Carlos del Junco

[Peter Frederick McGuire <pfm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

About a month ago I heard from this list of this great harp'er named Carlos del
Junco. Recently I met some people that are freinds with the man himself, and
finally last night I got to see him perform. 
As you may well know he won the 93/94 World Harmonica Championship, so I expected to see quite a technical wonder in action... as it turns out I actually 
saw a fine artist as well. 

The scene was a small room blues jam on Queen St. in Toronto, Carlos hosted the
evening and his band performed throught the night. Carlos also jammed with many
of the drop in performers, and never one did he steal their spotlight. His band
finished the evening with a few old blues tunes, including 'Rocket 88' which
helped win him the harmonica championship. What can I say about the guy... he
has it all, excellent tone, full controll over the technical aspects, and a fine
sense of taste. Not a bad voice either.

Afterwards I talked to Carlos for about 10 minuites, he was quite freindly...
so here's the lowdown:

He plays Melody Makers (Hohner?) almost exclusively because he finds they have
a slightly rounder tone, and because the overblow well. He keeps his harps in a
wooden box, not in a belt, even when performing. He also showed me a box of
harps that are his 2nd choice, they are Hohner Strat....? I can't remember the
name cause it was a bg long german name, but these harps have a metal comb and
are very heavy. Carlos said that he thinks the tone is a bit bright from these though.

I also asked him about how often he uses tounge blocking... he said that he uses
it a lot for punctuation and mixed with puckering often, using pucker style
for solos and quick notes.

I also informed him about harp-l, and he was surprised that he was mentioned.

Outside of this we just talked about local musicians and blues spots.. all in all I was blown away!


Peter
One harper with a long way to go!