This video is an interesting counterpart to the Hummel-sponsored blow off that we discussed last week. Here we've got three strong players representative of a national style--very fast, very percussive; it's about the energy, not the tone--who are also interacting in real time, without a script. I think that's what I like: there's an element of real improvisation here that keeps the music alive:
Of course I like amped-up harp and The Big Tone, and there's none of that here. But I also like the idea of raw harp, with nothing but a vocal mic and the PA. Every harp player should be prepared to play this way when called upon. In such a setting, aggressive attack and speedy chops are a plus.
Plas does some nice stuff around 1:30 - 1:43.
Last Edited by on Feb 22, 2010 4:29 AM
Rachelle ripped it up i just love all female Harmocists Yeh i hear ya i think lately MBH heads are getting to technical on issues concerning playing technics,,This clip is what it's all about Look at the fun they are Haveing time to throw out the Harmonica schematic Chart and get back to Haveing fun..
What's great on this vid is not only the music or its funkiness. It's watching these three people, and the way they behave on stage. No attitude here. They are playful, they have fun, they smile, they exchange looks of complicity. You can't help but feel empathy for them, for the music and, I guess, for the people around.
Compare it to the Hummel blow off vid in that perspective. The quality of music doesn't lay only in the music itself.
Look, don't get me wrong: I'm sure that some people will strongly prefer the Hummel blow off vid, and that whole way of playing, and there are strong arguments to be made in that direction, too. Hummel and Co., all of them, have very strong tone and superb technique, regardless of amplification. Their harmonica approach is very well adapted to the medium shuffle groove they're working. Some who prefer that approach might say: Hey, these three French players are waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too busy, too note-y, and their blues tonality, although it's great on the song's head, sort of flies out the window later on. My own stylistic approach, busy as it can be, is more melodic, I think, than what the French players are putting forth here.
But my philosophical approach tends to yearn for a little more edginess, a little less stylization, then the Hummel crew. I also think it's important to de-center the Hummel "thing" a little, so that it doesn't suck all the oxygen out of the room. This doesn't mean putting down that particular approach, just recognizing that it is ONE take on what passes for amplified harmonica in our historical moment, rather than the only acceptable take.
I believe that there are multiple acceptable approaches to this thing called blues harmonica, and that the most creatively fertile environment is one where we acknowledge and encourage this.
I also think it would be extremely interesting to see what Piazza, Hummel, Kim, and Bharath would do if their Astatics and big amps were taken away and it was just four guys grabbing a bunch of SM-58s. That would be extremely interesting.
Last Edited by on Feb 22, 2010 7:40 AM
Again, it's all a matter of taste ... this might be great or not, I don't know. I am allergic to funk rhythms so I am not in a position to judge this.
What bores me a bit is that many seem to confuse being creative with not knowing the basics. I have a feeling that I will fail at making a point that I'll try it anyway at the risk of being flamed. Maybe it's just a local thing here but I don't think so. Many look down at old school players because they rely on stuff that has already been done 50 years before. IMHO if it was good music 50 years ago it is still good music now. It might not be revolutionary but at least it requires a lot of feeling and studying the many subtleties in phrasing, grooves and shaping the tone. So many think they are progressive but in the end they just noodle the same old generic funk and rock rhythms over a blues progression. I would really like to see more new stuff that is really original instead of so called funk or rock blues that is old and worn out meanwhile as well. I remember when I heard Rory McLeod's "love Like A Rock" for the first time. That blew me away and it was really very unusual and new to me. I'd like to experience something like that more often but it rarely happens. Until then I'll stick with my Walters and Sonny Boys ... to me that stuff never gets old. I'm not saying any of these approaches is better. I'm just saying that funk stuff in the video is something I hear all the time at every session. They might play better than others, I don't know. But they have fun, no doubt, so more power to them ...
---------- If it ain't broke you just haven't fixed it enough ...
I liked it. There was enough prior planning to make the improvising and expecially the call and responses really fun. By planning, i mean the way there was clear leader setting the pace and driving the other two to respond in turn.
I recently went to an event called "Soul Time" where the stage band was comfortable this way. It didn't matter who swapped out on what instruments, they all were comfortable with whatever the leader had in mind as the vocalists free-formed in and out of all styles of Gospel and Negro spiritual music. The leader also swapped out with other leaders, although they all played keyboard or piano. There was one white guy (the lead off harp player on Amazing Grace who never reappeared until the finale) and one indian guy in the whole bunch. Both of them were as comfortable as everybody else on the stage, in spite of the predominantly black setting. We were among the white minority in the theater and were welcomed the same as everybody else. I see that level of comfort in the video..it reminded me of the Soul Time event.
