[Harp-L] Re: future harmonicas and all that / Muddy's harp players

["Haka Harri" <harri.haka@xxxxxxxx>]

According to history books James Cotton temporarily left Muddy's band in late 1961 to be replaced by Mojo Buford in early 1962. Other than that, since LW joined him in 1947 up until his last lineup, Muddy always featured a world class harp player. I would love to get that Brit tour CD you mentioned. Any ideas where it could be found? 

If the importance of an instrument is weighted on how often it appears on recordings or live performances, no doubt that bass and drums would top the list. But again, the contribution of harmonica in blues is difficult to compare to other instruments with any methods of measurement except those that are subjective.

Harri


On the subject of importance of instruments
> > Muddy Waters insisted  
> > that a good blues band has to have an excellent harp player.
> 
> Very true, though I have a CD of Muddy touring Britain 
> without a harp  
> player that is amongst my favorites of his stuff.  In any 
> event, look  
> at the last fifty years and the majority of artists in that time-- 
> sure, a good amount of harmonica players, but more guitarists and  
> thus more bands without harmonica than with.
> 
> > Drums or bass central to the genre? Ok, in the sense that they are  
> > essential to the total concept.
> 
> Exactly--the players may not be influential or well known, but they  
> are always there and basically a pre-requisite for the overwhelming  
> majority of blues acts over the last fifty years.
>