RE: [Harp-L] Butter TV spot



"sam Blancato" wrote:
<I've read through this long thread with everybody expounding on what makes
<Paul Butterfield's playing so great.  And I agree with much of what's been
<written here, especially with regards to many comments about his
<originality, is penchant for taking many solos in decidedly different
<directions from what was at the time (and still is) the cannon of blues
<harmonica vocabulary and in doing so expanding that vocabulary while at the
<same time maintaining a completely unique style all his own.  I can't
<disagree with any of this - I think it's all true. 
<
<What annoys me though is this idea that in order to define and proclaim this
<guys greatness it's necessary to diss other players like Kim Wilson and
<Piazza, or Estrin - or anybody.  I love those guys, especially Wilson, and
<their playing is very moving to me.  Their playing is moving to me not
<because I'm too shallow to recognize the TRUE EMOTION of Butter's stuff - I
<get that too - but because they are great in their own right.  Is their
<stuff innovative?  Who gives a s&$t!  It's great.  

<This whole notion that in order to feel good about somebody's music (or
<one's own music) there has to be some 'pushing of the envelope' or 'moving
<outside the genre', that one always has to be saying something new and
<original AT ALL TIMES.  Originality is not the top of the mountain.  Why is
<it not the top of the mountain?  Because there is no top of the mountain -
<okay? 

I agree with this message.  A great player follows his or her heart.  We judge their success--as well as our own, I'm sure--not by the level of innovation in their work, but in the extent to which their art is a real expression of who they are.  

This is what great artists have in common, regardless of their aesthetic: they reveal themselves through their art, and so reveal something about the rest of us too.  To say that one artist expresses himself through innovation and another expresses herself through tradition is simply to acknowledge that there are as many paths--as many ways to reveal the self--as there are artists.  We all have our preferences, but that's about taste, not excellence.

Is it assumed that celebrating one player's aesthetic is equivalent to attacking everyone else's?   Shouldn't be.  I should be able to say that I like chocolate ice cream without anyone assuming that I'm denigrating cake or the people who prefer it.  Especially when chocolate ice cream is the topic under discussion.

Happy holidays and regards, Richard Hunter



author, "Jazz Harp"
latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp
more mp3s at http://taxi.com/rhunter
Vids at http://www.youtube.com/user/lightninrick



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