[Harp-L] Re: "greats"

[jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Ansel writes:

> Well, I didn't expect harp players to be defending the "neglect" of their 
> instrument's greatest innovator!

It seems nothing less than having Keillor call Levy "the greatest living musician on any instrument and the only decent musician to ever play the diatonic harmonic" would have been seen as other than "neglect".  I for one think that DeFord Bailey, Sonny Terry, Don Les, Rhythm Willie, Sonny Boy Williamson (the first), Little Walter, Charlie McCoy and harp-l's own Peter "Madcat" Ruth might all have a bit of a claim as to being equal "innovators" in their own ways as to what Levy has done, to name a few.  

 While 
> Keillor does have enough sensibility to invite him on stage, it's a shame this 
> "kingmaker" of lesser known artists doesn't shine more of his radio spotlight on 
> one of the most amazing musicians to have graced his show.

Like many others who responded before, I have always thought Keillor treated Levy extremely well, I seem to remember the word "virtuoso" being commonly used in ads for the show whenever Howard appears.  That's far from "neglect", IMO.

 Conventional instruments (piano, guitar, 
> bass, violin, etc.) each have long lists of legends who took the instrument to 
> sublime heights of accomplishment.

And so does the diatonic harmonica, see the above list, and then also add people such as Kim Wilson, Donald Black, Sam Hinton and several others according to taste.  They have all achieved the highest of highs in terms of their own musical genres and technical abilities.  Maybe it's not jazz or whatever genre it is which you like, but the heights of their achievements are equal to Howard's, and moreover their place within their genre is usually more significant (especially in the blues).

 Even the chromatic has quite a number of 
> marvels who play(ed) at the
>  same sophisticated level as any other concert musician. 

The diatonic has traditionally been a folk instrument (as to be expected considering it's history and design), but that doesn't mean that it's masters in those genres have achieved any less than those in more recognized art genres.  Indeed, the dismissal of those achievements inherent in what you've written seems very similar to the traditional way high-art cultures have dismissed folk and pop genres forever; the way jazz was dismissed early on, the way all folk musics were before that and rock, pop, hip-hop and the like after.  


In the case of the 
> diatonic however, few have applied it to training in musical disciplines, for 
> few have unlocked its chromatic potential.

So, the blues, folk, rock, etc... are not "musical disciplines"?  Few have attempted to play complex chromatic music on it, though some of those mentioned above have succeeded every bit as well as Howard.  But, part of that is the nature of the instrument, which in the end is not a chromatic instrument no matter how it is played, and in the end even someone like Howard has to carefully pick his spots and what he plays, and even then there are people don't feel he is always successful (me, for instance).

 But one man has done so to such an 
> extraordinary degree that he's transcended the instrument's physical constraints 
> to achieve an omnipotent command of every note. 

No, he hasn't.  At least not to my ears.  I've heard a lot of Howard, and I've yet to hear him come anywhere near to this sort of claim, not at all close.  Closer than many, and he usually succeeds musically more often than not, but that's a big difference from the claims made above--Howard has not "transcended the instrument's physical constraints" because he can't.  It's not magic, it's mechanics and neither he nor anyone else can eliminate the difference between opening and closing reeds, natural notes and accidents, or even blow and draw.  Minimize, find ways around and ways to use them, but not eliminate or "transcend" them by any means. 

 While there certainly are many phenomenal 
> diatonic players in the world, Levy is really unnatural--if not supernatural--in 
> the extreme technical mastery that's allowed his creative genius to be expressed 
> on the harmonica with the same versatility and grace as any other instrument.

All the people I've mentioned above have degrees of technical achievement as great in their own styles as Levy.  He is great and at the highest level, but not unique, and there are some techniques which others do better than he as well as some he does better than others.  I certainly don't believe that Levy is any more technically accomplished than Sam Hinton or Charlie McCoy; they have complete mastery of what they want to do on the instrument, no more or less than Howard.  Same with most all those I mentioned previously.  That's not at all a all diss of Howard, because these are all the absolute best, complete and total masters.  It's more like saying that Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Wynton Marsalis are all equally great trumpeters.

. But curiously,
>  Levy does not seem to have that large an impact on the bulk of aspiring 
> players, instead existing more as a myth who's spoken of rather than an 
> inspiration who's taken to. 

I would say that there have been dozens of players, including many on this list, who are greatly influenced by Levy.  Indeed, an entire generation seems to have been, including people who do get talked about here fairly often (Carlos DelJunco, John Popper, Adam Gussow, Jason Ricci, Jean-Jaques Miltaeu, etc...).  

> I don't know what the explanation is for why study of the diatonic seems to 
> chronically stagnate in a few crossharp licks, where the majority of players 
> stop short of undertaking the theory, scales, chords, chromaticity--in other 
> words, the musical rudiments that are fundamental to the education of any other 
> instrument. 

The same reason most guitar players stop at a few basic chords.  They are looking for any easy to learn musical instrument which can easily satisfy and reward their desires to play without taking a lot of time and effort.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  Indeed, there is a lot good.  

The consequence, however, is quite clear in the abundance of blues 
> harpists and paucity of, well, anything else--a disparity that would seem to 
> make the progressives players all the more appreciated for their rare skills. 

I think this dismisses the technical levels needed to play blues well.  True, there are many people who just dabble, but harp-l shows many who go very deep into the technique and history of the instrument, and many amateurs who work at things which are every bit as technically difficult as "advanced techniques" (ie, overblows and odd positional playing) but are traditional to the instrument and the genres in which the instrument thrived.  Just because people play things which sound good and take advantage of what the instrument does well as opposed to what it does poorly, doesn't mean they technically easier to learn and master.

> But even if advanced levels of play exist in a stratosphere beyond reach or 
> beyond desire, I'd think the paradigm shifting pioneer of our cherished 
> instrument would alone generate an intrinsic interest in listening and, perhaps, 
> even playing beyond the imagination. Here we live in the same moment of history 
> as this diatonic deity, a stroke of serendipity that would seem to make him all 
> the more alive in the lives of
>  harmonica players!

The same could be said of so many.  We live in a great age of the harmonica (diatonic and chromatic).  Consider the line-ups of SPAH, Buckeye and the like.  There are giants walking those stages, Levy amongst them and amongst the tallest, but by far not the only.  And certainly not the only one in history.



JR "Bulldogge" Ross