[Harp-L] Butterfield.....tone

["tomsmics" <tomsmics@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Time for the annual Butterfield debate/review/criticism/analysis, and this year's has been pretty good.  There have definitely been some astute commentary, and I'd like to add just a few thoughts to some of what I've read.

I think the comments that imply Butter's "style" was not more fully formed until he added the horns are onto something. In fact, I think he probably had two "stylistic" periods--much like Walter.  The first would be his "blues" period, evidenced best by the first two albums (although he was, by East-West, already showing maturity in different areas).  By the time "Keep On Movin" came out you could sense his style was leaving blues behind (although he could play ALL of that stuff in his sleep) and clearly more interested in jazz.  If you have a chance to get a copy of the "Live" re-release on Rhino, that has a second CD's worth of cuts, including some wonderful instrumentals, you can hear him competing with his horn players, being pushed by them.  Great examples of how he integrated our humble insturment into fully formed horn arrangements like no one had ever done before.

By Better Days he had, to my ears, really honed his style to something truly unique, a sound that could cut across all genres--folk, country blues, Chicago, soul, jazz.  You can argue all day about who had the best chops and tone, but you won't hear many harp players who can touch Butter's range.

In the late '90s my wife and I got to spend some time with David Sanborn after a gig in Ft. Worth, hanging out and talking for an hour.  We got into a conversation about Paul's tone, and it was my contention that Paul could reach an emotional level that Sanborn has become so famous for in his career.  It's that pitch range of an alto that just grabs your senses and has a communicative range you can't ignore.  And that to me is one of the most impressive things about Butter, espcially "late period" Butter (before the drugs and decline of the last ten years):  His playing was so emotional;  Butter's comment that the harp was "the heart's horn" was no off the cuff remark.  He saw the instrument as potentially expressive as the human voice and to my ears was always striving to communicate true feeling with his playing.  I haven't heard anyone do this since then.  And that's what makes him so special, and why he sits in that small circle of icons we all revere.  TOM ELLIS/Tom's Mics