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

[Michael Rubin <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx>]

Don't know Jerome, I'll check him out, thanks!

On Wed, May 6, 2015 at 8:52 PM, Kevin <kham27@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 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
>> >
>>
>
>