Brendan is great. He's one of my favorite musicians.
My parents have met many of the living great harmonica players from Levy to Morgan to Thielemans etc and of all the harmonica players they have met, Brendan remains their favorite. Almost every time I talk to my dad, he always asks if I have spoke to Brendan lately.
Brendan truly is a remarkable person and musician.
---------- "The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
This is quite pedestrian compared with some of the Irish music I've heard him play. He can play phenomenally (sp) fast, I really can't see how he can do it. ----------
He's going to be up here doing a clinic of sorts next week - I hope I've recovered from this stupid r2d2 virus by then!!! ---------- If it ain't got harp - it ain't really blues!!!!
Brendan treated us, at the Uk harmonica festival, to awesome display of his virtuosity; not only on his super fast Irish jig stuff but on sweet melody as well. oh what a wonderful world recorded very well by our Oxharp:
Now these songs I can connect with and they move me. Not just a fleeting impression of someone being able to play scales better than anyone else in the world with no appealing melody associated (sorry Zack P.) like the Howard Levy song posted recently.
Yeah Brendan is an amazing player and an OK guy. I had a problem with a Suzuki Chromatix SCX48 which I purchased on line from the US. Local Suzuki agents didn't want to know me so I contacted the US retailer who put me onto Suzuki US who in turn put me in contact with Brendan. Brendan was extremely helpful in providing me with detailed info on the modifications I needed to make to rectify a relatively minor problem.
Brendan has a swag of youtube videos available via his website including a very interesting series that tells the history of the harmonica.
Thanks Nick for the comment. Info for Walterharp Brendan was playing through an effects box called a Korg Pandora the reverb came from that and he controlled his own volume/effects on stage. He also had the backing tracks via a laptop. I dont know what the mic was I forgot to ask but its looks like a vocal mic. Here is another that I just posted on my site for your listening pleasure. Cheers.
