Subject: [Harp-L] Music

[EGS1217@xxxxxxx]

Dennis: I just got through listening to ALL of the tracks.  I enjoyed  one
and three and found them reminiscent first of a bit of Georgia and then of
Spanish Eyes.

...so might be a reason your audiences appreciate them so much...they
sound 'vaguely' similar to something they're familiar with. :) This is not  a
criticism...just how many ways can musical notes be strung together  anyway?
I'm not at all saying they're copies, please don't  misunderstand....simply
that they 'remind' me of them. I mean it as a  compliment. Georgia is at the
top of my list of favourite songs. Anyone who can  create a new tune which
has any hint of its flavour and yet be brand new is  a very good musician.
All I didn't find fabulous at the beginning were your  backgrounds....but the
harmonica was stellar throughout and I loved  what you did further along.

Where I think you absolutely SHINE is beginning with: Blue Highways, and
then from No's 5 on...'Still Got the Blues for You' is wonderfully  played!
Definitely a song I would 'leave the place humming'.  My  ears perked up
further when the music changed for the stripped  down piano background on
Pangaea.  It's difficult to allow  oneself to be quite that bare on harmonica,
though I honestly don't hear it  as a 'religious' song...unless one imagines
the pure spirituality of nature. Sun  on sparkling water through the trees is
what it evoked for me.

You saved the toe-tapping for last!..I SO dug 'Maxey's Boys'.   It's easy
to see where your real love lies. ;)   Great  tune!

As far as the Kenny G criticism goes....I hear nothing remotely similar to
his playing in yours. Their comments were probably meant as  'white bread'
disdain. Ignore 'em. Any blues guy worth his salt would appreciate your 
Bluesy feel on Blue Highways and Still Got the Blues. I doubt many  harmonica
players who stick to formulaic riffs could come close to your finesse  on
those tunes.

I play a couple of Kenny G's tunes on my Cx-12...and they're damn  hard to
do.  A chromatic player much wiser than me recently told me I  shouldn't
concern myself with the critics who might denigrate my  enjoyment of playing
his music because they were basically jealous of his fame,  fortune and talent.

I'd challenge any of those same critics to try playing Kenny's 'G-Bop'. I'm
 about 2/3's of the way to nailing it but ran into some physical
difficulties  this year which prevented me from practicing as much as I'd have  liked
and it's a quite physically demanding tune on chrom. One handed  playing
doesn't quite cut it. I'll get it though...it's my 'happy' tune.  :)

Thanks for posting this. It was a thoroughly enjoyable aural experience.
Made my day.

Elizabeth

Message: 2
Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 09:34:47 -0600
From: "Dennis M.  Cooper" <dcooper@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Music
To: _harp-l@xxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx)

Over the past several years I've backed away from the more  traditional
approaches to harmonica-driven styles and started playing  "pretty" songs
for
about 25% of the content of my live performances. I still  play "show
tunes",
of course, but the songs that audience members always  comment on are the
pretty, slow songs. I must allow that my listener  demographics run in the
50-80+ age range, which is fine with me. I have had a  number of harmonica
players comment with just a touch of sarcasm that I'm  kind of like the
Kenny
G of harmonica players, but my shows are very well  attended and album and
digital download sales are brisk.

I put  together a tunepack with a few "pretty" examples  at:
http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/1501482 All of the songs are  original,
except "Still Got the Blues For You". My personal favorite is  "Pangaea", an
original harmonica spiritual that seems to have a lot of  emotional impact
on
audience members. They either love it or hate  it.

Back in 1978 I received a piece of great advice from a touring  traditional
blues musician that our band at the time opened for in a  Portland, Oregon
waterfront club: "If your audience members don't walk away  from the show
humming or whistling something you played, you lose."


Best Regards,
Dennis M.  Cooper

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