Other web Sites
Harmonica Blues  Harmonica Amps
Harmonica Links Harmonica Pages
• Archives Home
• Years
 · 1992
 · 1993
 · 1994
 · 1995
 · 1996
 · 1997 		 · 1998
 · 1999
 · 2000
 · 2001
 · 2002
 · 2003
 
Web HarpL
Ebay Searches:
Amps:
Microphones:
Effects:
Harmonicas and Gear:
Harmonica Music and Instruction:

 

 

Harp-L Archives

[Previous Message] [Next Message]
[Next in Thread]
[Start of Thread] [End of Thread]

From: Winslow Yerxa <76450.32~ompuserve.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 10:05:36 -0500
Subject: The Blues Recital

TO: internet:harp~arply.com

Bonfiglio encounters a young blues harpist in a Santa Barbara
nightclub playing Little Walter solos note for note and is
surprised at this curious phenomenon and a little disgusted.

Other respond that he's young; it's part of the learning process;
he'll grow out of it.

So much for the nervous student hoping to get it right. But what
about the dour, flinty-eyed judges writing copiously on their
evaluation pads?

I mean, of course, the audience. Some audiences seem to demand
just-like-the-record note-for-note recitals of blues tunes, just
as they do for pop tunes - a blues cover band. The wrong idea? Of
course, but it's out there.

Perhaps this is in inverse proportion to the player's
self-confidence and ability to engage (or even steamroller) an
audience. The young, timid player who's too busy getting it right
to project authority and transmit rhythm and emotion to an
audience will spur in them a demand for something, anything - how
about the song the way they know it - that's an obvious concrete
thing to fill the void when the performers aren't delivering
anything they can latch on to.

Even a seasoned pro will have off nights, when nothing else seems
to work and s/he falls back on the tried and true. Which for a
player of little experience, is what was recently learned off a
record.


Winslow Yerxa
Harmonica Information Press
Z