Re: [Harp-L] saddest story, etc

[Bob Harty <bharty@xxxxxx>]

I like the even well mannered and I suspect respectfully tone emanating from you email Mick. Ben Franklin made a comment about another topic but it seems to resonate. We should hang together or we shall surely hang separately.
I think we all are the best each of us can possibly be at every moment of our life's. We are human with frailties and blemishes. But respect is not a bad commodity and it's worth sharing.
Thank you,
Bob


Sent from my iPad

On Jun 19, 2013, at 6:13 PM, Mick Zaklan <mzaklan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>   I know this probably wasn't intended, but I would hate for anyone
> reading the original post to conclude that blues diatonic players with
> Flash Gordon mics were undermining whatever minuscule respect the harmonica
> apparently has in the world of music.  Or ruining the harmonica in general,
> as the late Don Les insisted.  Because before the current caricature of the
> drunken, burned-out diatonic "blooze" harpist making audiences and fellow
> musicians uncomfortable by "gussing" and playing too loudly; the primary
> image of the harmonica was that of a chromatic playing midget kicking
> people in the shins.  For 40+ years, I might add.  As entertaining as I
> found this fellow (Johnny Puleo), I don't know how much "respect" he got
> the instrument using it as a prop for a clown act.  Or the bunch of
> grown men dressed as newspaper boys from the Great Depression.  As for Mr.
> Les, here's an example of his own work being mocked in a 1995 documentary
> seen all over the country.  Go to 2:27, when guitar ace Jeff "Skunk" Baxter
> appears: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcyzeXzmQ60.
>   Am I being unfair here?  Perhaps.  But Lord knows, chromatic players
> having been dissing diatonic harpists for as long as I've been a SPAH
> member.  Privately, to our faces, and in print.  Point is, we're all
> harmonica players.  I doubt that the public or most other musicians see any
> difference between chromatic, bass, chord players and
> "racket-makers"----the term one SPAH conventioneer I spoke with used
> for diatonic harpists.  We all take a hit for the bad players.  Until we
> turn out large numbers of virtuosos, we're probably still going to catch
> flak for playing something many consider a "toy".
>   As far as the guy referred to in the original post, he didn't belong at
> a jazz jam.  He was in over his head.  Been there myself.  It happens,
> sometimes even to good players.  If I recall correctly, the genius
> saxophonist Charlie Parker once exited a jam humiliated after the drummer
> threw a cymbal at him during his solo.  If you read Larry Adler's
> biography, you'll find that Larry lost his place IN FRONT OF A SYMPHONY
> ORCHESTRA and had to improvise an entire passage in a symphonic score.  He
> also laid an egg with George Solti and the Chicago Symphony and was never
> invited back.  So even great players can mess up.
>   Personally, I try to be an ambassador for our instrument.  If somebody
> has a question, needs advice, or some encouragement---I attempt to provide
> it.  I stay out of situations where I might embarrass myself or give
> somebody an excuse to bumrap the instrument.
> 
> Mick Zaklan