[Harp-L] Subject: Re: Chris Michalek

EGS1217@xxxxxxx · Sat, 20 Oct 2012 02:56:24 -0400 (EDT)

A couple of points. Chris Michalek wasn't anything close to being a  
Narcissist. Dave Payne got that right. 

As to somebody here having the utter arrogance to 'guess' that he  wasn't a 
happy person? Get real. He absolutely ADORED his wife..no one could be  
around him- especially when he was with her, and not see the absolute joy he 
had  in her and their relationship. He'd post photos of the meals he'd cook  
for her on facebook. So NO one has any right to surmise in public  that he 
wasn't a happy person if you did not know the man! His music spoke  for his 
state of mind as well and it was beautiful.

My interactions with him over the several months while he made my 4 Buddha  
harps were very special and fun (and Buddha was the name he chose for  his 
separate harp-list 'Buddha's Garden' because he was  half-Asian and leaned 
to Buddhism - enlightenment as Emile has said; because he  was into Zen 
things (such as having a Reiki healer handle my harps before they  were sent out 
to me); because he loved cooking food in a Zen mode--he made a  ritual of 
it; and it was also a tiny bit of a joke at his own expense --about  his 
passing resemblance to the statues of Buddha.

Those who worked with him in learning how to build harps and who studied  
with him will tell you how intensely sweet he was in their interactions as 
they  lived in his home for a while. He meant for them to learn so he didn't 
tolerate  slacking off either so was a tough teacher, but they came away from 
it loving  him....and permanent admirers and fans. No 'jerk' would win 
people over that  way. Some jerks can fake it for a short while--enough to fool 
some of the  people, some of the time... but no one can sustain it for that 
length of  time. Sorry Richard, I tend to agree with you on many aspects 
--except on this  one you have Chris all wrong.

David: Just as a matter of factual correctness: his dogs weren't pit  bulls 
but Rottweilers and Belgian Malinois or actual German Shepherds from  
Germany, possibly. He trained them for security or police work if memory serves.  
I'm sure those who stayed in his home and his personal friends will provide 
 the facts if this is inaccurate. He made a video (still available) with  
Todd Edmunds (BuckWeed) wearing full body armour and playing the bad guy for 
the  dogs to 'take down'.

My impression of Chris was never one of his being remotely insecure. Quite  
the contrary, rather. Perhaps the reason he didn't laugh out loud at the 
stories  that night was simply because it wasn't his nature to laugh out loud? 
He did  smile--and that's what he did most often--a real and genuine broad 
smile at  what he found funny. Some people simply don't laugh out loud as 
part of their  upbringing. Chris' humor wasn't like that of others, but he 
sure DID  have a great sense of humour. He kept ME in stitches the first time 
we met  at a SPAH. He didn't laugh out loud then either, just smiled broadly 
throughout  as he told me about his wife and the things she'd say (very 
offcolour things, in  fact) as I was holding onto my seat so as not to fall onto 
the floor. He really  enjoyed the fact that I was laughing myself silly and 
I understood it simply  wasn't HIS nature to laugh the same way I did. I 
saw him as more of the  'comedian' type: who makes others laugh and gets a 
huge kick out of being able  to do that and watch their reactions. That's how 
he came across to me--and I  spent quite a bit of time with him. In fact, my 
own brother is exactly like that  too.

NOTHING ever in Chris' interactions with me were remotely ill-mannered or  
in any way off-putting. I treated him with respect and got it back. He was 
also  very soft-spoken which seemed to surprise the heck out of those who 
didn't  expect that from him. 

Perhaps the real truth is that nobody really got the fact that he was  
having fun and being sarcastic and even self-deprecating, but those who  fancied 
themselves as harmonica experts who sought to put him down for no  reason 
other than his looks when it had no bearing on his playing  would bear the 
full depth of his wrath? In some of the interactions I read  later on which 
took place on the MBH forum, I wondered what all the fuss was  about--since it 
was clear to me 90% of what he wrote there was done  tongue-in-cheek and he 
likely wondered why people took him so seriously. I also  saw him as a 
'watcher'....acutely aware of everything going on around him, never  missing a 
trick. Even when a certain player from Europe was behaving very badly  at the 
harp blow-off in 2009--enough to make ME annoyed for him as he recounted  
the story to me (I also knew from a main source that the story was true), he  
dismissed his own annoyance saying he would have been more than willing to 
still  help this player--despite all that this person had said and done to 
him--(and  this was a couple of days later). He was far more generous in 
dealing with what  he called 'a crazy person' as he smiled and explained he'd 
had experience with  them, than I'd have been. He meant it though. He bore no 
real ill-will and  handled most of the nonsense with equanimity. 

What I DO know is no one could play quite like him. His vibrato wasn't  
copied from Howard Levy OR anyone else. It was distinctly and uniquely Chris  
Michalek's own. Michael's so right about that. Everyone who heard him play  
knew it was Chris instantly. All you had to do was hear him play once! He was 
 one of the few people who could ever hold his own on a diatonic playing  
mind-blowing Jazz during the SPAH evening Jazz Jams so effortlessly, sounding 
so  sweet and flowing so easily. His vibrato was something else and 
amazing. I  got to hear it up close and personal--sitting beside him for over 3 
hours in  2009 as he set up my harps for OB's and OD's at the teach-in, in 
between him  helping others. I wasn't going anywhere--I was getting a master 
lesson  from A Master...and for the record he told me he really didn't care to  
play Blues at all - didn't consider himself in any way, shape or form a  
blues player. He'd moved so far beyond that into jazz and experimental music 
it  was difficult for him to play basic blues anymore.

One point I WOULD like to answer in Richard's post: I certainly don't  
recall Chris putting down chromatic players, per se--what I distinctly  remember 
Chris writing is that ALL harmonica players suck (and  chuckling) because 
he specifically included HIMSELF in that  indictment. He attempted to explain 
what he meant in additional posts, but no  one seemed inclined to listen or 
understand his concepts. He meant that  harmonica players simply don't 
reach the musical level of other musicians--that  even the best blues harp 
player isn't close to the grasp of  musicality of a good sax or trumpet player. 
(I'm paraphrasing since I don't  have his posts in front of me).  Doesn't 
anyone else remember that?

 Whether you agreed with him or not is not the point--it's simply not  what 
was written here earlier. 

If you didn't like the guy, that's your choice. But Richard Hammersley is  
dead on: your time to challenge him was when he was alive and could  
respond...not a year and a half after he's gone. Chris wouldn't mind dissent or  a 
good argument--what he would mind is vindictiveness. To my mind too  it's 
incredibly poor form to write negative and bad things about a guy when  he's 
down (or dead). Is there no decorum left here?

He has family-a wife, brothers. Good grief. When did being a member of a  
harmonica list entitle others to dissect your personality and entire life  
negatively in public after you're dead? I don't recall signing THAT  
particular release and I know DAMN well Chris Michalek would not be doing  the same 
to anyone who wrote so negatively about him if they died first!

Elizabeth