[Harp-L] Looking for new ideas

[ravi...@comcast.net]

My band is moving away from a straight blues format and heading towards a more funk/R&B/classic rock direction (especially expanding out from I-IV-V progressions) and I am looking for harp players who live more in those genres. I come from the Junior Wells/Big Walter/Little Walter camp.
Any suggestions for players and specific albums?
Thanks in advance,
Bob
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
_______________________________________________
Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
Har...@harp-l.org
http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l

[Abner]

Hay guys and gals and all in-between. Just wanted to drop by and say my
good byes. It seems in the past when I thanked you guys and gals for all
the help you gave me or ignored me, you were somewhat embarrassed.
Don't be. Life is just to short to waste on such childish endevore.
You at Harp L have help me understand the harp and the music behind the
soul. My playing has improved and now I'm learning how to sing.
I have never in my life sang a song, and it was only a few month ago that I
went on stage and played. Not bad at my 48 years.

On Wednesday I will be back to work from a very long and hard recovery from
my surgery. And unfortunately I gained a lot of weight. And I have to lose
it for my next surgery.
So now when I get home, I work construction in the South Florida Heat and
Humidity, I will be concentrating on losing weight and my music.
My time spent reading Harp L, and I have read each and every one. Will be
limited. Since I work in the field I don't have access to a computer.

Any way guys and gals and all in-between its been grand, some of you have
spent many a time with me thru off line email and I thank you and hope we
can continue to correspond off line..

abner (BluEyes, it has been a wonderful journey one that I will continue to
be on till my last breath)

[Buzz Krantz]

I'm actually afraid to answer this uh here goes .... Jason Ricci.
buzz

[icem...@aol.com]

Paul de Lay
Paul de Lay

Paul de Lay

[Arthur Jennings]

Lee Oskar with War, the only band I can think of that fits in all three of
you genres.

--
Arthur Jennings
http://www.timeistight.com

[Steve Walker]

Delbert McClinton

[Barry F. Cohen]

Rob,

I say quit the band! LOL!!

Barry C.

PS - How 'bout some early Stones, Allman's (didn't Butter sit-in with them once?), Dead, Huey Lewis, and Zeppelin for classic rock-harp?? Some very tasty stuff out there in you-tube and google land...

Blues with a feelin, that's what I have today...

[Harri Haka]

It seems to be a common thought that blues is primitive music and perfomers
should "graduate" into other genres like jazz, soul or rock. It is of course
every musician's prerogative to play or sing the music they want to

Case in point, Mitch Kashmar. He released a couple of excellent blues albums
and then started touring with War, supposedly upgrading to funk Luckily
though he came back to his roots and released Live At Labatt which was one
of the top blues harp albums of 2008.

Nevertheless, I wish the best of success to the original poster. There are
harmonica musicians around to satisfy every taste. Having said that, blues
is the genre where harp plays the most important role.

Harri

[ravi...@comcast.net]

Harri,
Thank you for the well wishes. Just to clarify, my band doesn't look at this as graduating beyond the blues. We just have mutual interests in other genres as well. I certainly don't think of blues music as primitive, but to each his (or her) own.
Bob

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

_______________________________________________

[Icem...@aol.com]

I useta think of blues music as primitive, back when I was studying jazz
and caught up in elitism. Then, I watched videos of ODBG performances (at the
first Centrum Port Townsend Blues Week). I was impacted by the raw emotion
which turned off my intellectual brain temporarily. When I came back down
to earth, I realized that blues was complex - but from the gut complex
instead of "heady" complex.

Also, I began to see the simple chord progression as a challenge in which
to become creative rather than a limitation. Personally, I started to push
the boundaries and go "out" a bit in my interpretation, but artistic license
is a good thing. Luckily, I connected with a lot of audience as well as
alienating some of the blues purists - and, this music sure welcomes the
harmonica as an integral part.

Primitive? perhaps in the evolution into the 21st Century in which brain
power and communication is king, this music may be perceived as primitive.
Limiting? not at all when exercising one's imagination.