Comfort. It makes me comfortable to watch musicians with it. It makes me a better and more comfortable musician when i play with others who have it.
I love it all. Hummel's guys, these guys... Personally I LOVE playing to a funk - there is so much more room for creativity both rhythmically and "noteally"... ---------- /Greg
The originalsong was actually written by jj milteau .I think all the famous new players in europe are influenced by him. you can actually find the tab forthissong here http://harptabs.com/song.php?ID=11669
I wouldn't say this is like a French style. I have heard french players who are definitely not like that. Don't generalize those french people, now :) But, maybe that's just the Franco-American in me speaking.
Generalizing what ?,i am just saying that Milteau has influenced a lot of european harp players and this vid seems to confirm it.
Last Edited by on Feb 22, 2010 12:20 PM
okay this is good, it's funky, it's a butt load of double times, its very percussive , i has a great feel and I enjoyed it. raw playing, but it doesn't tell me story. now that's just me and how i set up a solo.
as far as a "cut" session, the hummel crowd would kick ass over these guys, w/ all do respect. kim wilson could play this with a mouth guard.
I don't care for labels...to me they looked like they were having a friggin riot....I enjoyed listening to it...I enjoy Hummel et al as well.....different grooves...I can enjoy both. ---------- Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art. - Charlie Parker
I was playing, last week, at a jam I had not played before. My bullet mic started cutting out on me and I thought great I sound like shit at a new place. I put the mic in my case, walked over to the vocal mic and ripped it up. I had everyone in the place attention. Needless to say I have a standing invite to come back anytime and also got a few contacts for possible work. I will go back and just bring my HarpAttack and plug into the PA. ----------
"I have a high tolerance for boredom as long as it has a groove" - Scrapboss
@Zack: I was the one who first made the point about a national style, i.e., a "French style." I've borrowed this particular insight from somebody who lives in France, REALLY knows the French harmonica scene, and believed that he was making a generally truthful observation. I won't identify him, but he is well known. Certainly, watching these three players, I see certain strong similarities.
You're not French, Zack. You're American. My last name is Gussow but I wasn't born in Lithuania. My grandfather was. I'm American. We're not talking about something ethnic here. We're talking about the way in which where people actually live--rather than where their names trace back to--shapes their approach to the instrument. If you'd spent most of your life in France and were challenging the generalization by saying, "Well, I don't play that way," you'd certainly have a point.
Sure, I'm very impressed by that pretty girl playing harp beautifully ! Her first solo is just great. Concerning Greg Szlap, I think he's underplaying in that vid, to let the two others express themselves.
Maybe the alleged "french style" is not the result of living in France, but the fact that most good french players have learned with Milteau or Lassey ? But there could be also the influence of jazz manouche/swing, a style of music very popular in France. I guess a harp player going to jams in France will probably play more swing than blues, because a lot of guitarists play that.
The rest is nothing I haven't heard or played similar to before.
I used to go to a jam in Twickenham in London more than 10 years ago and there was a few funk guitarists who layed down a groove just like that.
Some of Howling Wolfs' songs are very funky. I've played Killin Floor funked, right up ! Hubert Sumlin funks !
Jnr Wells played lots of funk too.
Albert King's Cross Cut Saw is another.
There are lots of Blues songs that are funky that can be played through an amp with a big fat tone or thru the PA more percussively.
My old man, who is 85, not a musician told me years ago and frequently still(Usually when I've been trying to pull the wool over his eyes) that "Its all been seen and done before."
I am still finding it hard to know what Adam's point is ? He seems to be on a crusade to knock old school players.
Last Edited by on Feb 23, 2010 3:06 AM
I'm on a crusade to think critically about what modern blues harmonica playing actually IS, and might be. To think critically doesn't mean to bash. It means to look at something without illusions, without undue reverence. In political terms, it means to be an Independent rather than a member of a party.
Doggycam, the reason you're finding it hard to know what my point is is that I make a point, earlier in this thread, of DEFENDING old school players vis a vis these French players. No sooner have I pointed out why I like these French players and their spontaneity in contrast to what I find the somewhat stylized gestures of the Hummel blow-off crew then I turn around and offer "strong arguments" in defense of the way that Hummel and crew are playing vis a vis what some might see as weaknesses or inadequacies in the French approach.
