Re: [Harp-L] Gregoire Maret

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Let's all agree on one thing about Greqoire Maret for a start: he knows how to play the instrument.  He can execute things on the chromatic harmonica that are well beyond the capabilities of almost anyone else you can name.

And he needs that virtuosity, because he plays modern jazz at the highest level, which is ferociously complex music in terms of both rhythm and harmony.  In our era, the typical listener has been trained by ubiquitous pop music to recoil from that kind of complexity.  When we hear it, we wonder what the hell is going on in there.  We wonder what the player is thinking.  We wonder why anyone would want to play that stuff.   

There was discussion of jazz on this list not long ago, and some knowledgeable list members commented to the effect that modern jazz is really deep stuff--the kind of thing you can't learn to play in a one-hour seminar.  The same goes for listening to it--you can't penetrate the surface of that music on the first listen. It takes time, and effort, to learn how to interpret it and hear the emotion beneath the complex surface.  

Most people on this list would have the same reaction, I think, to a lot of modern classical music--even stuff as old as Bartok and Stravinsky.  It's complex. It makes no bones about it.  It's up to the listener to learn the game.

As Winslow said, Maret may evolve to more direct, lyrical forms of expression.  Bartok's string quartets are as knotty as they come, but the 3rd piano concerto, written just before his death as a gift to his wife, is one simple, beautiful line after another, culminating in a long, joyous passage that is obviously about him and his wife dancing together. As players age, they tend to strip away the trees to let you see the forest in all its glory.  Maybe they tire of pretense.  Maybe they're just better at understanding themselves.  Maybe they want to get to the point while they still can.

In any case, Gregoire Maret is a modern virtuoso, and right now the music that interests him is complex modern music.  That may change. It's up to him. In the meantime, he is the only guy on the planet doing what he's doing, and I am reminded that the old blues guys said that the most important thing is to sound like yourself.  He does, and I think there's a lot of beauty in there along with the swarms of notes that go by in a sparkling cloud. I'm certainly going to keep listening to see what he does next.

Regards, Richard Hunter



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