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

[fjm <mktspot@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

David Fairweather was kind enough to spend some time explaining his 
retuned Bb XB to me.  I'll have to sit down and chart it out soon, a 
Melody Maker (tm) type scheme that allows for 3 chromatic octaves with 
no half bends to get the notes.  It's very accurate in terms of pitch. 
David amazed me by playing along with Butterfield's version of Born in 
Chicago on his Bb XB.  I'm currently pretty frustrated with my Bb XB 
because of how difficult it is to play accurately and those notes you 
didn't really ask for that keep appearing as if by magic.  It's nice to 
see some adaptation of the instrument occuring so quickly after its 
appearance in the marketplace.

As mentioned previously there were several XB's played at the blues 
jams.  On the last night I counted at least 5 brave souls.  Very cool 
stuff that would not have been at all possible on a standard diatonic. 
Boy Howdy are there some scary good players of harmonicas these days. 
The overall level of musicianship at this year's Spah has ratcheted up 
considerably from my first attendance of a harmonica event in the late 
90's.

P.T. Gazell an attendee of last year's Dallas Spah was doing some 
amazing stuff with partially valved harmonicas.  I got the impression 
this was a new thing for him.  I had the good fortune to hear him 
playing outside the Friday night show with a guitar player who's name I 
did not catch.  Very accurate melodic single note stuff.  He ended one 
song with an ascending scale lick where he swapped harmoinicas as he 
headed up.  Actually it could have been descending, either way I was 
drop jaw amazed by how flawlessly it was played.  I can see how quickly 
I'm going to run out of superlatives here.  fjm