Re: [Harp-L] Totally bored with the blues genre

[Kevin <kham27@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'm glad to see you mentioned Roly Platt Michael. He is a real treat to
listen to. He's been in my cd player for months now. Super tasty! I have
him and Carlos Del Junco coming to host our workshop this year.
Would you put Jerome Godboo in there?

Kevin

On 2 May 2015 at 09:21, Michael Rubin <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> Blues songwriters you should check out:
> Paul Delay, Rick Estrin, Gary Primich, James Harman
>
> Blues harp players who didn't just regurgitate the Mount Rushmore of Blues
> harp aka Walter, Walter, Sonny, Sonny, Sonny, George and Jimmy:
>
> Sugar Blue,  Rick Estrin, Carlos Del Junco, Dennis Gruenling, Paul Delay,
> Jason Ricci, Charlie Musselwhite, Paul Butterfield, James Cotton, Junior
> Wells, Roly Platt, Gary Primich, Phil Wiggins, Charlie Sayles, Big Bones,
> Andy J. Forest, Billy Branch, William Clarke, Rod Piazza, Gary Smith,
> Madcat Ruth etc.
>
> There are more.  Then there are regurgitators who did it really well and
> with deep feeling that I love just as much.
>
> But overall, Randy you are correct.  It is a boring wasteland.  Like you (I
> assume) I listen to jazz most of the time.  Then I get off my high horse,
> put on a GOOD blues harp album and get really excited, because I had
> forgotten how much I love the stuff.
>
> Here's what I really think though.  Put up or shut up.  When did you last
> put out an album arguing your point through your music?  I know there is at
> least one Randy Singer album.  Did it come out within the last three
> years?  IS there a recent album, be it under your name or your band's?  Put
> out a CD, dude.
>
> Otherwise you're just talking.
> Michael Rubin
> michaelrubinharmonica.com
>
> On Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 12:11 PM, Randy Singer <randy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
> > I'm going to come out of the closet and state emphatically that I cannot
> > stand 80% of all the blues music that I hear.
> >
> > With the exception of Little Walter, Paul Butterfield, keb mo, derek
> > trucks, William Clark, mitch Kashmir, howard levy, Robert Cray, The
> Allman
> > Brothers, thiago, dennis gruenling, muddy Waters, rob Paparozzi,
> sebastian
> > charlier, eric Clapton and other progressives, I find the state of the
> > blues is a useless circle jerk of mind numbingly repetitive musical
> clichÃs
> > and nursery rhyme chord changes. (please pardon the misspellings I'm
> doing
> > this on my iPhone)
> >
> > JOKE
> > How many blues musicians does it take to screw in a lightbulb in?
> > 145145145145
> >
> > In other words how many times can I keep hearing a I-4-5
> >  or progression with basically only diatonic notes? Imagine telling that
> > to a professional musician of any other instrument that they can only
> play
> > pentatonic and scales, they would look at you like you were absolutely
> > crazy out of your mind and they would be correct. Imagine telling a piano
> > player he could only use the white keys!!!! LOL. You would be laughed out
> > of the room. Yet seems like almost all the harmonica players only use
> those
> > scales with a couple colorful over blows as if that would be sufficient
> >
> > Most harmonica players have stopped growing and we deserve the gimp
> > reputation that we have.
> >
> > Where is the Maceo Parker of our harmonica age? very few harmonica
> players
> > could go head-to-head note to note with a player like him or Gerald
> > Albright another great blues jazz player. Playing precise blues/chromatic
> > lines is a extremely rare breed in our community yet in the horn
> community
> > it's the easiest thing to do.
> >
> > If you keep recycling the same thing over and over again a copy of a copy
> > of a copy becomes faded and ludicrous
> >
> > Also having performed and lived extensively in Brazil, Paris New York
> > Nashville and now Miami I have come to revere the art of songwriting
> using
> > predictable yet unpredictable changes and I see none of that in the
> > harmonica community.
> >
> > The Beatles set the standard for creative and inventive songwriting and
> > that seems to have TOTALLY escaped the blues and harmonica community.
> >
> > The elephant in the room is the so-called blues Nazis and I am sure that
> > when the blues musicians and songwriters attempt to create a song which
> > sets the songwriting bar higher, they would be shut down by the blues
> > natzis!! I believe when Robert Cray put out his strong persuader album
> > which features some of the best blue songwriting I have ever heard, he
> was
> > shut down as not being a blues artist any longer ---that's a bunch of BS!
> >
> > I believe that there is a absolute necessity to keep the tradition alive
> > and I applaud and appreciate what the traditionalists are doing but as
> far
> > as the general state of the blues and harmonica players it's a big ho
> hum.
> >
> > I fully expect to get a lot of hate mail so feel free to vent your anger
> > or better yet do something about it and learn to play your next evolution
> > of music while retaining your blues roots. Also if there are any other
> > progressives that I have missed please list them.
> >
> > I will consider leaving the country or getting a bodyguard once I hit the
> > send button on this.
> >
> > I love the harmonica more than anything else that's why I wrote this.
> >
> > If I have hurt anyone's feelings I apologize.
> >
> > With love, RANDY SINGER
> >
> >
> > Sent from my iPhone
> >
>