RE: [Harp-L] harp soul



Chris lays out his soul for the L! Nice response.
I think that there is something about harp that makes people want to say that soulfulness & space have to be mutually exclusive of speed. Hendrix & SRV each could give us both soul & speed chops. It seems that when a harp player does it, people (harp players too) tend to lump him in one negative camp that is exclusive of the TONE/SOUL guys.
WHY!?


I think that JP plays one thing fast, most of what I have heard is not that different from most other players approaches, even soulful at times IMNSHO (albeit a bit sloppy in the low bends for my taste)

thanks again for the soulful response Chris--
just curious, why the harpshredder email if you are in the TONE club and not the SPEED club?


Michael (no nickname) Peloquin
come to Jam Camp in San Diego, Oct 14-16, 2005
tell them Michael sent you
http://www.gindick.com
http://www.harpsax.com


From: chris smith <harpshredder@xxxxxxxxx>
     Well, I can see I haven't won a lot of friends
w/my posting ! I'm not
trying to be cool at all but just totally honest. I
don't know a lot about
Indonesian gardening, structural engineering, Farsi
and tons of other
topics but harmonica and music , I have invested a
fair amount of my
time in.
     I'm coming from a place where soulfulness comes
first. I've seen so
many postings about speed and again I think it's a
shortcoming of
American culture maybe but I recently heard a Wm.
Clarke solo where
the 1st 8 bars or so are filled w/one long note and I
just thought ,"Wow, this is beautifully simple." You
could feel his personality. Have

 you guys heard of Albert King ? I'll tell you one guy
who had : Stevie
Ray Vaughn. What I'm saying is (and of course taste is
subjective) the
further you get out on a limb away from the roots the
thinner and more
ephemeral you're likely to be.
    So, quite specifically, what I like about great
blues
harp players is (and what I think one should naturally
expect) is great
tone, rhythm and attack in the low range. Then,
whatever technical
facility one has beyond that is gravy and starts to
demonstrate mastery
of the diatonic instrument. All flash doesn't thrill
me. Hendrix was a phenomenal blues player w/killer
tone . He had chops sure but as an almost endless
palette for his expression . Technique should be a
vehicle not an end in itself.
     So, thanks for the kind words Rob. It's too bad
you guys don't want
have lunch w/a real harp nerd.
                                                Chris
"Hammer" Smith
   P.S. Shoot for the stars babies but mostly just
have fun that's the only
reason I started playing.






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