[Harp-L] Condolences on the passing of James Cotton
Ronnie Schreiber
autothreads@xxxxx
Fri Mar 17 22:59:12 EDT 2017
Did you also get text messages and emails from your friends and
relatives telling you about James Cotton's death?
It's rather sweet. "Oh, I bet my friend Ronnie, who plays harmonica,
would care about this."
On the other hand, the New York Times comes off as a bit clueless about
harp. "Mr. Cotton’s muscular, heavily amplified harmonica — he typically
played with a microphone cupped tightly to his instrument —" as if
cupping a mic was something unique to Mr. Cotton.
As a writer and editor I would have put that in its own sentence and
explained how Chicago style amplified harp is played. The NYT obit
mentioned how he replaced Little Walter in Muddy's band and how he had
to convince Muddy to let him sound like himself rather than copying
Little Walter. Considering Little Walter is generally credited with
being the first harmonica player to cup a mic and plug it into an amp
that's a missed opportunity for the NYT to have educated their readers
about harmonica playing.
Speaking of the late Mr. Cotton, I highly recommend the Harp Attack CD
on Alligator, featuring him, Junior Wells, Carey Bell, and Billy Branch.
Ronnie Schreiber
The Electric Harmonica Co. - Est. 2017
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