[Harp-L] Is it all Howard Levy's fault?

[michael rubin <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx>]

Randy Singer posted a clip of of Sam Friedman playing diatonic jazz.

Remember Elvis?  I maintain that Elvis would have happened without
Elvis.  The blues, R and B and Gospel were already popular and well
developed musical styles.  All we needed was an Elvis, a talented,
good looking, white singer to bring it to white culture.  It could
have and would have been someone else if Elvis had not come along.

Remember the Beatles?  Although they also studied these musical styles
and it showed on the first couple of albums, suddenly they started
putting out VERY original music.  In my opinion you could not have had
the Beatles without the Beatles.

I maintain overblows were in use at least since 1929.  I maintain
Theilemans, Turk and Scarlett used overblows in an advanced way as
early as 1967 and there are probably many other examples I did not
know about.  Jazz was a popular and well defined musical style long
before Levy began to play.  In my metaphor, Levy is Elvis.  We could
have had Levy without Levy.

All due respect, he is a great player and what I am saying is
conjecture.  In harmonica history, Levy popularized overblows and no
debate can take that away from him.

What do you think?
Michael Rubin
Michaelrubinharmonica.com