Subject: [Harp-L] Re: The Best

[EGS1217@xxxxxxx]

Harri quotes David:
 
"Jazmaan wrote:

>It's pretty clear
> that some  harmonica players are better than others.   But 
> above a  certain level, it becomes harder
> to distinguish among  them.   Even if there were a judged 
> chromatic harp  competition between
> Stevie, Toots, Hendrik, Robert, Wim and  whoever else wanted 
> to compete, and even if Stevie was  the
> unanimous choice of the judges, SOMEBODY would insist that  
> Stevie was still not the best.
> To which I would say  "Stevie is still the best, even if some 
> refuse to acknowledge  it."
> But that's just my opinion.  (Even if I am  right!)

This thread seems to go on and I still wonder (no pun  intended) why only 
chromatic players would be eligible for the title of  "the best". That's like 
excluding Hendrix as best guitar player because he  very rarely played twelve 
string. Diatonic doesn't leave a player below "a  certain level".

Instead of "the best" I learned to use the term "my  favorite" and for me 
that is Little Walter. To remind where it all started  for Little Stevie, a quote 
from the book "Harmonicas, Harps and Heavy  Breathers": "By the time a family 
friend gave Wonder a tiny, four-hole  harmonica on a key chain, he had 
already come under the spell of Jimmy  Reed and Little Walter Jacobs..."

Harri"
 
.....Sorry, Harri....would have preferred to let this thread die  a natural 
death with David having begun and ended it.... rather nicely I  thought, but 
this one point needs clarification.   There is  no move afoot to elevate 
Chromatic players (Stevie, Toots et al) to a  level above diatonic players 
......trust me on that!   What some  of the original "defenders" of Stevie Wonder were 
trying to say was that  the opposite seemed true:  somehow HE seems to be 
excluded from  incorporation among "the best"....purely because he IS a chromatic  
player....being considered less than the group of previously  mentioned 
diatonic players...who ARE considered the top in their  field.  So please don't now 
misinterpret it as the completely  opposite argument.   Please.
 
And incidentally...I too have "favourites"....  many of  them:  my list is 
long and eclectic.  Stevie Wonder is way up at  the top of that list. I also 
think David might have initially been  referring to living players or at least 
harmonica players of today when he  said SW  was "the best", given that Walter 
Jacobs is long  deceased (close to 40 years now).  Just my personal take on  
it....
 
Elizabeth



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