Who am I? What is Harmonica World?

[Steve Jennings <100010.1152@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Seasons greetings from the depths of the English countryside. I'm Steve
Jennings, and I've played harp for around 8 years now, using diatonics
and chromatics mainly, though I've also had brief flirtations with both
chord and bass instruments, as well as tremolo instruments - it's
really a case of using the instrument that sounds right for the music
I'm playing at the time. As far as styles go, I guess I play about 50%
blues/rock and 50% classical, jazz, standards etc.
I'm currently *very* into the playing of Don Les - he was the bass
player with Jerry Murad's Harmonicats for 27 years (but don't let that
put you off!) and now has a career (at the age of 70+ !) as a diatonic
player, doing mainly pre be-bop style jazz versions of standards - he's
a great player and very accurate and fluent.
Harmonica World is a magazine, published every two months by the
National Harmonica League, which is the UK national harmonica
organisation - the equivalent of SPAH in the States, I guess. I am the
editor of this amazingly wonderful publication, which usually contains
an interview, record and product reviews, playing tips etc. It comes as
part of a subscription to the club - rates are as follows:-
	UK   1st year 		    - 19 pounds
	     2nd & subsequent years - 15 pounds

	USA  1st year               - $25.00
             2nd & subsequent years - $20.00

	Europe  1st year	    - 21 pounds
                2nd & subsequent    - 17 pounds

	Rest of World  1st year     - 23 pounds
                   2nd & subsequent - 19 pounds

the slightly higher charge in the first year is to cover membership
card, badge, admin overheads etc.

Interviews in 1992 have been with Howard Levy, James Hughes, Brendan
Power, James Cotton and Rick Estrin.

If anyone's interested, let me have your address and I'll send you a
sample copy and application form etc.

Coming up in 1993 are interviews with Paul Lamb and Eddie Burks. Also
(I hope) a series of hints & tips for diatonic players based on info
from Don Les (see above). PLUS we're currently working on a series
about "alternate" tunings for the harp - like the Lee Oskar / Hohner
Natural minor tuning, Lee Oskar "Melody Maker", Hohner "Country
tuning", Lee Oskar harmonic minor and their variants. I've collected a
number of these alternatives, (about thirty now!), which are great fun
if you're prepared to go "under the bonnet (hood?!)" to perform a bit
of surgery.

re: the current debate about John Popper - the use of effects for harp
isn't exactly new - my mentor, Johnny Mars used them on his first album
in 1972, and still does - the problem then, of course, was that the
range/quality/price combination wasn't right - some might say it stil
isn't.  For some *really* wild stuff with effects, have a listen to
Madcat Ruth's opening track on "Madcat's Pressure Cooker Live at the
Pig".  Hendrix, nothing!

Bye for now,
Steve Jennings