Re: [Harp-L] Fwd: Did Miles Davis play the harmonica??

[IcemanLE@xxxxxxx]

Ah, two subjects close to my heart.

In all my extensive readings on Miles (my hero) - bio, autobio, essays, etc - there is never a mention of him actually playing the harmonica.

However, he had the blues in mind at the crossroads of every new phase of his career. His biggest breakthroughs were based on blues - "Walkin", "All Blues", "Star People" - (renamed "New Blues"). 

At the time of "Jack Johnson", Miles' autobiography states "I was trying to play the music I grew up on now, that roadhouse honky-tonk, funky thing that people used to dance to on Friday and Saturday nights. But these were musicians who were used to playing a jazz style and so it was new for them."

There is another wonderful passage in that same book that I can't find today, in which he describes trying to get back to that sound of - the Chicago guitar w/cheap amplifier and 25 cent harmonica -, moving away from the jazz/be-bop lines of extensive sixteenth notes towards simpler, more direct to the gut music.

You can hear it in his playing - the way he bends notes lays out perfectly on harmonica in second/third positions.

Everything you need musically can be found somewhere in the music of Miles Davis, IMO.

The Iceman