[Harp-L] XB-40s at SPAH (was St. Louis Blues)

[Mojo Red <harplicks@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hey Jazmaan!

Yeah, SPAH was amazingly, tupendously, incredibly
and totally AWESOME.

Just got back in town a few hours ago and I'm
pretty shagged, so I can't give a full report of my
experiences with this post, but I wanted to respond
to your post. 

First, I really admired hearing what you were doing
on that XB-Melody of yours. Very very cool.
However, I found that several people were playing
their XB's at SPAH. 

Rob Papparozzi showed me a few licks on his in the
hallway, then he used one on stage on Saturday
night. Catfish had a bunch of them and used them
often during the Blues Jams. I even caught several
of the old timers jamming on them.

Did you see Marvelous Marv -- the older guy with
the home-made double harp rack and tiny guitar? He
had two XBs in his unique rack on Saturday
afternoon, and was cruising through the standards
as he does so well.

I even whipped out my XB-40 for one go-round at the
late nite Blues Jam on Saturday night -- I used it
for a first position blues in G (I ~thought~ you
were there that night). I tried to exploit the
middle register for the available first position
blues licks. 

That said, I'm still not completely comfortable
with that beastie. I'm gaining more control over
all those half-step bends, but still haven't
developed a comfort zone with regard to exploiting
its unique properties for jazzier lines. I don't
play it in front of people very much.

Dennis Gruenling told he has one, but said he
wasn't crazy about its tone. Got the same comment
from my friend Ronnie Shellist. 

I kept telling people that the tone of the XB-40 is
an "acquired taste," like good scotch. :-)

More later.

Harpin' in Colorado,
--Ken M.



--- "jazmaan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <dmf273@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> Having a great time here at the St. Louis SPAH.  
> It seems like the musicianship of the players
> here has grown exponentially since the last SPAH
> I attended (Denver.)  There are so many
> mind-blowing, jaw dropping players here!   And
> everyone is happy to show you a few tricks.
> 
> I've been proselytizing the virtues of the
> XB-Melody to anyone who'll listen.   Harp Depot
> has
> already sold all of the 30 XB-40's they brought
> so maybe I've had some influence.   Hopefully
> some
> percentage of those will be retuned into
> XB-Melodies.   I was hoping to find more people
> playing
> XB-40's, but I seem to be the only one this year.
> 
> Ok, gotta go to the jazz seminar. 
> 
> Later!
> _______________________________________________
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> 


=====
"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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