Blues Week 1994

[KPGraham@xxxxxxx]

Blues Week is an event run by the Augusta Heritage Center at
Davis and Elkins College in Elkins West Virginia. This year the
harp instructors were Charlie Sayles, Jay Summerour and Larry
Eisenberg. Other instructors included Sapphire - the Uppity Blues
Women, Nat Reese, Howard Armstrong and others. The guest artist
was Bob Margolin of Muddy Waters fame.

This was my second year. Last year I went as an utter beginner
and learned much from Phil Wiggins who is a patient and very
instructive teacher. My hopes where high this year that the
instructors would bring up to the next plateau in harp playing. I
was to be disappointed.

This year there were 33 harp players in addition there were
people who registered for other instruments or voice and wanted
to learn some harp. Harp classes had 20 to 30 students as
compared to guitar classes which had 6 to 12 students. Phil
Wiggins could not make it this year, but will be back next year.

Jay Summerour is a wonderful player. His style is sparse and very
laid back. He plays mostly chugs and rhythms, with an occasional
burst of a bright colors. He is not, however, a good teacher. He
did not have any lesson plan that I could figure out and we spent
the whole time doing train sounds and preparing for the student
concert. Jay was once in a harmonica orchestra and wanted to set
us up to do some simple stuff for the concert. He taught very
little and mostly that to the beginners. His class was a waste of
time to most of the more advanced players,

Charlie Sayles is a visionary performer. He is introduced as
being in the Chicago tradition, but he is influenced by his
career as street musician. His performances are characterized by
an incredible instinct for showmanship. At the instructors
concert he did a variation on the harp train that blew me away.
Playing alone he dazzled the crowd with his skill.

Charlie, however, teaching method is very visceral. He believes
that it doesn't matter what you play as long as you feel the beat
and play at the right time. In class we had to dance in a circle
playing call and response. We also took apart some SBW2 songs,
playing the bass and guitar parts as well as the voice parts and
then singing the harp parts. Charlie's methods don't work well
with students expecting to be told what hole to blow through. He
never tells you what to play, only when to play it. I enjoy his
classes, but I am never sure exactly what it is I am learning.

Larry Eisenberg is the exact opposite of Charlie Sayles. Larry is
a student of Levy - right down to the overblows and the Golden
Melodies. He plays in lines rather than riffs and is extremely
cerebral in his playing and his teaching style. He spends the
classes lecturing, rarely playing and hardly ever trying to get
the class to play something that he has taught.

Many students like Larry's style. As a person, he's a heck of
nice guy, so I find it difficult to criticize him. But his
playing style makes me cringe. He is not turned on to the blues
tradition. He is a great stunt man and plays notes and lines that
are way beyond mortal men, but it's not blues. It isn't even good
jazz. Levy is very musical in what he plays. If you leave Levy's
skill and take away his feel for the music, you have Larry
Eisenberg.

BUT - nobody goes to Blues Week to learn. The main thing is the
Jams. The first night, my brother and I got in trouble for
bringing Amps to the Ice House. The Ice House is a series of
rooms with a piano where students can jam. We brought that
"devil's music" with the amp sound and it was not appreciated by
the teachers who were mostly acoustic players. We got our amps
banned, but not before some great things happened. My little
Premier Amp has an attitude now because it's heard how a harp should
be played. There were some hot harpers there. I play mostly
rhythms and don't take a solo unless forced to, but even I took a
turn at the fun that sunday night. 

On Tuesday night I heard some jamming on the patio outside the
dorm where the teachers stay. Bob Margolin was there leading a
small Jam. I pulled up a chair and took out my harps. Damn! I was
Jamming with the man who played guitar for Muddy. My brother came
around so I told him to go get a camera, but he came back with
his guitar and sat in with us.

Wednesday was the Picnic and I jammed until around 4 in the
morning. There was free beer and some real West Virginia
moonshine. I am told that my harp playing was hot, but I remember
none of it.

Thursday night my brother and I broke the rules and brought the
amps back to the ice house and Bob jammed with us until 4:30 in
the morning. When I left, Bob Margolin and the Sapphire women
were outside sitting on a car bumper taking pulls from a bottle
of tequila, too drunk to play, but they were trying.

The week cost me about $450. I didn't learn much, the cafeteria
food was bad and the dorm rooms were dirty, but all in all I'd
say I got my money's worth.