Am I sexists or just tone deaf?

[RABid]

I have been thinking about what people are the biggest influences of my playing style. These people fit two categories, instrumentalists and singers. It seems those two groups also have something else in common.

 

Instrumentalists: Dizzy Gillespie, Jeff Beck, Santana (the entire early band)

 

Singers: Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Janis Jopline

 

I could expand the list but the pattern would remain pretty constant. Sure the debate has raged for years about if and why most great musicians and writers are men, but what about singers? Leaving out opera, it seems that the singers who really use their voice as an instrument are usually women. Back when I started playing a lot of musicians used Aretha as a model when learning to play lead guitar. No one ever mentioned wanting to play guitar like Bruce Springsteen sings. Ok, maybe a bad comparison but you know what I mean. Probably 90 percent of my vocal music collection is male singers, but none of them seem to convey the emotion of Janis, the mastery of the slide as used by Aretha, or the ability to play the notes in the manner of Ella. Am I missing something? Maybe I am listening to the wrong male singers. Who can toss out a performance like Summertime, Chain of Fools, or It Dont Mean a Thing?

 

PS: Strange, I don't have any keyboardists on my list as influences on my keyboard playing.

[coren]

an intresting note, but there are exceptions.

ive found that most of my instrument/lyric influences and likes are balenced, while for vocals most of my influences are males, but i find female voacalist more capturing (maynard james keenan is an exception). id say its pretty balenced.

 

[ 12-17-2001: Message edited by: coren5555 ]

[dansouth]

My favorite singers are male: Marvin Gaye, Al Jarreau, Stevie Wonder, Bono, Ray Charles, Levi Stubbs, Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, Roger Daltry, Geddy Lee, Cab Calloway, John Lee Hooker, Peter Gabriel.

 

I like female singers, too - Shirley Manson, Reba MacIntire, Melissa Ethridge, et al. - but they don't have the same impact. Maybe it's because I prefer songs sung from a male perspective.

[surfjazz]

youre not sexist, its just that guys do better with their hands and girls do it better with their lungs.

[RABid]

Originally posted by dansouth@yahoo.com:

My favorite singers are male: Marvin Gaye, Al Jarreau, Stevie Wonder, Bono, Ray Charles, Levi Stubbs, Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, Roger Daltry, Geddy Lee, Cab Calloway, John Lee Hooker, Peter Gabriel.

 

My favorite singers are people I can sing along with in my limited range while enjoying the songs. Third Eye Blind, Matchbox30, Hootie, etc. I was speaking specifically of people whoes singing influences the way I play my keyboards. Try bending notes like Aretha, growling your synth like the Pearl, or replicating one of Ella's runs on the keyboard. I guess the closest think I can think of is Steve Wonder, Lenny Welch, or, ummm... Maybe Louie Armstrong.