[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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