[Harp-L] Potato Potahtoe-LONG

["Michael Peloquin" <peloquinharp@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

>  "Chris Michalek" wrote:
> "This has nothing to do with the legitimacy of overblowing. It is and
> forever will be a legitimate technique."
>
> Sure.  The question is, is it a legitimate technique for everything?
is THE HARMONICA legitimate for everything? only in the right hands, but the 
moldy figs will not stop trying to deter those that would strive to innovate 
and change convention.
(many inspirational thanks to Paradigm Shift-Larry Eisenberg)
> Chris: "I'm no longer willing to participate because the event has lost 
> it's
> original intention which was to help tom albonese learn the tune.
> It's very playable in a number of positions..."
>
> Well, maybe.  Hitting the pitches is not the only issue with "A Night in 
> Tunisia."  The piece includes a lot of wide interval jumps that must be 
> executed at high speed. The problems begin with the first 5 notes of the 
> piece:
> A Bb Db F C
>
> The A is a lead-in to a fast roll through the the Bb-Db-F minor arpeggio, 
> followed immediately by a jump of a 5th to the C.  Never mind overblowing; 
> that passage is almost impossible to play with the right articulation 
> without tongue-switching, i.e. playing out of both sides of the mouth.  I'd 
> be amazed if someone could do that and overblow at the same time.

this tune is NOT difficult and a jump of a 5th is a jump of a 5th, whether 
it is on a Richter diatonic, altered tuning or a button chrom.
most of the great jazz chrom players pucker and correct me if I am wrong:
Toots
Turk
Gallison
Meurkins
Leighton?
a 5th is usually a hole skip ie: blow 4 to blow 6 (Tunisia in 4th pos)
big whoop-tongue switching?-please!
    Richard knows that OB playing doesn't mean that we play tunes in B 
major on C harp. It means we pick the harp that makes the most sense, is the 
most intuitive and is the right tool for the job. It also means that we do 
not let the notes that are needed stand as roadblocks to our making of good 
music. If you can do it, switch harps, who cares? Levy did it quite often on 
Flecktone CDs & others.
If I could keep a ton of alternate tunings together, (in a huge case and in 
a small brain) then I would do that. Funny thing is, I would still bend and 
overbend those.

> An example of the same difficulty -- and the murderous problems it poses 
> for diatonic -- can be heard on Sandy Weltman's recording of Chick Corea's 
> "Spain."  "Spain" twists and turns at high velocities, and Weltman just 
> barely gets through it, with lots of notes that are clearly out-of-tune and 
> muffled in articulation.  Weltman is a great player, and there are parts of 
> his albums that blow my mind, but in this case the technique and the piece 
> are poorly matched.

   Sandy is a great player and I would wager that he might have had 
misgivings about Spain when listening to playback in the studio. But, still 
it stayed on the CD. I can bet that I will find things on my CDs, Richard's 
and others where I would say "how could you?"
   I have always thought that we harmonica players would do well to welcome 
honest critique of our playing and not the constant gladhanding that occurs 
on this list and elsewhere in the harp & music world. Harmonica is largely 
viewed by music producers and many others as a mood enhancer, sound effect 
or other such crap and is still less than legit. (more harp on commercials 
than on albums & radio by tenfold-maybe hundredfold.)
   Push the envelope Sandy, Chris, Howard and don't settle for anything 
less. Maybe Chris can provide us with an unadulterated review of CD's by me, 
himself, Richard and anybody else. I elect Chris because he shoots from the 
hip, can take the flak and he knows that my stuff is PERFECT-right!

Michael Peloquin
http://www.globerecords.com/cgi-bin/db/search.cgi?specific=itemno&phrase=GLO-025