Re: Grace and aplomb in the face of Gussing and other unpleasantries

[Mojo Red <harplicks@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I really appreciated your Bob's and Howard's
toughts on this. Nicely said, gentlemen! 

You reminded me of something that happened to me
recently. Appologies if this is too long.

I went out to hear Rockin' Jake play at Ziggies in
Denver a while back. Jake's is a harp-driven blues
band with a very tasty HOT SAUCE Louisiana Cajun
perspective. He's a wonderful player and great with
the audience. 

Anyway, it happened that two of my harmonica
students were there for the show as well. I
introduced myself to Jake and welcomed him to
Denver, and after he finished the first set Jake
comes over to talk with me some more and says he'd
heard I was a local harp player, and did I bring my
harps. 

Well, this was unexpected! I only brought one harp,
a Hering Vintage in the key of A (to play in the
car). "Great!", he said, "I want you to sit in with
me on the first song."

Gulp! No pressure there... glancing at my two
grinning harp students. Well, Jake introduces me as
his "new good friend, Mojo Red" and I get up to
play through one of the vocal mics. "Slow blues in
A," he tells the band and we launch off.

Blues in first position, sharing the stage with a
touring pro, with my students looking on. Gotta
say, I'm a little nervous. Jake starts the song in
first position, working the high end. I naturally
comp on the low end. Then he starts the vocals and
I continue to comp. He switches to a D harp and
takes the first solo, handing it to me for the
second round. I went to the high end and did my
thing, he smiled and tells me to take another... so
I work my way down the harp and finish the second
solo using the bottom end. He sings another corus
and hands a solo to the guitar... then he leans in
close and asks:

"What key harp are you using?" I answer, "I got an
A harp," and I show him my Vintage in A. I thought,
Here it comes... he's gonna tell me I suck.

"Damn!" he says. "I'm sorry! I thought you had a D
harp... I shoulda called a song in E for ya. I was
wondering how you were getting those cool sounds
out of a damned D harp!" I smiled and shrugged, we
finished the song trading fours, him on D and me on
my A harp. The crowd went nuts. It was a gas.

Jake told me afterwards that I "acquitted myself
very well" on harp. I felt proud and my students
were duely impressed. 

The point? 

There are some really ~Really~ great musicians out
there who are NOT on a big ego trip, who are not
afraid to SHARE the limelight and who sometimes
seek out the musical input of others... even, as in
this case, from someone whom they don't know from
Adam. 

Talk about Grace and Aplomb! I think if I really
HAD sucked that Jake would have been really nice
about it. "Allowing sit-ins is always a
crap-shoot," he told me, "but I just love to hear
what others have to say on harp."

Anyway, just thought I'd share that story, to help
rienforce the positive side of this discussion.

Thanks for reading.

Harpin' in Colorado,
- --Ken M.

=====
"When you speak of Walter Horton, the first thing you think of is his tone, that big, fat tone."
- ---Li'l Ronnie Owens

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