Re: On harp instrumentals

["IronMan Mike Curtis" <ironman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have several instrumentals on my CD "Doin' It All Myself" (USA Music Group
records), all played on a racked and valved Lee Oskar C major diatonic while
playing guitar and (except Moulin Rouge) organ style bass pedals at the same
time.  Instrumental tunes on the CD include the above, Take 5/Blue Rondo A
La Turk, What's Goin' On, Billie Jean, and my own original, Smokin'
Harmonica.  All have strong melodies, and feature improvisation, but a bit
more jazz oriented.

http://www.ironmancurtis.com/moulin.mp3 Moulin Rouge
http://www.ironmancurtis.com/take5.mp3 Take 5/Blue Rondo A La turk
http://www.ironmancurtis.com/billiejean.mp3 Billie Jean

I have some other live instrumentals featuring strongly melodic harmonica on
my website:

http://www.billhouse.com/songs/harlemnocturn.mp3 Harlem Nocturne
http://www.billhouse.com/songs/funkygroove.mp3 Gettin' Down And Playin'
Funky
http://www.billhouse.com/songs/slowfreight.mp3 Slow Freight

My "working" songlist numbers somewhere around fifteen thousand, most of
which are harmonica instrumentals.

I agree with the premise that a "true instrumental" differs from a "harp
jam" in that the instrumental contains a strong and distinct melody line
(often but not always along with improvisation), whereas the latter
generally consists of somewhat random jamming over (usually simple) changes.


- -IronMan Mike Curtis http://www.ironmancurtis.com *Southland Blues Magazine
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