[Harp-L] Re: Is Howard Levy the most technically advanced harmonica player?

[michael rubin <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx>]

Martin,
It blows my mind that you do not see Cotton as a technical wizard, but
everyone hears and accesses technique differently.

Here are some of Cotton's strengths:

Control of single notes and bends in all 3 octaves using tongue blocking.
Dirt.  Dirt is my term for double stops (two notes played at once) but with
an emphasis on one of the notes.  For example 3 draw and 4 draw are played,
but 4 draw is only heard as a "sloppy" accent to the 3 draw.  Many people
hear this and think, "They are playing in a sloppy, imprecise manner."  Try
for a year to make it sound like James and report back to us.  James is
extremely precise in his sloppiness.
Octaves.
Slop Octaves.  Similiar dirt, this means having the two notes of the octaves
be the focus notes, but having other notes surrounding those notes creep
in.  Another case in extemely precise sloppiness.
Wah wah hand muting technique.  Name me one other player who is so obviously
influenced by Rice Miller yet created a wah wah style completely his own
that has a convincing blues style.  I love Rick Estrin and think he is
close, but not like James.
High note 1st position blow bending control.  When pointing out the real
deal for this style, very few names come up.  Reed, Horton, Cotton.  There
are some great other players, Kashmar, Wilson, Wonder, but I think Cotton is
in the top three.
Vocal microphone technique both for wah wah styles where the mic is on the
stand and the player is away from the mic and he practically wrote the book
on cupping a vocal mic, playing directly thru the PA and creating a great
blues sound.
Tongue slaps and pulls.  Check out The Creeper again.
Ability to hold a note for a long time.
Head shakes.  And not just for two consecutive holes.
Kissing sounds on the harp.
Rhythm chording
Dynamics.  Very few players have his control of the old quiet and loud.

I'm sure there is more, but you get the idea.  All this and imho, the most
authentic blues player in the blues with tone, timing and feeling and a
sound that I can recognize without seconds.  If you can recognize a Cotton
song in a few seconds ask yourself if there is any technical ability in
creating such uniqueness.
Michael Rubin
Michaelrubinharmonica.com


On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 6:46 AM, martin oldsberg <martinoldsberg@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> This was interesting.
>   Pray tell, in what way is, for instance, James Cotton "equal or greater"
> technically to Howard Levy?
>   I´m not being sarcastic -- but I´m wondering if I´ve missed something?
>   James Cotton is in my book an all right blues player, somewhat repetitive
> (but that´s an artistic preference) and technically solid but perhaps
> not overly proficient. Basically sticking to the stuff he learnt in the
> 50´s ... -- or isn´t he? (LW and BWH considerably greater both technically
> and artistically, IMO.)
>
>   Technically Levy is almost disturbingly good (and I think it actually
> hampers him some -- but that´s also an artistic statement) who´s been in
> constant progress for a few decades and appears to be discovering new things
> all the time.
>   But maybe I´ve missed something?
>
>   Please enlighten us on this.
>
>   I do not say my evening prayers to St Howard, and I don´t even like some
> stuff that he´s done, but I think when it comes to technique there are other
> standards involved. Let´s call them, for lack of a better word, "objective".
> Cheers,
> Martin
>
> Michael Rubin wrote:
> > As far as I am concerned, living diatonic players like James Cotton,
> > Rick Estrin, Kim Wilson, Joe Filisko, Charlie Musselwhite, Charlie
> > McCoy, Gruenling, Ricci, Del Junco, Michalek, Power, Gazell and many
> > others equal or surpass Levy's technical ability.  They may not use
> > the same techniques that Levy does, but the amount of techniques they
> > have mastered are equal or greater than Levy's amounts.  If, as i've
> > listed for Howard's strengths,  pleasing tone is technical ability,
> > many of these players are also equal or greater than Levy.
> >
>
>