Most people who talk about harp are interested in attacking what they don't like and defending what they like. Of course I've got a set of preferences when it comes to aesthetic approaches, but by far the strongest preference is what I'd call a resistance to hegemonic thinking. Hegemony is when one idea, one approach, dominates to such an extent that it seems "natural," inevitable, overwhelming, and therefore tends to quash critical thinking and honest discussion before it ever gets started.
One idea of this sort that is currently circulating through the blues world is, "Except for a few touring pros, black people don't really listen to, or play, the blues anymore." That's simply not true, or at most it's no more than a half-truth, but a lot of people keep repeating it and I therefore find myself wanting to point out all the ways it's not true.
I think that old school playing, as we might call it, is valuable and important if it's properly contextualized so that it's recognizable for what it is: a strongly conservative, backward-looking, and popular trend within a contemporary blues harmonica world that is, in fact, filled with other interesting and valuable trends. The French players in the video above represent one of those other trends. It would be fair to say that I see Jason Ricci, Sugar Blue, Paul Delay, R.J. Harman, and myself as in some sense falling within yet another trend: fast, aggressive, innovative, highly amplified diatonic blues players, many of whom overblow, who play melodically on all ten homes (rather than merely occasionally tweeting on an upper hole), and most of whom mix tongue blocking with lip pursing in a way that facilitates high speed playing. It's possible that Madcat Ruth falls into this category, too. I'd probably put Carlos del Junco, Chris Michalek, and Larry "Iceman" Eisenberg in another category, as players who move even further away from the old school in the direction of Howard Levy-style all-12-keys-on-one-harp playing and who favor a somewhat lighter, jazzier attack and somewhat less aggressive amplification, but I'll leave it to others to figure that out.
What makes this exercise interesting is trying to figure out where Magic Dick, Charlie Musselwhite, Billy Branch, Billy Gibson, Dennis Gruenling, Jay Gaunt, and Brandon Bailey fit into this continuum.
Last Edited by on Feb 23, 2010 4:22 AM
The first to note is that this is a Jean Jacques Milteau tune. All three of these players have at some point either studied with JJ or studied his music, as have many European players and therefore are influenced by him.
Jean Jacques Milteau is in turn influenced by the classic soul sounds of 60's and 70's America among other forms of music.
In this clip I don't really see anything truly "modern". Although it is of course a completely different approach to the Hummel, Piazza, Wilson, Rajakumar clip. What I do see are three players who are each as familiar with a certain tune as the others simply because they have the same influences and/ or teachers. I think all three are good players and I enjoy the clip, though I also still find it lacking somehow.
I agree with Adams categorisations in his last post for the most part. I see Charlie and Magic as more traditional (yet transitional) players, who helped to begin the trickle that is becoming a stream. Billy Branch I see as much more traditionally based. Jay and Brandon I think it's to early to tell where they are really at yet.
Dennis Gruenling however is to me most interesting of the bunch. He stands head and shoulders above the rest. He has elements of all the categories and doesn't really fall into any one camp. To my mind Dennis is the most "Modern Blues Harmonica" player of the whole bunch. His playing is firmly in the tradition but has many stylistic elements that are new to the form. The use of which he melds seamlessly into the traditional to make it sound as if it was always there. Which is as it should be I believe.
He never uses anything just for the sake of it, his playing is always that of the consummate professional and always fits the tune like a glove. He is the Lester Young of the blues harmonica to my mind. I would venture to say that he could possibly be the greatest blues harmonica player around today.
Of the Levy influenced school of overblow players that Adam mentions (Chris, The Iceman, del Junco and of course Levy himself) I don't think any claim to play all 12 keys exclusively on one harp. Of course they could do it, but I think they would all say that they would select a key/position based on the feel of the music. I can only think of two players (off the top of my head) who take the one harp approach: Tinus Koorn and Otavio Castro.
I'm not quite sure if Adam meant to imply they use one harp exclusively, but I thought the point should be clarified before it stirs up yet another @£*%storm about chromatic playing.
Well, we all know that Levy and Michalek use different harps in different keys, so I don't think one can mistake about Adam's saying...
Adding my two cents : "chromatic playing" (on a diatonic) is not the same as "overblow playing" since the half-valved harps have appear. See Brendan Power and PT Gazell.
I personnaly think half-valved playing is going to replace overblows, because it seems easier to learn and it's more logical in a way : you don't have to push up the notes, it's all bending down.
