Re: [Harp-L] Re: videos-- heavy metal rock harmonicas - YouTube

[The Iceman <icemanle@xxxxxxx>]

There are always those musicians that never look back and blaze new future trails!


Miles Davis hated listening to his old recordings, even a week or two after recording them. He was always interested in the next new thing. He said "Looking back is like kissing an old lady on the mouth"



-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

The modern view of any instrument is that it's not just a sound-producing 
artifact, it's a controller--a tool that the musician uses to access and control 
a wide range of electronically generated tones.  That's how it works for 
guitars, keyboards--and now harmonicas.

In this view, the harmonica's role is to initiate and shape tones for further 
modification.  The microphone translates these tones into electronic signals, 
which gives the player access to anything and everything that can be connected 
to the mic, not just an amp (which was the electronic sound-shaping tool of the 
1950s).  And the fun begins.  (It must be BIG fun to see a crowd of 
20-somethings jumping up and down in a Miami nightclub at 3 AM to an electronic 
4-on-the-floor beat with altered harp floating on top.  Wow!)

Before someone jumps up to say that they'd rather just play old-timey music on 
an unamplified harp, I'm fine with that.  Roots matter.  But so do blooms.  If 
the blooms go stale, the roots die too.  It's pointless to argue about whether 
the stuff that was laid down in Chicago in 1950 (or Mississippi in 1920) was 
better.  It was great.  It inspired us all and changed our lives.  But we're 
here now, and the challenge is not solely to recreate the former glories, it's 
to make new ones. This guy Hakan Ehn is making some new stuff.  More power to 
him.

Regards, Richard 



author, "Jazz Harp" 
latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://hunterharp.com
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