VS: [Harp-L] VS: Stevie Wonder

["Haka Harri" <harri.haka@xxxxxxxx>]

This is an on-going debate with no final answer. Probably it would be Little Walter on harp.

> -----AlkuperÃinen viesti-----
> LÃhettÃjÃ: Richard Hunter [mailto:turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> LÃhetetty: 23. marraskuuta 2006 2:05
> Vastaanottaja: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
> Kopio: Haka Harri
> Aihe: Re: [Harp-L] VS: Stevie Wonder
> 
> 
> "Haka Harri" wrote:
> <Stevie sure is a great harmonica player but I'm surprised 
> that everyone on this
> <list agrees on him being "best on earth" . Wonder  has an 
> incredible 45
> <year career as a multi-instrumentalist, but from a purely 
> harmonica point of view
> <it is hard to justify him as THE best. No matter what your 
> musical preference, how
> <would you compare him with the likes of James Cotton, Rod 
> Piazza, Kim Wilson, Rick
> <Estrin, R.J. Mischo, Mitch Kashmar, Howard Levy, Jason 
> Ricci, Toots Thielemans and
> <others who are specialists in this instrument? This is not 
> to underestimate Stevie
> <Wonder as a harmonica player but a reminder that there are 
> players out there who,
> <with any criteria, are in the top .2%.
> 
> I agree with just about everything in the statement above.  
> Playing music isn't in essence 
> a competitive sport, where one player is provably the best of 
> all.  (Although it's often so 
> in a commercial sense.  Larry Adler liked to tell people that 
> he was indisputably the best 
> harmonica player in the world.  Whether or not it was 
> true--and there are arguments
> to be made either way--it was good for Adler's career.)
> 
> However, I do think it's true that Stevie Wonder is the most 
> talented overall musician to have ever 
> achieved prominence as a harmonica soloist.  He can do all of 
> the important things--play 
> multiple instruments (some brilliantly and all at a 
> professional level), sing, compose, arrange 
> and orchestrate, etc., etc.--at a world class level.  Granted 
> that we could say the same of 
> Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy II, and Little Walter.  But I would 
> say that Stevie's output shows 
> greater variety than any of these.  Little Walter redefined 
> Chicago blues, especially the 
> blues instrumental; Wonder has redefined certain genres more 
> than once, and he
> has played harmonica (as leader and session player) in an 
> amazing variety of musical styles, 
> always sounding perfectly in the groove regardless of the context.
> 
> Of course, all the above is meaningless, because like I said, 
> playing music isn't a competitive sport.  It's 
> by way of saying that I'm totally in awe of Stevie Wonder.
>  
> Regards, Richard Hunter
> hunterharp.com
>