Just uploaded a bunch of videos of our band Skunk Jive (was: Smokefree & The Bandits) on youtube. That's me, Kelvin Ng, playing harp and singing. Lotsa amplified harp content. These clips are of us playing at a prominent jazz concert series here in Sentosa, Singapore. The month-long Jazz By The Beach concert series featured some of the best jazz talents (both foreign and local) we have in Singapore. We were honoured and glad to be part of this series.
Please let me know what you think of the amplified harp tone and playing.
Hey Kelvin, Bloody hell your good!, I would give my right bollock to be able to play like that with that depth of tone and vibrato, How long have you been playing harp?
Last Edited by on Aug 20, 2009 9:26 AM
geordie- nice man, really nice! that song sure brings back memories for me. band is tight and seems comfortable together, you do the front work well too.
are you playing into the p.a. or do you have a amp/mic combo? your tone is good right from your lips i must say.
y'all have put some time in together and it shows. my compliments!
You're a pro, Kelvin. Very nice stuff. You're amping the harp properly--just enough overdrive, treble notched just right. Great vibrato. A good challenge for people here would be to guess who your influences are. If I'm not wrong, I hear some Rick Estrin in that vibrato and your relaxed, behind-the-beat phrasing.
Excellent stuff. Glad to have you as a member here.
For the record, you can scoop the HTML "embed this video" code off the YouTube page, paste it here, and the video itself will show up, so nobody will need to scoop the URL off this page and paste it into their browser.
--Adam G.
PS: I just noticed that you're not using the standard Astatic/Bullet type mic, but instead, are using a dynamic mic, as I do. Please tell us about your equipment.
Last Edited by on Aug 21, 2009 5:08 AM
jbone, thanks. I was playing a Shure 545 into an old solid-state Roland JC-160 (discontinued 4x10 version of JC-120). The amp was part of the backline provided.
Adam, I am glad to hear your compliments. I've always liked your playing and tone. Also loved reading your book ("Satan's Apprentice" - nothing quite like it!) and a few of your articles.
What a good way to describe the amping part. Just enough OD and right amount of treble. Couldn't have been happier with how it turned out, considering that it sounded horrible on stage that night.
You know, I don't even know where to start with influences. I listen to the usual culprits - both Walters, all the harp players that played with Muddy (this includes Junior Wells, James Cotton, Carey Bell, George Smith, Jerry Portnoy, even Butterfield and the rest), probably most of the modern blues masters like Kim Wilson, William Clarke, Rod Piazza, Charlie Musselwhite, Rick Estrin, Gary Primich and on and on. It's all mixed up in one bag.
Thank you for making me feel welcome here. Really, your sharp observation is what I need to hear.
About the "embed this video" code, I can't seem to find it anywhere on the page. Can you tell me if it's on the left or right, top or bottom part?
Last Edited by on Aug 21, 2009 8:09 AM
Wow! I'm glad you're too far from me to play at my local jams. I'd go home and sulk. Beautiful stuff!
Oh yeah, the embed code is to the right of the vid. Just click on it then copy and paste in your post. ---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
http://www.youtube.com/user/SlimHarpMick
Last Edited by on Aug 21, 2009 10:06 AM
It works like this: If I take the URL that you've given me above and I go to that webpage, so that I can see your video at YouTube, and I look to the right of the video, where the description is, there are two places where I can scoop up info. One says "URL." The other says "embed." I scoop up that embed code and I pasted it below. When I hit "post message" here to upload this message, it will come out with a video screen, like this:
