[Harp-L] Harmonica Article

[Rooty Baegga <rootybaegga@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tongues of fun

Harmonica great Norton Buffalo and his band bring their versatility to Oahu
By Burl Burlingame
bburlingame@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The harp player -- the guy with the harmonicas -- he's usually the object 
of good-natured ribbing by the other band members. And it's the roadies who 
are humping around and setting up amps and pianos and drum kits, while the 
harp player shows up late, flirts with the girls -- "Harp players are 
better kissers!" -- then snaps open a briefcase containing a battered 
bullet mic and a dozen gleaming, tiny instruments, like chromed shotgun shells.

But not Norton Buffalo, no sir. He apparently travels with every harmonica 
he's ever owned, of every different brand, and an A Team and a B Team of 
each (more on that later) and if a harp begins to sputter and falter, well 
it can be brought up to snuff by careful disassembly and micro-fine filing, 
intimate scraping and surgical reed-bending. Buffalo is still playing 
harmonicas that are 40 years old.

"Sometimes it just takes a while to get them where you want them," he says.

Norton and his band, The Knockouts, are playing the Pipeline Cafe with R&B 
stylist E.C. Scott this Sunday. We caught up with him at, judging by the 
background noise, the Kauai airport Monday.

For those not hip to harps, Norton Buffalo is one of the nation's premier 
harmonica stylists, playing a clean-playing cascade of notes encompassing 
blues, jazz, bluegrass and all points in between. We could list the artists 
who have demanded his services, but there's only so much newsprint in the 
warehouse. Here's a taste: Commander Cody. Steve Miller. Roy Rogers. Willie 
Dixon. Bonnie Raitt. Johnny Cash. Olivia Newton-John. Doobie Brothers. 
Kenny Loggins ... no wonder his recent album with the Knockouts is his 
first solo in some time. The boy's been busy.

Although he plays all brands, Buffalo leans toward Huang harps, a Chinese 
brand. "They're my main diatonics," he explained, referring to harps with a 
set tuning. "For chromatics, I like Hohners. I started out with Marine 
Bands, learning it from my father. I was just 7 or so at the time, and 
didn't really get into blues and jug music until high school. Man, my first 
two records were by Charlie Musselwhite and Paul Butterfield, and when you 
hear cats like that, you never look back."

Norton's style is distinctive, like a silvery spray of notes, that twirl 
around the melody. "I'm still learning," he laughs. "Forty-seven years at 
it, and I'm still trying to define my own style! Takes a while to break in 
harps, and when they're new, they're relegated to the B Team, the rhythm 
section. When they're bending notes the way I like 'em, they move up to the 
solo team."

He eschews playing through electronics, preferring a bright, happy sound 
rather than the overdriven sludge most blues players prefer (although he 
did record "Shuffalo" off his new record by playing into an Electrolux 
vacuum cleaner with a megaphone duct-taped on). "Nope. Right into the 
Neumann mic and out the PA. Do all the tonal changes with hands and mouth 
and tongue control."

So, is it true that harp players are better kissers?

Norton laughed shyly. "You'd have to ask my wife about that! But like the 
bumper sticker says, 'Harp Players are Tongues of Fun!' "

Article URL: http://starbulletin.com/2005/04/08/features/story2.html

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Rooty Baegga

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