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Date: Mon, 04 Mar 2002 09:19:12 -0600 (CST)
From: "Barry B. Bean"
Subject: RE: the Miles Davis of harp

On Sun, 3 Mar 2002 20:55:11 -0600, Molitor, Stephen wrote:

>The question, 'Who is the Miles Davis of the Harp' is a funny one, because
>Miles was so unique.

I agree. Comparisons like this always fall apart on close inspection.
Who is the Billie Holiday of the harp? Who is the Bill Monroe of the
Harp? Who is the Howard Levy of rap? Who is the Richard Nixon of
Baseball?

> He was relatively limited technically,

This sort of statement bothers me. I bristled when Clapton said it
about Little Walter (maybe it was SBII, no matter), and I have always
bristled at the notion of harp players, blues players, or even rock
and rollers and being generically simple.

While Miles didn't have the lightning fast chops or ease with music
theory that Parker, Coltrane, or
did, he connected with listeners just as well, and left a musical
legacy matched only by a handful of musicians in the past century. He
also had an incredible ear for talent, and put together some of the
finest combos even assembled. Can you ever listen to Kind of Blue or
Porgy and Bess and not be in awe?

Like Paul Desmond (who once claimed to be the world's slowest and
quietest saxophone player), Miles simply heard music differently from
his lightning fast peers. In doing so, he doesn't blind us with
brilliance, but seduces us into a melody. His Summertime is a
testament to simplicity and space, and his trademark harman mute tone
sets him apart from a thousand nameless beboppers, whose speed
unfortunately overcame the music.

>Part of his talent was overcoming and working
>around his limitations. For example, he didn't have a good vibrato, and
>couldn't play extreme high notes, so he developed a style built around his
>strong low and medium register playing, without vibrato. One of his
>limitations, no vibrato, became one of his signatures.

I'm not sure that was a limitation. A week ago, I stopped by the
Missouri History Museum's retrospective on Miles, and one of the
interesting things was an interview with his first instructor/mentor
who discussed teaching Miles not to use vibrato and to use a very
pure, unwavering tone. Several interviews in the exhibit mentioned
Mile's preference for th middle and low registers, and I suspect that
Miles played the way he did because he simply heard the music that
way.

BB

- -
B.B. Bean - Have horn, will travel
bbbe~eancotton.com
Peach Orchard, MO
http://www.beancotton.com/bbbean.shtml