I think people are missing Ben's point. If I understand right, he is making the case that being a great musician in one genre doesn't mean one can or will automatically be a great musician in another genre.
I couldn't agree more. The world is quite full of examples which prove this. The reason is simple: to be truly great in a genre requires dedication to the forms, structures and idiosyncrasies of that particular genre. Also, it requires truly feeling and loving that particular type of music to an almost obsessive level. Those things don't translate musical styles automatically. The former need to be relearned, the later reignited. And all that requires almost the same amount of work it took to get to the top of the previous genre. The technical stuff is not quite as bad, but any genre has it's own forms and tricks to playing which need to be learned.
Technical and musical gifts are a great start, but without the hard work they are no guarantee of success. And all too often the word dilletant is not just an apt description but a rather generous one.
JR Ross _______________________________________________ Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l