Re: [Harp-L] Butter TV spot

[Ev630 <eviltweed@xxxxxxxxx>]

Great, great post. That's the sort of analysis I was looking for.


> Let's look at his playing on "Thank You Mr. Poobah" on his first album, for
> example. This instrumental tune, a fast shuffle, shows him mixing
> traditional blues licks with his frantic style. It highlights his love for
> both pushing the beat and falling behind it, demonstrates his unique
> phrasing of note choices (jazz influence here), not in keeping with typical
> harp player's shuffles of the day... and his fluid movement from lead
> instrument to backup keyboard-style punches while guitar or keyboards took
> leads.
>
> His leads in this song are again a mix of typical blues licks and jazzier
> explorations (ie. that wailing 6 draw over chord changes) that were clearly
> outside the box of a blues shuffle, particularly as it applies to harmonica.
> Some of those runs are somewhat a-tonal or near-a-tonal, bringing an edge to
> his play that was unique. Yet in a moment that edge would melt back into
> musical normalcy and create a comfort zone for the listener, falling back to
> traditional licks.
>
> I don't know of any other harmonica player back then who approached blues
> or rock (or music in general) quite in that way... certainly not with the
> harmonica. Butter used the harp in a cutting, blazing and very
> unconventional non-bluesharp ways--much more like an electric guitar with
> jazz-influenced phrasing. Perhaps this is due to his earlier training with
> flute. He played the harp upside down too, which may or may not be
> considered an innovation. But to my ears, his frantic jazz-tinged rock style
> of playing was certainly musically innovative for harmonica, especially when
> you consider that he applied that rock-guitar harmonica style to the blues.