[Harp-L] Cherrypicking (WAS Harmonica Challenge)

[George Brooks <gbrooks1@xxxxxxxxx>]

Jazmaan wrote:

> Somewhere in the back of mind there's
>always the suspicion that even the best of
>the overblowers are cherry picking their
>songs to a large degree, avoiding songs like
>"Tunisia" in favor of easier tunes that lay better
>on the harp. I suspect that's why "Blue Bossa" and
>"Autumn Leaves" show up so much at SPAH jams.
>If overblowing makes the harmonica a viable jazz
>instrument then a common jazz standard like
>"Tunisia" shouldn't be avoided.

The best of the overblowers is Howard Levy.  He doesn't cherrypick 
anything.  I heard him play one of the most memorable sets of music I 
ever heard at the 2000 Global Harmonica Summit in Minneapolis.  Jack 
McDuff, the great and recently departed Hammond B3 player, was in the 
band.  Howard walked up to Jack McDuff before the set and said, "What 
do you want to play?"

For everybody else in the world, it's a different story.  Howard is 
singular; as others have pointed out recently, he is so far out ahead 
of the rest of the pack that he is truly in another league.  A league 
of one.  God bless him.

I would like to make it clear that I don't care so much whether the 
"diatonic" harp, played chromatically, is a viable jazz instrument.  
This is mainly because I don't aspire to be a jazz musician, although I 
want some *elements* of jazz in my playing.  What I believe is that the 
short harp can be a valid chromatic instrument playing convincingly and 
compellingly in a variety of styles.

Jazz may not be one of them.  Not if, by jazz, we mean the ability to 
play whatever tune the leader calls at whatever tempo in whatever key, 
which is something any number of skilled saxophonists or trumpet 
players or keyboard players can handle.  Howard has proven that it can 
be done, but what he has actually proven is only that it can be done by 
him.  The next person to be able to do this will emerge, if at all, 
from a new generation of players who learn to play the short harp as a 
fully chromatic instrument from the beginning.

"Tunisia" is definitely a stretch for me, a real challenge.  It's 
something I am working on.  Was, in fact, working on at the suggestion 
of my guitar player before all this came up on the List.  I can't just 
gun-to-the-head whip off a great version.  Talk to me in a few weeks.  
Or months.

George