[Harp-L] Harmonica cutting contest at SPAH

[George Brooks <gbrooksvt@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Phil Lloyd proposes a cutting contest for SPAH.  It's up to the 
organizers, of course, but it does not sound like a good idea to me.  
SPAH is all about collaboration and learning.  Cutting contests are all 
about establishing dominance.  They are a form of ritualized combat.

In the bebop era, men were broken.  I don't know if it is true or not, 
but it is part of the lore that Sonny Rollins's wife would not let him 
go to the cutting contests of the day for fear that he would be 
humiliated and that the blow to his confidence would end his career.  
On his way up, Jimi Hendrix was said to have played so aggressively, so 
inventively, and so tirelessly that he literally played lesser 
guitarists off the stage.

I think at SPAH you're going to see LD Miller and Jason Ricci showing 
each other what they know.  I don't think you're going to see them try 
to cut each other for the title of Fastest Player or Best Player.  At 
least I hope not.

George