For instance, at IAJE a few years back, after days of BIG BANDS BLASTING
contemporary arrangements, fusion groups playing millions of notes, everyone
into the cerebral aspects of jazz, one of the BEST sets and one which
definitely had a different impact and all encompassing feel on the audience, was
Stanley Turrentine playing blues w/organ trio. As has been said before,
one note from a competent blues artist sure spoke truer than a flurry of
notes from a woodshedding technician intent on speed chops.

Larry


In a message dated 7/15/2009 8:36:36 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
ravi...@comcast.net writes:

I certainly don't think of blues music as primitive, but to each his (or
her) own.
Bob

**************Performance you need and the value you want! Check out great
laptop deals from Dell!
(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1223081934x1201714279/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Faltfarm.mediaplex.com%2Fad%2Fck%2F12309%2D819
39%2D1629%2D4)

[Bill]

Do you know 'The Hotspot', the theme music for a film of the same name that
primairly featured John Lee Hooker and Miles Davis?

There can be no doubting Miles' respect for the blues when you hear that - I
started thinking what if I could do what Miles is doing on the harp, it
literally changed my life that album.

[Icem...@aol.com]

Yes - this recording is full of great ideas that translate to harmonica -
also the soundtrack of "Elevator to the Gallows", French film.


In a message dated 7/15/2009 11:29:58 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
bill....@googlemail.com writes:

Do you know 'The Hotspot', the theme music for a film of the same name
that
primairly featured John Lee Hooker and Miles Davis?

There can be no doubting Miles' respect for the blues when you hear that -
I
started thinking what if I could do what Miles is doing on the harp, it
literally changed my life that album.

**************Performance you need and the value you want! Check out great

laptop deals from Dell!
(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1223081934x1201714279/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Faltfarm.mediaplex.com%2Fad%2Fck%2F12309%2D819
39%2D1629%2D4)

[Richard Hunter]

There's nothing primitive about blues. Whether we're talking about rural styles or urban blues, we're talking about highly evolved music. There's nothing arbitrary or missing in Charlie Patton or Robert Johnson, and the roles and vocabulary of the instruments in a Chicago blues band are very thoroughly conceived and executed.

The title of this thread is "looking for new ideas," and for blues-based players the issue isn't whether the music is primitive or not. It's whether the players are willing to make room for new ideas, or whether the music is basically going to go into the same bin as J.S. Bach's stuff--highly evolved museum pieces, where the audience knows the moves inside out and expects to hear performances that are entirely consistent with previous history.

Sooner or later audiences move away from the stuff that isn't changing. A core audience remains. But lack of change in any style sooner or later spells diminishing audience interest, because they've literally heard it all before. That's what's been happening in classical music for at least 40 years now, and there's nothing primitive about that stuff.

Thanks, Richard Hutner

author, "Jazz Harp"
latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp
more mp3s at http://taxi.com/rhunter
Vids at http://www.youtube.com/user/lightninrick

[Bill]

If only you guys had Spottify, so far only available in the UK, France,
Spain and Scandanavia i believe. It's a legal music streaming service, paid
for by advertising or subscription (so yes, people get paid!) no hassle, no
ties, you just need a broadband connnection, register and download a bit of
software. The catalogue is huge - ok I've i've struggled to find a few
things but then I've got pretty specialised tastes and you definitely
couldn't find them by illegal downloading that's for sure. I really like it
if i'm learning a new tune, I can listen to lots of different versions -
usually lying in the bath which I find is one of the best places to soak
things up if you'll excuse the pun! Rumour is there'll even be an app for
the Iphone before too long.

----- Original Message -----
From: <ravi...@comcast.net>

To: "Bill" <bill....@googlemail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 5:48 PM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Re: Looking for new ideas

> Bill,
> I will definitely check it out. Thanks!
> Bob

> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>

> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Bill" <bill....@googlemail.com>
>
> Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:29:39
> To: <Icem...@aol.com>; harp L Harp L<har...@harp-l.org>
> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Re: Looking for new ideas