Subject: [Harp-L] The Chrome

[EGS1217@xxxxxxx]

Chris Smith writes:
 
" The chromatic harp is a truly exciting axe for
blues with  tremendous potential for improvisation in
all keys not just the  delicious 3rd position . Little
Walter obviously relished it (check out  solo on I Just
Want To Make Love To You) but like most straight  ahead
bluesers he rarely, if ever , used the button. I
really dug  Mike Turk's riff but that's definitely on
the  jazzy side of the  blues equation AND THAT'S OK
CUZ DOGGONE IT PEOPLE LIKE JAZZ ( to  paraphrase Stuart
Smalley).
As far as  Elizabeth's comment of wanting to hear
on it (the chrome) what she hear  sax players do that's
an extraordinarily tall, if not impossible,  order. Sax
and clarinet are two of the most fluid single note
axes  there are and the note-bending capabilities are
almost  unlimited.
Last time I checked I only have one mouth but 10
fingers  and all those fingers can go a lot faster than
the  one mouth. The  sax is a large instrument that
without any amplification is LOUD !! The  harp is a
tiny instrument that almost always requires
amplification.  Every instrument is like a different
personality with its unique  qualities, plusses and
minuses. I really like the sax's jazz  improvisational
capacity but I really 
wish it had the multivoice  sound of the piano. Absurd
right ? Nurturing and discovering the  harmonica's
unique, personal and evocative voice is what it's  all
about, n'est-ce pas ? And frankly when it comes to
real blues as  far as I'm concerned leave your sax
parked in your den- just bring the  Mississippi
Saxophone : the blues harp .
P.S. I  do a fair amount of chromatic blues in my
shows- hope to 
see you  somewhere  this summer (see giglist).

Keep cool,

Chris"
 
....and I don't disagree with you at all, Chris...as a matter of fact  am 
quite a fan of your music - you're probably one of the first harmonica  players 
whose music I ever listened to from Harp-L, but I do have to  correct one small 
misconception about what I actually wrote.
 
I in NO way said that I wish "to hear on a chrome what I  hear sax players 
do"......nor do I believe that's possible.  I  agree completely with you that 
they are two entirely different instruments  and that it would be absurd to 
expect one to sound like the other.  I  play piano/keyboard...so do get the whole 
frustration between  how much faster my fingers can go on a keyboard compared 
to my mouth on a  chromatic (and I'm purely at newbie level on a harmonica)  
but  it's much less to do with speed than the sound I'm looking for...what I  
did write was:

"but I still have never experienced  what I really think could be done with 
the instrument in jazz or Blues,  the way I've heard favourite saxophone 
players express  themselves."
 
....that is quite a different thing.  Winslow  understood what I meant..it's 
in the expressiveness in how a sax  player uses his instrument...his fluency - 
soul, improvisation - what's  coming from the musician, not the actual 
instrument itself...though  I do confess to being completely enamoured of the sound 
of a  sax. But I also love guitars.  And pianos,  And  flutes,  And 
trumpets.....   :)
 
Every so often I hear a snippet of someone getting it....that  melodious 
sound... that "tone" that echoes what I hear in my head.   It stops my 
breath...and it's always from a more  contemporary Blues and/or Jazz chromatic player.  
So I know it's  there.  I just wish I had the ability to bring it out in my own 
 instrument.
 
I also meant that, much as I believe in paying homage to (and even  enjoy to 
a degree) the "old-timey"  (and I don't intend that as an  insult) chromatic 
playing people do who are in the majority at the  Conventions, I personally 
yearn for something more from the  instrument....I know it's possible.  Too many 
people think of the  chromatic as an old-style instrument...and Blues as 
something to be played  solely on a diatonic.....so I think this discussion about 
Jazz, Blues  & Jazzified Blues played on chromatic is refreshing and might 
surprise  some players who never thought of a chrom that way before.  
 
But I'm also not a Jazz "purist".  I see nothing wrong with  growing and 
adapting....music is very subjective to the individual.   What sounds right to me 
might not please anyone else....and that's  perfectly all right.  Like you, I 
too think the harmonica has a  distinctive and most evocative voice - I don't 
want to play another  instrument...I just wish I could make mine speak the 
music from  my dreams.
 
Elizabeth