Re: [Harp-L] 'Summertime' - playing with 'feel' rather

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

IcemanLE@xxxxxxx wrote:
<For instance, Howard Levy's playing is impressive for what it is, but I  find
<it hard to digest after a few minutes. A lot of other listeners come to the  
<same conclusion, according to my conversations with them. That's not to say 
<that  Howard isn't an amazing musician. However, his playing does leave a lot
<of people behind in the dust. Personally, I believe that Howard plays to keep  
<himself interested and has evolved so dramatically that he is almost no longer 
<of this earth. If his playing leaves some cold, it is odd that one should 
<have  get to know him personally in order to change their impressions.
 
In March of 2008 I attended a seminar in NYC, hosted by Zvi Aranoff, that featured Howard Levy plus his regular accompanists on guitar and drums.  The big effect that Howard's playing had on me at that session was emotional, not intellectual.  In fact, the sheer beauty and musicality of his playing overwhelmed any previous reservations I had about his approach.  The New York Times reviewer who covered Howard's performance in NYC that week had the same reaction--he was just blown away emotionally.

The point isn't that Iceman is wrong and I'm right.  No emotional response is a given for any listener listening to any style of music.  Reactions to music, like reactions to wine, are both innate and learned, and it takes more time to learn how to react when the style is unfamiliar.  There are few musical styles as nakedly emotional as opera, whose basic themes are about stuff like love, death, betrayal, and revenge.  (Kind of like an episode of "Oz," or a John Lee Hooker record, when you think about it.)  But plenty of people don't "get" opera.  Plenty of people don't "get" Beethoven or Bach, even though their music has been played frequently for hundreds of years.  One guy on this list said a litle while ago that he'd figured out that late-period Coltrane was basically just saxophone technique gone wild, even though there's plenty of evidence to show that Coltrane was totally committed to his music right up to the end of his life, and even though the music itself is flagrantly emotional.  I mean, the saxophones are screaming--literally screaming--in your face; is there any doubt that those guys are feeling something? (The dominant emotions in that music are anger and sadness, of course, which is what a lot of 20th century music--Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Black Sabbath, you name it--is mostly about.  Anger and sadness are pretty hard to take when they're presented at high volume in raw form.  That's why I don't spend a lot of time listening to Korn, even though I know they're serious about what they do and good at it too.)

There's nothing wrong with liking what you like and not liking what you don't like.  There's plenty of stuff in both categories for me, and lots of what I don't like includes music and other art that is pretty well revered by Western culture (the one I live in).  But saying that someone's music is "no longer of this earth" because you don't get it just means that you don't get it--not that the guy who's playing it doesn't get it.  Some thoughts--expressed musically or otherwise--are very complex, and it takes time to get it, if in fact you ever get it--or even want to. 

It's not a duty to make a point of getting everything that's presented, but it's important not to dismiss it just because you don't get it.  Not that that was the point of the Iceman's message.  I just thought it needed to be said. 

All that said, the music I listen to most is music I really like.  A this point I have both Dennis Gruenling/Richard Sleigh and Howard Levy in regular rotation, along with a band from Savannah GA called Perpetual Groove.  I also make a point of listening every once in a while to music I don't like at all, just to see what I might be missing.  Mostly I do that when I'm driving--I just flip the radio dial until I find something I hate, and then I listen to it for 10 or 15 minutes.  You never know what you're going to find out that way.  And of course, then when I meet a Black Sabbath fan, I have something to talk about.  

Regards, Richard Hunter  
latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp