After a great deal of brooding over the past year, I've expanded this website's Top-10 all-time list so that it consists of 11 names. The new addition is Sugar Blue.
Moving him up from the Second-10 list left one free space on the Second-10 list. Lots of very strong players in the Honorable Mention list were in contention, including (in no particular order) Rick Estrin, Rod Piazza, Dennis Gruenling, Madcat Ruth, Igor Flach, Carlos del Junco, and Norton Buffalo, among others, but William Clarke struck me as the obvious choice.
Sugar Blue gets the nod for several reasons. In terms of oringinality and individuality--the three-second test--he is arguably THE most deserving player of our time. He passes the one-second test: when his harmonica playing comes on the radio, you know instantaneously who it is. That is a rare accomplishment. His technical gifts speak for themselves, but I should point out that he's been displaying those gifts for several decades now. Without Sugar Blue, there is no Jason Ricci. He paves the way for all other speedsters, especially those of us who use the high end as often as the low end as a fully-incorporated melodic generator.
A much less well-appreciated aspect of Blue's achievement is the way in which he has taken the classic Chicago and Mississippi blues songbook, including "Hoochie Coochie Man," "Messin' With the Kid," "Pontiac Blues," "Another Man Done Gone," and other familiar tunes, and modernized them with the help of extremely hot, overdriven contemporary ensembles. More than any individual harmonica player I can think of, he has modernized not just the sound of his instrument, but the sound of the blues ensemble that surrounds his instrument. He's done this, specifically, by incorporating rock and funk in ways that take James Cotton's high-intensity ensembles of the 1970s to the next level. If you'd like a representative cut, listen to his version of Cotton's "One More Mile." That is the sound of fully modernized urban blues ensemble playing: the best of New York City and Chicago brought together. In that respect, he is BOTH the Little Walter and Muddy Waters of our time.
These are large claims, and y'all know that I tend to push a point rather than just making a point. You're free to argue. I won't argue with those who feel that Blue pays for the brilliance of his style with certain limitations. He doesn't swing in familiar ways (some might say that he doesn't really swing, although "Another Man Done Gone" on the big low C harp certainly does), and others might argue that his fast overdriven solos trend quickly, almost all of them, in the same slam-bam-thank-you-ma'am direction. Truth is, I've been arguing with those voices in my head ever since I first saw him live in the early 1990s. But when I ask myself who the truly original, indelible voices of MODERN blues harmonica are, Sugar Blue immediately rises to the very top of the list. Love him, like him, or dislike him, he's there and he's huge.
As for William Clarke: I don't believe that anybody will argue with me.
And yeah, it's cheating to have 11 names on a Top-10 list, but I've always been a little extreme like that. :)
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Apr 17, 2013 9:03 AM
"As for William Clarke: I don't believe that anybody will argue with me." True That. Sugar Blue..."he is BOTH the Little Walter and Muddy Waters of our time." Oh my. Ok, covered immediately with "These are large claims, and y'all know that I tend to push a point rather than just making a point." Argue it? Only to say that I love what's he's given to us but an ICON he is not.
Last Edited by Littoral on Apr 17, 2013 5:22 AM
Adam, have you ever thought about putting a widget from one of the big online music stores on your top ten list? People could listen to and buy the music right from the page, and you'd get a small cut. They are the ones selling it, so they already have dealt with the licensing end.
(I've thought maybe you could have a page for members music like that too, although that would be a bit more work.)
---------- Nate Facebook Thread Organizer (A list of all sorts of useful threads)
Last Edited by nacoran on Apr 17, 2013 9:18 AM
Adam Adam...How could you do this? I won't argue Sugar but someone else has to go. This takes away from the importance and prestige of cracking your Top "10" list. Don't let indecision or the fear of bringing a favorite down get the best of you. Your list has always intrigued me. I've watched many a youtube to study how you came up with your lists and maybe learn something from it. Your list is important to me. Seriously, a big part of the fun was seeing who got axed when someone moved up...and the debate that followed. IMHO...this reduces the imoprtance of your list.
@harpdude61 Exactly what I was thinking. But for argument sake, keep in mind Tunfel's Marshall amp with the "11" setting on the knob. Adam's new idiom; "This list goes to 11" :-) ---------- Go ahead and play the blues if it'll make you happy. -Dan Castellaneta
I'm not a Mac guy, but I'd grudgingly still put iTunes up there, and Amazon MP3 (I just bought a CD there, I like having a physical copy, but once you buy the physical copy you can also download a free digital copy so you can listen right away). CNet also recommends Napster, eMusic and Rhapsody, so
CNet has the top five like this-
iTunes eMusic Amazon MP3 Napster Rhapsody
Google Music has jumped into the fray, and you have Pandora, Spotify, Tradebit and Soundcloud are also options, so that gives you 10. :)
I'd have to do more research to actually put together a real top ten. Facebook has something too, and at one point MySpace had SnowCap, but as I remember that imploded spectacularly without paying out all the royalties.
Huge HELLYEAH for William Clarke. I really love listening to some of the lo-fi club stuff with George and Bill...nice,reeel nice. Sugar Blue? Well, this website is called 'modern blues harmonica' so for that reason alone, perhaps Sugar should be #1...? As he sure is and has been quite the innovator, for quite some time. But if I want a harp take to make my soul shake.... Bill Clarke!
Agree with the Sugar Blue addition. He is the quintessential innovator while simultaneously showing respect for tradition. His improvisation contains the joyous essence of Sonny Boy transformed with an eclectic modernism.
Speaking of joy, it's impossible to listen to William Clark without a smile forming on your lips.
Most of the time that I add my comments to one of these lists, I don't feel worthy because of my own elementary playing skills. Somehow, and maybe some of you can attest to this same feeling - that who are we to say who should be Number One or Number Ten - as much as I suck, I am probably Number 5,158,892. But add to the list we must, so here goes. We must occasionally forget that we are players and just be music fans and aficionados as we are when ranking musicians who do not play the same instrument that we do.
I fully agree with Adam's assessment, and promotion if you will, of Sugar Blue into the Top Ten. He is truly a giant in our musical field, and one must admire that he is taking it to the next level...not resting on his laurels. Blue is reaching back into his roots as well, something we have secretly (and not so secretly) hoped he would do for a long while. It's an honor to know him and watch him work his craft.
That being said, I agree with some of the sentiments to the contrary. The number 10 has risen to prominence as a sort of standard. Maybe it should be changed, I don't know. But you have a second Top Ten, so adherence to the Ten standard seems to still be important. That means, regretably, someone needs to dropped down to the Second Tier.
I understand the factors which go into selection, it isn't just one thing. Looking at all of the factors, another must be added. As a historian of blues harmonica, a writer, an author, a teacher, a professor, and a damn great blues harp player, Adam Gussow is also a sentimentalist. As a historian, Adam knows that older players need to be recognized or they are forgotten. I think that this is the unseen criteria that he sometimes utilizes. Dropping one name down to the second tier on one list on one website isn't going to banish that person to the dustbin of history, or else what about the other great players in the second tier now? And to borrow a phrase from the late 1960's book "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton (in reference to stories about old ballplayers), a player jokingly stated "The older they get, the better they were when they were younger". We have a tendency to glorify even marginal sport figures from our youth because they loom so large in our memories, and many times their actual greatness is in our minds exaggerated. Also folks, it is no sin to say that someone of more recent vintage has passed an all-time great. It happens all the time in many walks of life. And what about the arguments about whether Jason Ricci belonged in the Top Ten? It took awhile, but in time and with much listening I came to understand his greatness as a player.
For those reasons, and specifically looking at the criteria that Adam has provided us - Recorded Evidence - as well as Technical Mastery - then the person dropped down must be George "Harmonica" Smith. It's not a slouchy list he is being dropped down to, but to be fair, he doesn't belong in the Top Ten because across the board he does not, in my humble opinion, rate with those in the upper category.
That of course means that the Second Top Ten has 11 members. Sentimentalism can reign supreme there, but does not belong when talking about the very best.
Last Edited by atty1chgo on Apr 18, 2013 6:31 AM
atty I could not agree more...10 should be the standard in both lists. Going by Adam's criteria, I also agree with George Smith going down to the second 10. WHo drops out of the second top 10...Deford?
Eleven is too strange a number to let stand. Better that you go for either 15 or 20 positions on any list you make, as the groupings of multiples of fives has more authority and definition. A top 11 list makes it seem that you're not so sure. ---------- Ted Burke http://www.youtube.com/user/TheoBurke?feature=mhee
