Re: [Harp-L] video--"amazing grace"- HOWARD LEVY

[Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx>]

I'm thinking about it. I will have to get back to you.
smo-joe

On Apr 6, 2009, at 4:25 PM, Richard Hammersley wrote:

> I am going to be heretical here - Howard Levy has the most amazing  
> diatonic OB harmonica technique of anyone, but this showstopping  
> performance did not move me at all. In fact, I have yet to hear  
> anything played by him that moved me. I realise that this is most  
> likely my problem rather than his, and I am going to keep trying to  
> appreciate his music, but so far I can't get into to it.
>
> Is there anyone one else on harp-l who struggles to enjoy HL, or is  
> this a personal perversion of mine? I like world music and complex  
> jazz, so it is not an issue with his type of material in general.  
> Nor do I fail to hear that he has made the diatonic harmonica a  
> serious, non-novelty, instrument.
>
> It kind of bugs me I cannot enjoy his music, which I feel in one  
> way ticks all the boxes of what I 'should' like, so if anyone has  
> suggestions for what is musically best to listen to (not what is  
> harmonically best) then I would appreciate it. My problem is that  
> in what I have listened to so far, he loses my interest before he  
> has finished soloing. Now, I am a chap who listens to later John  
> Coltrane for pleasure, so it is not my limited attention span that  
> is the problem.
>
> In the past I have found that it sometimes takes me a while, and  
> the right tunes, to 'get' where an artist is coming from musically.  
> Please help me 'get' Howard Levy.
>
> Richard