Posted by Dan Bradley on December 12, 2001 at 12:09:29:
In Reply to: East Coast vs. West Coast? posted by Jon Brady on December 11, 2001 at 06:57:33:
Everything that everyone else has said here is pretty much right on. I'd have to say that it was a few influential players living in these areas that created what we know as the East, Midwest, and West coast sounds. Many of the top players on the west coast studied with Tommy Johnson and Roger Bobo, both of whom have great sounds, but Bobo's in particular was brighter and more direct than most of his contemporaries...therefore his students modeled their sounds after his. The same is true of the very most influential teachers of the past century: In the midwest, everyone studied with Arnold Jacobs who had a huge, dark sound. On the east coast, Bill Bell and Harvey Phillips were among the most influential. Both of them played with beautiful, well-artculated, compact, and clear sounds. In my mind, these are the main differences you're gonna hear when listening (especially to older) recordings. But like the others said, this is quickly diminishing as more and more players gravitate towards more central sound concepts.
Dan