[Harp-L] clarification

["Michael Peloquin" <peloquinharp@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Jp "Pagán" <jpl_pagan@xxxxxxxxx>
> --- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Joe and Cass
> Leone <leone@xxxx> wrote:
>
> >   I just think that too much squawk is out. A little
> is OK, but some
> > guys over-do it.
>
> i always hated the "Saturday Night Live" sax sound, that guys like Jr. 
> Walker often do. then again, i love some of Walker's stuff, even a few 
> things that do sound SNL-ish.
> as for squawk, i have a new-found appreciation for it after listening to 
> some of the latest jazz/funk stuff by guys like Stanton Moore and Galactic. 
> there's a sax player named Skerik who turns "squawk" into a term of art, so 
> to speak. i'd love to be able to do what he does on a short-harp. 
> Galactic's horn-dog, Ben Elliman, also knows how to squawk and do it right, 
> andhe plays a pretty good harp too... (check out the album "Ruckus")

OK time to chime in from an edumacated perspective.
What in the heck are you guys squawking about?
SNL squawk guy has a name. IMO this awful sax-cretin is the best R&B tenor 
sax player alive.
LENNY PICKETT. (Jr. was incredible also)
He joined Tower of Power when he was 16 and is now the MUSICAL DIRECTOR of 
SNL. This is a musician's musician with many tools under his belt besides 
squawk. He has an instantly recognizable sound, something that some of us 
want and others seem to disdain.
What is SQUAWK?
High notes above the saxophone's normal range is called the altissimo 
register. Lenny and many others can play beautiful melodic ideas in that 
range. (This is not a JP playing musically unrelated patterns at blinding 
speed as a parlor trick.) please do define this squawk thing, maybe I can 
include it into my arsenal.

Harmonica relevance:
Only harper AFAIK to be the MD of a long running hit TV show is Charlie 
McCoy on Hee Haw.
Read how HL personally discovered (and named) overblows here (sax squawk 
connection)
http://www.levyland.com/overblows.php
more than a few harp players have wanted to emulate the R & B sax sound.

I have been known to both squawk & head shake. And i know that i am better 
than Chris M.
... at something?

Michael Peloquin
http://tinyurl.com/5tpjg
http://www.harpsax.com