From: mwmg~te.net (Scott Gold) Date: Mon, 06 Apr 1998 09:59:21 +1000 Subject: Are Glenn's Le Riff effort and other efforts worth the effort?
i'm a bit incredulous to see that some folks are NOT impressed with:
1. Glenn's upcoming work on LW in particular, and with documentation in general
2. the value of providing transcriptions to the general public
3. the value of learning another's music, including solos
4. Glenn's (and other harp-l-er's) desire to: "get it right."
please consider the following thoughts: first off, a record is just that: a record. a documentation of an event. it's not a substitution for the real thing, (ie, not "live"). this is holds true for whatever medium the event is recorded on: vinyl, tape, plastic, paper. sound, written notes, word of mouth, whatever.
in fact, recordings have helped to make blues and jazz possible - without it, blues and jazz may not have come to be as they exist in current form, since there was nothing written out-- almost invariably, it was (and continues to be) played by ear - at least the solos.
recordings allowed other musicians to hear what the hell was going on - time could be stopped and a solo captured AND learned AND studied AND built upon.
a written out set of works like Glenn is proposing will be a great resource. i don't think AT ALL that his intentions are to help create hundreds of LW impersonators! i'm sure his purpose is far from that vision. he will be providing the general public (me included, as i will get the work), a resource, helpful for STUDY for LEARNING.
i can pick out LW's songs and solos by listening, play back, try again, rewind, etc. i can do that for any music. of course, my success rate is not 100%, sometimes i give up, sometimes not. as we have seen, i'm not alone: witness the controversy on the riff of the MOST FAMOUS MOST POPULAR MOST INFLUENTIAL work that LW had produced, namely: Le Riff!
the point is not necessarily to get it right so that we can all go out to the next gig and mimic LW to a T. no.
it sure helps those who don't have enough hours in the day for constant playback (although, i would argue that you can develop you ear more by trying to transcribe things by yourself). for example, try transcribing Carey Bell's Deep Down cd or William Clarke's Serious intentions cd.
when your frustration quotient hits the redline, go out and pick up Dave Barrett's excellent transcriptions! he sure makes it easy! (although, i haven't seen it, i'm sure there's good stuff under the covers of Winslow's book of blues traveler transcriptions.)
as Dave says in his book on Clarke:
"there is much knowledge to be gained by unlocking the secrets of such a great player."
this is exactly what i want to say. . . .
you can learn so much by studying and learning a solo. no one, not me, not Glenn, not Dave Barrett is suggesting that you learn these solos to play them night after night at a gig.
i WANT to know what other folks did and how they did it and why - this is how i sometimes learn.
hey, i live in a vacuum out here! if i had no access to recordings, i'd be playing cha-cha's all day long!
learning a solo has the same, if not more, merit than learning the head. most working jazzmen have a fake / real book at their disposal. they don't have this because they lack their own ideas, but use them as a resource.
i remember looking at a dextor gordon solo-- each measure contained a little reference to another song, or another jazzman's famous lick or riff - it was amazing to me how Dextor could assimilate all these musical ideas virtually instantly, string them together, and then lay them out to fit perfectly with not only the chordal structure of the tune, but also keeping respect for the melody. it was simply: beautiful art.
i learned quite a few things from this solo dissection. do i ever play this solo of Dextor's? no, of course not.
the same with LW. Danny Paka Perez and his smothering el nino's do my babe. i can't resist playing the first run of LW's solo, right up to the place where he goes to the 2 deep bend as the band changes to the IV. i'm no the only one - George Smiuth does it too; i choose to treat extraordinary line as part of the melody-- to me it's become a permanent fixture to the song.
but, personally, i don't have ther seitz-leder, as they say in german (leather for sitting), to try to repeat every solo note for note, etc.
i think the audience would sense my boredome instantly. so, rather than play it "safe" i go out on a limb, as do my fellow bandmates, taking chances with each solo, hoping against hope that it woill sound good enough not to get hit with a coconut!
Glenn is providing a documented history, a recording in written form for those who want to learn. i think it'll be a great resource, and can only help the blues harp world to collectively grow.
finally, on the topic of the Le Riff thread, i happen to think it's very interesting. frankly, i really couldn't care less if LW played a 3-6, a 6-9, or a single 6 (although, it WAS a single 6!), but it's marvelous to learn what people have to say about it and why. the thread, as all good threads, have taken us to many places besides that one note, including the nature of improvisation, the nature of recording, the nature of old amplifiers and mic's-- man, this is rich!
Glenn, one word of advice: if you want to ever finish that book, don't ask us about ANY of his other tunes-- good harp-l-ers will "find" some loose ends somewhere, just to get a good string going!
well, that's enough for one post.
happy studying, and good luck to you, Glenn!
sitting in my own private vaccuum (ie. sunset balcony with mai-tai in hand). i remain faithfully yours,
- -sg tumon bay, guam
ps--oh, yeah, Glenn, one last thing: it was a single 6!
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