Subject: [Harp-L] Unlikely inspiration

[EGS1217@xxxxxxx]

Mike Fugazzi writes (snipped):
 
"Who are some of the not so noticeable influences in
your harp  playing?  Any influences that would seem
odd?

I'll  start."
 
okay....not sure if this is odd.  I think yours are anything BUT  
boring...since any musician/artist who manages to have an effect on  someone younger has 
already achieved some kind of immortality just by that  very 
influence...and....we each have our own tastes. I'd find this big,  old world horribly boring 
if we all listened to and played the same kind  of music....
 
I've found vocalists to be my biggest influence...always.  Oh,  there are 
saxophonists and guitarists I've listened to for most of my life  who have 
affected me strongly as well...but my MAIN focus are  singers...
 
When I play I hear THEIR voices in my head..singing the song I'm  playing.  
Women singers: Streisand...Dinah Washington...Cassandra  Wilson...Eva 
Cassidy....Etta James...Sara Vaughan...Norah  Jones...Sade....to name just a very few 
of the dozens I like...
 
Male singers:  Nat "King" Cole, Johnny Mathis....Sam  Cooke...Jerry 
Butler....Ben E. King..a lot of 60's R&B groups because  all of that music was so 
melodious...and that's what appeals to me the  most.  So many countless others....I 
have very eclectic tastes in  music..
 
I'm playing the words....the music has to actually speak to me..mean  
something in MY life... otherwise then it's boring.  Probably  why I'll never be a 
professional musician...I couldn't "go through the  motions"...can only play 
songs I genuinely care about.  If the  music's an instrumental...then I hear the 
saxophone, guitar or  piano in my head and simply play along with it  :)
 
I'm writing some stuff of my own, now.  It'll probably never see  the light 
of day...but that's ok.
 
Elizabeth