[Harp-L] A great celtic harp-player



This may be of only marginal interest to a lot of Harp-l folks, but a great harp-player is a great harp-player and it's only right that the word should be spread. The guy in question is Jean Sabot who lives in France (Brittany to be precise, an area with its own traditional "celtic" music tradition). He visited the UK last week and I was lucky enough not only to meet him and hear him play but also to join him in a traditional pub session in St Ives in Cornwall "for a few tunes" (as the Irish are apt to say). He plays diatonic and chromatic harps that he retunes fearlessly to make them more sensible for the music he plays (e.g. eliminating missing notes, enabling fast runs of notes, facilitating appropriate ornamentation). He plays beautifully with strong projection and lovely full tone. He has a wide repertoire that includes not only his own native Breton tunes but also Irish, Scottish, Northumbrian and French-Canadian. We have a handful of great players of this kind of music but Jean is right up there with the very best of 'em.

He explains some of his tunings on his site http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jsabot/accueilan.htm I'm pretty conservative about trying out different tunings, but I'm beginning to change my tune (oops...) after trying out his "major tuning - Ionian mode" which gives a 10-hole harp a range of two and a half octaves with no missing notes. Same blow-draw pattern as the standard harp too. Genius!

I have one of his CDs, "Harmoníca, víolon," and it's a gem.

Steve



http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/trad_irish_harmonica
HEAR my CD clips: http://www.gjk2.com/steveshaw/cd.htm
READ review of my CD: http://www.irishmusicreview.com/sshaw.htm






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