Harp on TV

[Winslow Yerxa <76450.3230@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

TO: internet:harp-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Two things caught my eye recently on television.

On the U.S. Open last weekend, IBM was running a commercial
featuring an off-camera  harmonica trio play 12-bar blues with a
New Orleans bass line on bass harp, a diatonic wailing away in
second position (C on an F harp) and chord being supplied by
something indeterminate (sounded like a diatonic). It was cool
to hear the harmonica band ensemble being used for something a
little more modern than the mellow stuff usually played, and
doing it on high-visibilty special-event TV.

last night on cable, BRAVO was running a Gershwin special, on
something called the South Bank show, in which an album of
Gershwin tunes was being recorded with one producer and several
featured artists, including (at least the ones I saw as I surfed
by) Sinead O'Connor, Lisa Stansfield, Robert Palmer, Oleta Adams,
and Larry Adler.

They featured Larry at various times, sitting at the piano and
playing bits of Gershwin tunes while discussing them. Later he
backed Oleta Adams on harmonica, then finished the show by
playing an instrumental - don't know the name, but it was
familiar and sounded influenced by Ravel (but then with Gershwin
and Ravel it's sometimes difficult to tell in which direction the
influence is flowing. It's said that Gershwin went to Paris and
looked up Ravel, asking if he could study with him. Ravel asked
Gershwin about himself, what he had done and so on. Gershwin told
Ravel about the shows he had written and the opoular songs and
orchestral compositions. This aroused Ravel's curiosity, and he
asked Gershwin what kind of money he was making. When Gershiwn
told him, Ravel is said to have replied, "I think that I'd like
to study with *you*").