Re: [Harp-L] SPAH 2016

[Rick Dempster <rickdempster33@xxxxxxxxx>]

Mick, how was Don Les' diatonic playing perceived
by the old chrom school? I suppose he had license because
of his bass/Harmonicats pedigree, but still.....
As I understand it, Jerry Murad was not keen for
Don to display his diatonic skills in the Harmonicats.
Just curious.
RD


On 15 April 2016 at 21:49, Mick Zaklan <mzaklan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>    I think it might be close to non-existent now and maybe I should have
> clarified that.  Might even be masked in or blurred into some other issues;
> noise volume, what people choose to wear or look like, ability to read
> music, blues music, etc.  I've been eavesdropping on old timers bitching
> about this stuff for over 20 years at the fests.  I hear a lot less of it
> these days.  I think part of it was a generation gap or two between the
> chromatic players and the diatonic folk.   That Memphis convention might
> have been the peak of it.  You had Stan Harper labeling diatonic players as
> "young crappers" in the local newspaper and I think around that time you
> had Blackie Schackner's essay on the superiority of the chromatic over the
> diatonic.  You had a group of chromatic legends sitting around a bar at the
> hotel whining about the fact that none of these young whippersnappers
> seemed interested in playing the old tunes.  That "when we go, it all goes
> with us".
>    I think Madcat, Joe Filisko, and others have created so much good will
> and graciousness at the conventions while representing the diatonic that I
> think the two groups have made peace.  There are just too many diatonic
> players doing incredible stuff with the instrument to ignore or bumrap.
> Maybe we blues people will be sitting around a hotel bar in the near future
> whining about how none of these young kids wants to play "Mojo" or "Big
> Boss Man" anymore!  Music and everything else moves in cycles.
>
> Mick Zaklan
>