Some (diatonic jazz) questions

[Winslow Yerxa <76450.3230@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

TO: internet:harp-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
SUBJ: Some (jazz diatonic) Questions

Mike Edmonds asks about jazz diatonic. Mike Curtis rightly notes
Howard Levy as an example. However, there are some others worth
noting.

The late Don Les, the original bass player for the Harmonicats,
could play fluent first-position jazz on a diatonic, and his
young student Uwe Penzold, aka Harry Caine, is racing in Don's
footsteps. Don did a couple of cassette albums available from F&R
Farrell (1-800-438-3543) and both he and "Harry" were featured on
the video from last year's SPAH convention, both playing
brilliantly. And, I see from the latest issue fo the SPAH
newsletter "Harmonica Happenings", "Harry Caine" now has a CD
out.While Howard is a true modern jazz musician, the difficulty of
his technique may seem forbidding to a novice (or even an
expert), while the Les approach is not nearly as difficult - just
slow the tape down and don't worry about weird techniques or
positions.

In the 1920's a number of straight-harp blues players made
diatonic recordings that seem to very clearly emulate the trumpet
style of Louis Armstrong. At that time, there was a strongly
defined urban blues style (epitomized by Bessie Smith) in which
jazz players like Armstrong took part, and several harps players
(sorry I have no names at hand, although I think Rhythm Willie
and Blues Birdhead would both fit in this group) followed his
lead.

Winslow Yerxa
Harmonica Information Press
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Z Aw, now Pops! You wasn't plannin' to *use* that thing?
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