[Harp-L] Re: Butterfield



Those of us that are diehard fans of his own the recordings of Butter that
never made it to cd. The bootleg recordings of his live concerts were incredible.


What you can't find on cd are the long improvisational songs where he is just
wailing in 2nd position minor and 3rd position. The thing I like about his 3rd position playing
is it didn't sound like the slow 3rd position stuff I hear most harp players play. I'm surprised no one is
commenting on how dead on he hits the 3 draw bend on the 2nd position minor songs while playing fast.


Don't dismiss his playing Work Song based on the lp version. He did many versions of it
including one where he is the first soloist out of the head. He did it first at 23.
Give Mark Ford all the credit you want but remember he had 30+ years to Work on the Song
before recording it plus all the other songs in the Butter library.


Butter's harp solos grew on East West as well as he became more comfortable playing it.
I don't think the cd his keyboard player, Mark N. put out showed his best on East-West.
That seemed to center more on Bloomfield's/Bishop's guitar work IMHO.


play on

mike


On Jul 10, 2009, at 7:23 PM, harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:


Message: 5
Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:17:21 -0400
From: "John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Butterfeild
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Message-ID: <85852F41-3EE3-46CC-9726-18BC7B8C1EBC@xxxxxxx>
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Butterfield knocks me out.  An enormous influence on my playing (and
on the playing of many others who are a lot better players than I
am). His phrasing alone is an inspiration.  And he is authentic.
Others may or may not agree, but I rank him right up there with the
all time great blues harp players.  WHY?  Not just because his style
is authentic and his technique is masterful, but also, and more
importantly, because he is not an imitator.  He has a distinct style
of his own.  No one was playing harp like that before PB.
Butterfield paved the way for Sugar blue, Jason Ricci, Lee Oskar and
so many others.  His influence cannot be overestimated.

And, btw, he does use chords, octaves, split intervals and double
stops (listen to ?Too Many Drivers? for example).  PB did not have to
imitate ODBGs to be one of the greatest blues harmonica players of
the 20th century.  He had a style of playing the blues that was
uniquely his own, and that?s why we are still talking about him now,
long after his death. Whether one likes his playing or not is a
different question and a subjective matter.  But, by any objective
standard, his musicianship, the originality of his approach and the
enormity of his influence is undeniable.

For proof of his authenticity, listen to PB playing with Muddy Waters
in ?The Last Waltz? and on ?The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album.?  As
far as his innovation is concerned, I played ?The Work Song? and
?East West? for a friend of mine a few months ago and she simply
could not believe it when I told her those tunes were recorded in
1967.  Timeless originality.

JP








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