NY Reedsters...report! long!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

["Robert Paparozzi" <chromboy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, we pulled it off once again, a day of friends, food-drink and Harmonica
on a rainy/snowy afternoon in NY!

I want to thank everyone that came out to support our "NY Club" The  NY
Reedsters. Also, special thanks to Danny Wilson and Harp-l for allowing us to
promote this event electronically which resulted in an outstanding success.

Since I don't Have a formal list of who attended, I won't even attempt to
start listing them but I'll mention a few as I talk about the weekend.

Friday:

The weekend kicked off with Howard Levy and Anthony Molinaro playing a duet
concert on the Upper Eastside, I couldn't make it, but I heard they were a hit
and got a standing ovation on the finale of "America the Beautiful".
I've been listening to their new 'live' release and it's a MUST have...I love
everytune on this record, recorded superbly with some of the most inventive
playing I ever heard. Good choice of tunes too, from a killing "Mood Indigo"
to "All Blues" and so much more with totally original arrangements. Howard and
Anthony are in top form.

Friday Nite:

I spoke with Howard via cell phone after his Noon concert and he was elated,
he told me how great a show they had. He said he was looking for something to
do Friday Night and asked me who was playing around. I told him that I knew my
friend Ed Palermo was playing at The Bottom Line, performing two Frank Zappa
lp's in their entirety.
Howard went down and talked to them at sound check and as it turned out they
asked him back to play that night at the show. Well,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,you
guessed it, he Blew the doors from W 4th St out to Bleecker St with his solo,
according to reports I got!!!!

Saturday (7-10pm)

Wade Schuman's "Hazmat Modine" extravanganza! at Terra Blues Club on Bleecker
Street in the village.
I'll let someone who attended the whole show report on who sat in etc. I went
from 7-7:30pm and saw Howard sit in but I had to leave to get to my uptown
(wedding gig) at the Essex House on Central Park South.

Wade's band was kickin' and Wade started the show as he always does with a
breathtaking 'solo' piece.....Wade is an amazing player and a terrific
bandleader and arranger the band plays an eclectic array tunes and I encourage
folks visting NY to keep an eye out for his group.

Saturday (9pm-1am)

Private Party! Howard agreed to fill in as our piano player wasn't able to do
this gig. Well it was a wedding, and Howard trekked uptown from Wade's gig in
his Tux......now check this out, the groom recognized Howard as he used to see
him in Virginia at college with Bela Fleck's band! He was a big Fan and
couldn't believe Howard
was playing at his wedding! .....That set the tone for a crazy night, so me
and Howard took turns trading off on Piano and Harmonica and we all had a
blast....................

Sunday (3pm-Midnite) The Gathering at Wade's Midtown Loft

Both myself and Wade were pretty wiped going into this event from our gigs the
night before. I got back to NJ about 3pm unloaded my PA and reloaded my Van
with a Piano, Soda, Beer and asst party goods for the next day...at Noon I met
my Bass Player, Bailey Gee and we headed into town, we got to Wade's Building
and we met drummer Bernard Purdie in the lobby, I said "what are you doing
here Bernard" and he responded, "today is your event right? and I'm here to
help out!".......woah!! I was floored to have a Bernard help out us Harp
players, he is a true friend not only to me but as many of us know from Chris
Michalek's Summit, a genuine ally to our  harp community.

    Bernard knew,  both me and Wade bit off more than we could handle, he went
for Ice, Greeted everyone and collected the dues at the door, handled the
caterers, and Played Drums with everyone from the Sgro Bros to Frederic
Yonnett!!! Bernard, I know your not on harp-l, BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH....we
love you!!!!

   My only regrets are two-fold, 1st: I wish I could personally met and
chatted with everyone there, but it was nearly impossible, as I was trying to
coordinate the performing, Jamming and Food & Drink....whew! Maybe I'll give
up Harmonica and go into to Party Planning,-))!!

2nd: I really apologize to anyone that wanted to play but didn't get the
opportunity just because of large amounts of players attending. I announced
that I was kind of 'winging' it, since I didn't know who would show up, I had
to put performers up in different accompaniment and playing combos. For
example, I had The Sgro Bros backed by Howard on Piano, and Purdie on drums
(now that's a first!!!) They played "Lullaby Birdland" & "Stars & Stripes".

Howard and Anthony did a duet of "Mood Indigo", "Amazones" "America"...and 1
or two more....Anthony is an impeccable classically trained pianist with Jazz
& improv chops as well! He announced that this was the 1st time he had ever
attempted these pieces on electric piano, but you'd never know it after
hearing him!

