Re: [Harp-L] Potato Potahtoe-LONG

[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."

Richard Hunter (me) wrote: 
> "Sure.  The question is, is it a legitimate technique for everything?"

Michael Peloquin wrote:
> 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.

To which I reply: my original question remains.  The short answer to MP's question is no.  There are some pieces of music that can't be improved by adding a harmonica, just are there are pieces that can't be improved by adding electric guitar, sax, violin, or bassoon.  However, my question was narrower: is overblowing a legitmate technique for everything?  I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you're playing a piece where certain notes must be played in tune, with a particular sound, you are better off playing that piece with a harmonica that has the necessary pitches built-in, because that gives you the best pitch with the most options for tone and timbre.
   
I also wrote:
>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.

To which MP replied:
> 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?"

Sandy obviously thought this performance made the grade.  I disagree -- especially compared to some of the other stuff on that CD, like Sandy's terrific takes on "West End Blues" and "Sidewinder" -- but it's not my record.    Anyway, my point remains: "Spain" is a good example of the kind of piece that is very poorly suited to overblowing and bending. The nearly-in-tune-but-not-quite, and more-muffled-than-not notes pile up until the listener just can't ignore them.  It just sounds lousy.  I could cite other examples from recent releases, but why go on?

Regarding the "moldy fig" stuff, you don't have to be a moldy fig to ask what the artistic and technical limits of any technique are.  I've used overblowing at least since the recordings I made with Chris Turner in 1976-79, though it's not the most important part of my approach to diatonic.  In any case, it's ridiculous to argue that overblowing is the only -- or the only worthwhile -- innovative approach to diatonic harmonica. 90%+ of the players out there still haven't tried a diatonic harmonica tuned to anything but a standard Richter setup, almost 30 years after Charlie McCoy introduced the Country tuning on his records, and almost 20 years after Lee Oskar introduced the Natural Minor and Melody Maker tunings in commercially available instruments.  There's more than one way to jump into the future. 

One thing that's constant in my work is control over the sound the instrument is making.  I see post after post in this forum from players who are struggling madly to make overblowing work for them on every kind of material, and coming not quite close enough as often as not.  Enough already.  If you want to play chromatic material, get a chromatic harp and learn to use it.  The CX-12 chromatic, which can certainly make a very loud, aggressive sound on demand, makes the difference in tone between diatonic and chromatic almost a non-issue.  The only remaining question then is: what's the right instrument for the piece at hand?

Standard disclaimer: this is only my opinion, no matter how strongly stated.  Michael, Chris, et al might be right: I might be wrong.  When in doubt, follow your own muse.  We'll find out who was "right" 50 years from now.  Maybe we all are.  In the meantime, we can all focus on making the best music we can.

One more comment: I have a bunch of travel in the next two weeks.  After that, I'll record a short take on "A Night in Tunisia," using the MIDI file sent to me by G. for backing, and post it to my site.   

Regards, Richard Hunter
hunterharp.com