Re: [Harp-L] mixing brands

[Joe Leone <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On May 28, 2011, at 3:35 PM, Garry wrote:

> On 05/28/2011 03:11 PM, Cljdm@xxxxxxx wrote:
>> 
>> Youse gotsa tell who the other one is. Please! I respect your insights and
>> judgements. Plus, I want to see if I guessed right.
> 
> joe probably doesn't want to say, but the other one is me.
> 

Please understand that a person whom may be high on my radar may not be on yours. I have a Madoff klepto built into my head where I have players in tires. 
It has absolutely nothing to do with where the player is on the large pizza of harmonica players. It is merely my taste, and as such cannot be construed as anything other than such.
The tiers go like this: diatonic: 1sr tier = 2 players, 2nd tier = 7 players, 3rd tier = 24 players, 4th tier = 83 players...and so on. 
                                  chromatic: 1sr tier = 1 player, 2nd tier = 3 players, 3rd tier = 11 players, 4th tier = 38 players...and so on.
 
Now just because a player is famous and considered by some to be the best, that doesn't cut any ice with me. I go by how palatable the player is to listen to. 
I do this by waiting till there's no one home, it is quiet. It is dark. I lie on the couch with my eyes closed and DON't let any outside influences enter the mix. That way I am not swayed by their LOOKS, how they are dressed, the surroundings, the audience, the lighting. 

So, keeping this in mind, I travel 65 min to the Sunday gig, and 57 to the Wed jam, and in that time, I want pleasant melodious music. I don't want something that will make me wreck the jeep. Inasmuch as a person has about 16 waking hours in a day, I also have a flow chart for this. There are those whom I can listen to for only so much time until I have to turn them off. Even players 'I' like IMMENSLEY. There are some fabulous players out there who are earth shaking...BUT after a while even 'I' can't take any more. They either play too repetitiously, play too many notes, play too smeary, too distorted, too aggressively, pick stupid(to me) material, deliver it stupidly (to me),  too..too..too.

I have developed a tolerance that I class as 'time out bro'. It goes like this: Some players are fine for as long as I listen to them. That is classed as those 16 hours I was referring to. The next group is 4 hours 45 min. The next is 1 hour 24 min, The next is 25 min, The next is 7 min. and the next is 2 min. And finally 35 seconds. See where this is going? I can tell in 10 seconds whether I will want to listen to someone. This goes for ALL music. 

Ergo, my original statement. From the (too) little I have heard from Boris, even when I exclude his good looks, great outfit, classy venue, and cultured looking audience, he is STILL  someone I can listen to. Why? Because the kid can PLAY. BTW, there are several people right here on this list that are on high tiers.

I hope this helps dispell any misunderstandings. 
smokey joe & the cafe s