[Harp-L] Chris' Questions for blues harp players

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I don't claim to speak for "blues harp players", and don't really  
claim to be one in particular, but I'll take the questions anyway.

All quotes are from Chris:

"Why is this considered blues but if it were played on a harp it
wouldn't be blues?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdyvPg0c6bI";

This is in reference to a Freddie King video and my answer is simple-- 
it would be considered blues if a harp player was the lead instead of  
King.  I say that because this is very similar (essentially the same)  
musical ground which James Cotton and Junior Wells were tilling from  
the late sixties on.  I think a better question would be is this  
blues or is it funk.  It is an example (as are many of Cotton and  
Wells' songs, and others such as Albert Collins) of how genres  
influence each other and can blend together in ways which go beyond  
absolute brand labels.  So I'd argue the answer to the question of is  
it blues or is it funk would be along the lines of either yes or it  
depends on how you choose to look at it.

For an example of harp which mixes blues and funk together, try this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nuOWuhWNmI&feature=related


"Why is only one of these players considered a "blues man"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmEBTUbaWjA";


Probably because Eric Clapton has tended to focus on playing rock/pop  
rather than the blues per se for most of his career, whereas Buddy  
Guy has always defined himself as a blues musician and has very deep  
and direct roots in the blues tradition, unlike Clapton who came to  
it after the tradition had already been codified.  Bands like Cream,  
Blind Faith and his 70's solo work are all blues-influenced, but  
don't really sit as purely in the genre as some others (including  
some of his English contemporaries).  In the end it's a bit like  
asking why Louis Jordan is often not considered a jazz sax player but  
a rhythm&blues one--it's essentially only important to people who  
want to pigeonhole music into easily defined categories.

However, that doesn't mean that categories don't exist, rather that  
they are often hard to define in any abstract, absolute or even  
objective way.  The phrase "I know it when I hear it" may seem trite,  
but it is more often correct than not in these cases, IMO.



 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()
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