[Harp-L] William Galison on diatonic (WAS Mystery Harp Player)

[George Brooks <gbrooks1@xxxxxxxxx>]

>Carlos del Junco can play anything man

No he can't.  I admire Carlos greatly, and am in awe of his playing, 
but he simply cannot hang with real jazz players, and I don't believe 
he claims to or even tries to.  His interests are elsewhere.  Carlos 
does an amazing job with blues and swing playing the diatonic harmonica 
as a fully chromatic instrument.  But Jason's question was about who 
could use the instrument this way to improvise at a high level on jazz 
tunes.  That's not Carlos.

>Mike Turk is another jazz improviser
>on both chromatic and diatonic.

You could have a spirited discussion about who between William Galison 
and Mike Turk is the better jazz player on chromatic, but I think it 
would simply come down to who you like better.  The two are certainly 
in the same neighborhood, which is located in the general vicinity of 
the top of the world.  I have heard the two players jam together, and 
each gave as good as he got.  And Turk can certainly play the diatonic. 
 I haven't heard him play jazz on the diatonic at anything like the 
level I heard from Galison, but I'm not saying he can't.  I just 
haven't been fortunate to have heard it yet.

Give Randy Singer a listen.  It seems he is more into pop and so-called 
soft jazz these days, but I have heard him go back and forth between 
chromatic and diatonic on jazz tunes, and Randy can rip it up on both.  
I would have to say in all honesty that when I heard him do this he was 
stronger on chromatic.  But this was several years ago, and the 
situation may have changed.  Also, Randy is so good on chromatic that 
it's hardly a knock to say that I think his jazz playing on chromatic 
has the edge.  Also, if Howard put in a few serious years on the 
chromatic, I wonder how many of us might then judge his jazz  playing 
on chromatic superior to his jazz diatonic playing.  But that's a 
discussion for another time, if ever.

There is a growing list of people who are playing interesting and, to 
me, compelling music using the diatonic played chromatically.  Fred 
Yonnet, Rob Paparozzi, Carlos del Junco, P.T. Gazell, Jasons Rosenblatt 
and Ricci, Michael Peloquin, Adam Gussow, Sandy Weltman, Chris 
Michalek, Allen Holmes, Rosco, Froggy....But people playing real jazz 
this way?  The list is very short.

George