Subject: [Harp-L] Harmonica Renaissance



Mark Earley writes (snipped):" And sorry, no YouTube videos of this  kid!  
I'm keeping him under wraps except for friends and family until he's  older.  
The purity in his love of the sound and feel of this instrument is  infectious 
and has been radiating outward toward me."
 
...now THAT's the most refreshing thing I've read yet on harp-l!   love it! 
 
Elizabeth
 
"Message: 3
Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2008 20:54:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mark  Earley <harmonika13@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Harmonica  Renaissance
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Message-ID:  <944393.10062.qm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Content-Type: text/plain;  charset=iso-8859-1

After my earlier post complaining about the price of  harps I felt a little 
ashamed and spent a $100 on two Seydels--a LLF and a  Soloist Pro.  I have to 
say that I love them and feel as if my money was  well spent!  I am coming to 
understand  that, as someone mentioned  here, it is truly a good time to be a 
harp player.  
My learning process  began at 12 years old mimicking the sound I heard on LPs 
of Howlin' Wolf, Will  Shade, Sonny Boy I & II, and Sonny Terry until I was 
old enough to make my  way into local bars and blues jams.  I was lucky to have 
met Sonny Terry  (at Sandy Berman's Jazz Revival when I was 15 years old) and 
to have enjoyed a  close relationship/apprenticeship with the likes of 
Earring George Mayweather  and Bill "Watermelon Slim" Homans in my early 20s--both 
great harp players and  performers.  I consider myself lucky, too, to have had 
the audacity to  barge into the backstage  dressing room of Junior Wells where 
I was able to  make a personal connection with the man whose playing I had 
long emulated.   Wells was kind enough to humor me as I played HIS own solo 
note-for-note to him  from "Messin' with the Kid" from his 1960's Vanguard LP 
"Chicago, The Blues,  Today!"  While I never stopped playing harmonica, over the 
years I departed  the local music scene, got
a couple of degrees, began a teaching career, had  a kid, etc.  Needless to 
say, it's been a while since I felt the way I did  when I purchased a C Marine 
Band and Tony Glover's Blues Harp Songbook some 30+  years ago.  That is, 
until my son was born in 2007.  I started giving  him the harp at 7 months 
(possibly earlier) and he suprised me by actually  playing the damn thing!  Now, at 
13 months, he can play his own improvised  riffs and mimics my train rhythms 
with his own.  He experiments  regularly--making te-te-te sounds with his breath 
and tongue--and cries when I  try to take the harp away.  He is able to draw 
bend my SSpecial 20 A harp  into a bluesy growl and regularly makes facinating 
rhythmic flourishes from blow  1 to blow 10 reeds.  He even taps out the spit 
from his harp on his leg (or  usually, daddy's) when he's done.  Of course, 
he's also just as happy to  drop the harp mid-song and do something else but I 
can honestly say that I'm  not
exaggerating my son's precociousness on the harmonica.  And sorry,  no 
YouTube videos of this kid!  I'm keeping him under wraps except for  friends and 
family until he's older.  The purity in his love of the sound  and feel of this 
instrument is infectious and has been radiating outward toward  me.  Harmonicas 
are finding themselves in every concievable place in my  house, old cases 
full of half-blown harps are being reevaluated, older harps are  getting cleaned 
and polished, new ones are being warmed and played.  Father  and son are 
constantly jamming and learning and loving these wood and metal  wonders--a true 
harmonica renaissance."     





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