[Harp-L] Butter TV spot

["John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx>]

Rob P writes:

IMHO Butterfield was an innovator of the highest order


Amen!  Butterfield knocks me out. No one was playing harp like that  
when PB emerged.  His technique was powerful and HE DIDN"T PLAY A  
HARMONICA LIKE IT WAS A HARMONICA.  He was the first to approach the  
instrument like that. And there is great emotion in his playing.

Someone put a post up not long ago talking about how the world needs  
another harp player imitating Little Walter licks about as much as  
the world needs another Elvis impersonator. Personally, I find few  
things in life less interesting than listening to some contemporary  
harp player playing Juke note for note.  I mean, didn't somebody  
famous already do that 50+ years ago?

As great as players like Wilson and Estrin are, they ain't doing much  
that hasn't been done before.  Now, they may do it extremely well,  
but it's not an original artistic contribution.  The world is full of  
imitators and has too few originals.  Butterfield was an authentic  
blues artist with an original and  individual style of own that was  
far more sophisticated than anything that had come before. And it's  
not rock music. His phrasing is not rock and roll.  His note  
selection and  placement is more sophisticated than that.

Of the older Chicago guys, IMHO, Cotton was more innovative than the  
others, and some of his stuff comes much closer to rock music than  
Butterfield's does.  I, for one, am profoundly bored with harp  
players who are obsessed with trying to recreate the past. Blues is  
something that lives in the heart of the player, not on old  
recordings.  Making it come out of the instrument as an authentic and  
original statement that has some validity is the real challenge.

Others may disagree.  But as far as I'm concerned, they can go   
practice l little Walter licks note for note--or Butterfield licks-- 
or Cotton licks--or go reenact civil war battles--or dress up like  
Elvis.

End of rant.  FWIW

JP