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Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2001 13:17:23 -0700
From: Ken Deifik
Subject: Re: Respect

I haven't read every post on this subject, and I suspect that what I'm
about to say has already been said by someone else in the thread.

Too much of this notion of lack-of-respect for harmonica is about issues
that are cleared up rather quickly once someone hears you play. If you
deserve respect, you may get some.

I say 'may', because if you are playing for a jazz or classical musician
they may not be able to hear you, even if you are good. I played a gig
with one of Eddie Harris' old bass players a few years ago, a man no less
than 20 years my senior, and good enough to play with Eddie Harris. We
were backing a fairly straight singer. From the first rehearsal on he
treated me like an equal, and rather as if he had things he wanted to learn
from my playing. He said as much. (I had vastly more to learn from him,
but as you can imagine I was very high on his praise.) On the other hand,
I produced a session back in '93 on which I hired a band of able jazz club
players because the guys I really wanted didn't accept scale from
strangers. They were friendly and respectful until I decided to add my
harp to one of the tunes, after which they were disdainful, though only the
piano player was in any way a remarkable musician. These guys couldn't
even break through the superiority they imagined they had when it meant
faking it for the guy who was signing the paycheck. Some ears are open,
some ain't. Forever.

When it's an issue of getting respect from people who sneer at the
harmonica, you'll just have to earn it, two ears at a time. The collective
issue, that harmonicists tend to receive less respect than other musicians
for their achievements, changes slowly. Our stock is slowly rising, and
each of us who do it well contribute to this.

The great songwriter Richard Rodgers was asked why he didn't arrange his
own songs in his shows. (A distinguished professional show music arranger
did that.) He answered that if he were to arrange his own songs, he'd be
doing it to arouse admiration, when what he really wanted was for his
audience to do was FEEL something when they heard the songs, and his
arranger could set his songs with that intention better than he could
himself. Too often harmonica players play to arouse admiration rather than
feeling (though we don't have a monopoly on this strategy). If you make an
audience of bluenoses feel something when you play, they will think better
of our profession for at least a week thereafter.

Frankly, I'm just as leery of mentioning that I'm a guitar player, because
EVERYONE says they're a guitar player, so you don't get instant respect for
being one of those, either. In fact, if you tell people you're a cellist,
most of them will promptly start thinking about home repairs they've been
meaning to get to, or something that happened back in 1975, and not hear
the rest of what you say about your marvelous profession, and the people
who are impressed by the fact that you are a cellist without hearing you
are probably rather shallow, so they can keep their durned respect. (I
once played on a PBS soundtrack where the arranger asked the Musicians
local to send over a violinist. The player had a beautiful head of white
hair and we couldn't wait to hear him play, and then he turned out ot be
the single worst musician I have ever encountered in a recording studio
ever. His brother-in-law at the union hall had taken the call.)

Another thing that works against harp players, I think, is the
over-eagerness to gain respect. When you perceive disdain, don't pull your
harp out instantly in order to clear things up. (Harp players who pull it
out and play anywhere, anytime, contribute to our iffy collective
reputation.) (Flame me all you like, I'm right.) (Hell, I'm STILL
embarrassed about playing my harp out on Venice beach for Doug Tate and
Bobbie Giordano, but it was my only chance to play for them and they were
very nice about it anyway.) Choose your shot, even if proving yourself has
to wait for another day.

This works really well on the micro-level, too, as in when you have to gain
respect as a harp player from people who are generally well disposed to the
possibility of granting you some. When I had to compete for work, for
instance in clubs where producers hung out and lots of other harp players
wanted to get their attention, I'd always, ALWAYS, wait until everyone else
had played their guts out.. I'd then take my time taking my turn, and then
play something simple and affecting and pretty as I could manage. My rent
got paid more than once that way when work was on the line.

But this leads me down to a real respect issue that sticks in my own little
craw. I have always found it detestable that a producer who wouldn't dream
of hiring anyone less than one of the three most accomplished guitar
players in town will then have one of those guitar players double on harp
in order to save a buck or two. The wonderful guitar player Hugh McCrackin
grabbed alot of our work back in the 70's that way in NYC. (About his harp
playing I have nothing nice to say. On the other hand, I would've grabbed
his guitar work in a sixteenth of a second had it been offered, and it
would've been a similar outrage to different gods, so I don't blame him.)

K