[Harp-L] Who would win?

[Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx>]

Superman vs Mitch Weiss, who would win? .............MY money is on 
Mitch

I had started the year pretty gloomy and depressed. I have been quiet 
pretty much all month. This comes on the heels of my having stated that 
some people are SO good, that there is no reason for me to continue on. 
I therefore, tossed my harps in the bay. I mean, what's the use?

There are musicians, those that OWN instruments, there are people who 
PLAY instruments, and then there are those who ARE the instrument.
I had started sucking tunes off the Ampcast website, and after feeling 
guilty about listening for free, decided to pay for the tunes. I won't 
go into detail(s) but I am now the proud (read-exstatic) possessor of 
30 of these "gems".

Here is a brief summary of the first 10:

1. A night in Tunesia.........Done with a Latin beat and slower than a 
Re-Bopper would do it, I feel it is EXACTLY as it should be done. And 
instead of having a lot of other instruments trying to drown out the 
harp, you hear ALL the notes. It is done very cleanly and clearly. I 
enjoyed it so much, I was sitting on the edge of my chair.

2. Because of you.......Nice original tune with pretty background 
singing. Mitch has a tasty blues style voice. I thought it was very 
catchy and didn't sound like anything else I can remember.

3. East end blues......Wow, some of the best choices of notes I have 
ever heard. It was SO New Orleansy that I felt I was sitting on Bourbon 
st. smelling creole cooking. The style was so "black". I had a hard 
time visualizing this coming from a white guy. I try to play clarinet 
in that same distorted fashion, but it's not as "vocal" as harp.

4. Girl from Ipenema......Loved the feathering of the ends of the 
phrasing. Stunning Improv portion AND the use of flats was delicious. 
He captures the Brasillian mood so well. The use of the high end of the 
harmonica WAS a surprise. Most use the lower octave more and it sounds 
"droney", but not this guy. Tony Charles (Jobim) should be looking up 
from his burried crate and smiling.

5. Pork pie hat.....Gut wrenching. Absolutely scarey. I felt it should 
have been used for the movie Taxi Driver instead of the stuff that they 
did use. I was immediately transported back in time to my childhood 
home on E 93rd st. N.Y. Haunting/Laconic stuff, this.

6. Elizabeth Reed.....Impecable timing. Some high pitched stuff that 
would have Stevie Wonder...well...wondering. I especially liked the 
Arabic ending "fade-out". While many musicians would take the easy way 
out at the ending of a tune, Mitch drops in SEVERAL bonus measures to 
tickle your ear drums. (and at NO extra cost).

7. Joy spring....TOUGH tune. Here, he shows that he isn't at all timid 
about changing keys about a quarter quadrizillion times. It CAN't get 
better than this folks. The notes are so clean and clear, it just made 
you FEEL joy because it WAS spring.

8. A Latin tune I don't have the name for, but is was soothing and 
reminiscent of something I would expect to hear from Meurkens. You 
could tell that Mitch feels a lot pain. Why exactly, is anyone's guess.

9. MILES AWAY.....Jesus.....this is an absolute S T U N N E R. I had to 
listen to it a couple times. Io predicto that this tune WILL be the 
next Jazz GREAT. Harmony horn players will WANT to cover this tune. It 
features a duet and the meshing of the two harmonicas is so good that 
Gillespi & Parker would have been hard pressed to do as well. It MUST 
get out to all the Jazz stations. It MUST get published. It MUST be 
heard. It's not fair to keep it a secret. It's the best piece of 
composition I have heard in over 30 years. Maybe better than Little 
Sunflower.

10. Moanin.....Amazing runs and a great piece of work, but after Miles 
Away, I was STILL in la-la land.

 Sooo, be advised that I have never met Mitchell, wouldn't know him 
from a bag of zucchini, and was not even authorized to write this. 
About every 7 years I come across someone who is so far out in orbit 
that I get these feelings that everyone should just throw these harps 
away and find something else to do. In 1990 it was Hendrik Meurkens. 
Last year it's Mitch Weiss.

The only thing that will beat them (MY opinion) is time. OK, back into 
my closet...........the ghost of smokey-joe