Re: [Harp-L] Jazz players....

[michael harp <diachrome@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Geez Hendrik. That's more then I heard you say in 10 years.:)

Hendrik has been on this list for some time and his love of jazz is supreme,
so it's a rare moment that he will even talk about harmonicas.

What he failed to mention is that he is working on a website. Is it ready to
promote yet, Hendrik? You should be able to gain access to all his cds from
there. 

 Hendrik is one of the rare harmonica players who is more well known outside
our community then inside. He is a musician first, a harmonica player
second.  

mike 

on 11/29/04 8:26 PM, Hendrikmeurkens@xxxxxxx at Hendrikmeurkens@xxxxxxx
wrote:

> 
> Hi, Everybody
> 
> Here a few thoughts from a Jazz harmonica player. I recently joined the list
> to
> inform myself about the doings of my fellow harmonica players (sorry, I can't
> use the
> term 'harpers'; those are the guys with the harp, a point that I am trying to
> make
> everytime a sound engineer promises me to make my 'harp' sound like a real
> 'harp'). 
> 
> Anyway, here is how I got to where I am on the instrument.
> I consider myself a Jazz musician who happens to play harmonica. I could also
> play
> saxophone, piano, guitar or anything else. My lines wouldn't be much
> different. I hear
> something and try to get it out of the instrument, no matter if it is
> supposed to be 
> possible on the harmonica or not. That is my problem!
> I started playing Jazz harmonica at age 19 after hearing, who, yes ,you
> guessed right,
> after hearing the master himself, Mr. Jean Baptiste Toots Thielemans play. He
> inspired
> me to pick the harmonica as my Jazz instrument. Because it was always about
> Jazz for 
> me.
> But as far a what to play I never really listened to Toots. He made me pick
> up the instrument
> but after that I was already somewhere else. I transcribed Charlie Parker,
> Hank Mobley, Dexter
> Gordon and a ton of other straight ahead players. Mostly saxophonists and
> pianists. Why 
> those guys? Don't know, I liked their lines.
> I went to Berklee and there they made theoretical sense out of what I figured
> out on my
> own. Berklee was good, but the knowledge and the feel comes from
> transcribing. There
> is no way around it.
> My point? What's in your brain will come out on the intrument eventually. But
> first it has
> to get into your brain. You have to study the music you want to master and be
> able to
> explain to yourself   what you want to play at any given moment. If you know
> the notes
> they will come out (after, yes,unfortunately, a lot of practise). But you
> have to have an
> idea of what it should sound like. Listening to your style of choice (I am
> sure classical
> master player Rober Bonfiglio listens to classical music) and understanding
> the theory
> of what you are striving for are the two sides from which to approach that.
> Actually I should get off the net and practise.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Hendrik
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