Re: [Harp-L] Re: Butter TV spot

["steve@xxxxxxxxxxxx" <swebb@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

In my sometimes  humble opinion, the combination of Butterfield's tone and intensity, and that amazing vibrato, are what separates him from most any harp player I can think of. And, as I have said here many times, Better Days says it all. I never get tired of listening to that album. Next to that, I'd probably put the Woodstock album.  I didn't care for East-West and much of his later stuff. 
  Maybe Howling Wolf is the only other player I think that could get that intense feel, but he wasn't known primarily as a harp player. 
  Nothing wrong with not liking Butter's playing. Not everybody likes scotch,either, but a person can develop a taste :)
Steve Webb in Minnesota

---- "John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx> wrote: 
> EV 630 writes to Tom Ellis:
> 
> Regards your quote below... A lot of harp players have said or had it  
> said
> about them that the harp mimics a human voice in terms of  
> expressiveness and
> communication of emotion. It's a pretty bold and I would think  
> controversial
> statement to say that you haven't heard ANY harp player since  
> Butterfield
> "communicate true feeling with his playing". You can't possibly mean  
> that in
> a truly objective sense?
> 
> I'm enjoying this analysis of Butterfield, and in that context I am  
> asking
> this seriously.
> 
> Drew,
> 
> I can't speak for Tom Ellis, but players like Wilson, Estrin and  
> Piazza interpret a defined style that was developed and established  
> by well known ODBGs.  They show amazing technical command of the  
> instrument, great musicality, and even some new interpretations and  
> variations of this style. But they are largely derivative, imitating,  
> adopting, expanding upon and  COMMUNICATING IN a well known and well  
> established style.  So a lot of what they do is very similar to stuff  
> that others have played before.  Extremely well done, but  
> artistically it's mostly an exploration and expansion of something  
> we've heard before and have learned to expect and appreciate.  On an  
> emotional level, they don't tell me very much that someone else  
> hasn't already said.
> 
> Butterfield played in a style uniquely his own.  He did not imitate.   
> His playing moves me because it goes other places.  Whether you call  
> it rock, jazz blues or whatever, the note placement and phrasing  
> takes you somewhere different.  It's not the SOS done with more flash  
> and style.  It's originally individual and provokes a sense of  
> intensity and anticipation as PB blows in completely new directions  
> and then STOPS (a la Junior Wells) immediately as soon as his musical  
> statement is complete. Such urgency and economy makes a powerfully  
> intense emotional statement i can immediately relate to and which  
> rivets my attention and holds my curiosity. I just don't get that  
> from guys who play in the more traditional style who are expressing  
> well crafted variations on musical ideas we've heard before and  
> making statements have learned to listen for and  expect to hear.
> 
> I don't know what "true feeling" Tom is talking about, but i find  
> very powerful emotion in PB's playing. I'm hard pressed to think of  
> anyone since who compares.  For emotional urgency, economy of  
> expression and provocative artistic statement, Junior Wells is pretty  
> intense and, quite frankly, I am consistently moved by the intensity  
> and emotion in the harp playing of Howlin' Wolf. But they came before  
> PB.
> 
> I may be forgetting some players. But offhand i just can't think of  
> any who make more consistently powerful and unique emotional  
> statements with such provocative artistic expression when they play  
> harmonica than these three. These guys consistently reach me at an  
> emotional level that other players only visit every now and then.  
> Their playing almost always communicates something i haven't heard  
> elsewhere.  For my money, that's fully realized artistic expression.  
> But that's just how i happen to feel about it. YMMV.
> 
> FWIW.
> 
> JP
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