        Since Howard was brought up in the NY area, it was special having him
featured at this meeting,
IMO, Howard is to the Diatonic what Larry Adler was to the Chromatic, By this
I mean, they 'opened' the door for expanding the possibilities and parameters
of our instruments. This statement is not to detract from the other great
pioneers (and there are many) Toots, L.Walter, Butterfield, SB2, Deford,
McCoy...but their importance is  a most significant one indeed..so thanx to
Howard and Larry for your dedication and pioneering.

    But not only did we have playing pioneers, we had MASTER Harmonica master
technicians, customizers, inventors and great players in their own right in
attendance as well!....Cham-Ber Huang, Rick Epping and Joe Filisko. Newer
techs like Jimmy Gordon, Mike Easton and Bob Meehan......so this was quite an
event!

    For the first time we actually had a great backup Band with a real
Bassist, Drummer and Guitarist (Jon Scholle) from David Grismans band and
another great player that Wade will have to mention as his name escapes me.
William Galison even brought his own talented band with Madelline on Vox & Gtr
and a great female Accordionist.

We also had two Claviola players who performed a duet and Rick Epping gave us
a gorgeous mini concert on Concertina & Rack Harp......as well as a very
interesting demo of his ne "XB" harp....thank You so much Rick!

      I didn't know Frederic Yonnet was coming!....I think Galison got word to
him, but Fred put on a hell of a show, with 'chops' and 'speed' for days....I
put Purdie, Scholle and Bailey up there w/ him to perform "The Chicken" and
"Boogie on Reggae Woman".............totally funk-i-fied!!!!

Wade recreated his Solo piece was again and just amazed us all! taking us from
pre-war harps and hollers to eastern microtonal scale with sprinkles of
Butterfield....now that's a mixture!!!  Wade was Wade & Kate also deserve a
BIG thanx for allowing this madness into their Loft for a whole day &
Night....very gracious!!!!!

   Some more of the featured players brought up were alot of our regular club
members: William Galison, Susan Rosenberg, Robert Bonfiglio, Steve Guyger,
Dennis Gruenling, Charles Spranklin, George Brooks......a few came but were a
little under the weather if I didn't want to put them on the spot...Thanx to
Cham-Ber and Charlie Leighton....they are also giants they attended but didn't
play. Oh yeah....our good Freind, Harris Simon (Diatonic) is an awesome Jazz
Pianist and helped out immensely, we love you Harris and Thanx for putting up
Howard on Sunday Night!!! A huge thanx to Bob Meehan who picked up Filisko at
my house at 4am to get him back to Chicago on Monday so he could make his
teaching gig!

    Since the weather was bad (the Sgros came down despite 6'' of snow from
upstate!), we had a few call in's from
John Christin, Annie Raines & Richard Hunter....

    Thanx to Bob Beck, Jimbeau, Chet Williamson, Chris Gillock, Johnny Rosch,
Gary Schreiner, Chis Mastakas, Gary Schreiner, Larry Wexman, David ?, Sandy
Mack and Nick Coppola, Trip Henderson, Bob Lians, Daine-Paul Russell, Rich
Yescali, Louie, Ben Nathanson, Gary Mettler, David Teicher, Jon Paris, Mark
the Harper, Randy  Weinstein, Lester Schultz, Norman
Savitt...................and a ton more I cannot recall at this
moment....apologies to all I failed to mention....oh...Chris Bauer did a nice
job on Chromatic on a Duke tune as well as Susan Rosenberg's vers of
"Summertime" acc. by Harris Simon on Piano. Bonfiglio, I put on the spot with
NO accoingmpaniment for some great Classical Playing and a poignant "amazing
grace" ....we had a moment of  silence for deceased Reedsters, Don
Brooks....and I forgot to include the late great  Reedster from Brooklyn Bob
Shatkin, I'm sorry........

     My good friend Randy Singer got there a little Late, he was giggin the
night before in Florida and is was VERY special having him up to  play with
Galison at the end......he ALWAYS sounds great!!! and so does his new CD!!!


      Some cool highlights were Howard Levy and William Galison trade
Melodies, Harmonies and licks on Django's "Nuages" and "My Funny
Valentine"....pretty beautiful hearing Chrom & Diatonic together....it really
worked!!!uys

Also, I really want to Thank Joe Filisko and Rick Epping our 'special' out of
town guests for taking time from their busy schedules, they WERE the highlight
of our event...thanx guys!!!


    all in all I think a good time was  had by all, I hope everyone enjoyed it
and thanx  again to Harp-l, we couldn't have done this without
you........................Reedfully Yours..........Rob Paparozzi