Re: [Harp-L] from jug band to Chicago amplified blues

[Joel Fritz <jfritz666@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

rainbowjimmy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Does anyone know how Walter Horton transitioned from jug band music to amplified
> Chicago blues? How did his techniques change? Did he switch emborchures?
>
> Rainbow Jimmy
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I don't know how he did it, but that doesn't stop me from having an 
opinion.  <g>

I've seen some debates on another list that has some serious blues 
scholars as to whether or not BWH recorded with the Memphis Jug Band. He 
would have had to be pretty young. Regardless, by the late twenties and 
early thirties blues harp playing had a lot in common with the later 
amplified styles.  Noah Lewis and Robert (Nighthawk) Lee McCoy are good 
examples of what it was like.  SBWI exemplified one of several styles. 
Other players did more single note lines.

On BWH's recordings for Sun he was playing in a style very similar to 
SBWII although some of the tunes had a more "modern" sound.  I don't 
think there was a radical change.  He had a big fat sound on the 
earliest recordings available and continued to have one.  I'm willing to 
bet the only thing he changed was learning what worked with a cupped mic.

Seems to me that a cupped mic naturally makes you do things differently. 
 It just sounds different and some things that worked well in 
un-amplified or near the mic playing just don't work well in a cup.

R. J. Mischo plays both dirty and clean--pre and post LW.  He jumps back 
and forth between a bullet and the vocal mic sometimes in the same song. 
 His tone doesn't change much and his embouchure doesn't change, but he 
adapts what he plays to the gear.  I think that was probably true of one 
of his idols, BWH.

I'll bet Bob Maglinte has a more informed point of view.





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