RE: [Harp-L] The Wonderful Internet

[Marc Molino <mmolino54@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

In the recent interview Buddy Greene gave, he refers to his classical playing as "amateur" or "pseudo-classical", so I think he himself is aware that classical is not his biggest strength. I would still say his influence is positive in almost every aspect in terms of increasing the popularity of the instrument, entertaining audiences, etc. It sounds like Robert feels we should hold our players up to higher standard of musicianship. I think it would be a bit different if Buddy were promoting this video himself and pointing to himself as some sort of classical, solo concert harmonica player, but he isn't. Someone else posted the Carnegie Hall footage and the internet masses responded positively to it--that makes it popular and says nothing about the quality one way or the other. I think one of Buddy's strengths is that he knows how to charm an audience and it's not always with his musicianship.

-Marc M.