[Harp-L] clarification



From: Jp "Pagán" <jpl_pagan@xxxxxxxxx>
--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Joe and Cass
Leone <leone@xxxx> wrote:

>   I just think that too much squawk is out. A little
is OK, but some
> guys over-do it.

i always hated the "Saturday Night Live" sax sound, that guys like Jr. Walker often do. then again, i love some of Walker's stuff, even a few things that do sound SNL-ish.
as for squawk, i have a new-found appreciation for it after listening to some of the latest jazz/funk stuff by guys like Stanton Moore and Galactic. there's a sax player named Skerik who turns "squawk" into a term of art, so to speak. i'd love to be able to do what he does on a short-harp. Galactic's horn-dog, Ben Elliman, also knows how to squawk and do it right, andhe plays a pretty good harp too... (check out the album "Ruckus")

OK time to chime in from an edumacated perspective.
What in the heck are you guys squawking about?
SNL squawk guy has a name. IMO this awful sax-cretin is the best R&B tenor sax player alive.
LENNY PICKETT. (Jr. was incredible also)
He joined Tower of Power when he was 16 and is now the MUSICAL DIRECTOR of SNL. This is a musician's musician with many tools under his belt besides squawk. He has an instantly recognizable sound, something that some of us want and others seem to disdain.
What is SQUAWK?
High notes above the saxophone's normal range is called the altissimo register. Lenny and many others can play beautiful melodic ideas in that range. (This is not a JP playing musically unrelated patterns at blinding speed as a parlor trick.) please do define this squawk thing, maybe I can include it into my arsenal.


Harmonica relevance:
Only harper AFAIK to be the MD of a long running hit TV show is Charlie McCoy on Hee Haw.
Read how HL personally discovered (and named) overblows here (sax squawk connection)
http://www.levyland.com/overblows.php
more than a few harp players have wanted to emulate the R & B sax sound.


I have been known to both squawk & head shake. And i know that i am better than Chris M.
... at something?


Michael Peloquin
http://tinyurl.com/5tpjg
http://www.harpsax.com






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