still have high hopes (at the moment)
for his harmonica jazz album!! go Stevie! (and ditch
the strings!)


> Now, if someone were to do something truly unusual
and innovative in  
> a major genre where no-one has really played harp
before (hip-hop,  
> trance, etc...)...
> Moreover, the people who would do such stuff with
harp probably  
> aren't on this list--they're 20 year olds (or
younger) who play harp  
> but mostly listen to modern music and modern forms,
if they exist at  
> all.  

two people come to mind. one bills himself as "Hyper
Harp." i haven't heard him, but he plays harp over
clubby music around Chicago. the other is Yuri Lane,
the "Human Beat Box" who also plays harmonica and
often mixes it into his beat box pieces (for those who
don't know, "beat box" is a style of vocal percussion
that's long been a staple of hip hop music. Yuri is
working on a beat box album which will combine that
art with poetry, hip hop, instrumental music and more.
i'm sure it will have harmonica on it). John Popper's
also guested on an album by Cee-Lo (currently at the
top of the charts collaborating with DJ Danger Mouse)

>Us fogies talking about this really is quite funny. 
We're all  
> way past the age where we have any real perspective
on the current  
> youth music scene--and pop music is, and has always
been, all about  
> youth.
> 

true. though isn't it funny that alot of times what
the youth listens to is being put out by people much
older than them? 

> I don't expect anything to change.  The harmonica
is, was and always  
> will be a small instrument in the much larger
picture, never really  
> central to any genre.  

well, there's always the Harmonica Trio "genre" ;) 



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