[Harp-L] Re: From the heart

[SONNYTONE@xxxxxxx]

>From the time I have been reading the list, and with all these guys trying  
to get notes that many times are not pure, if just a hair off, not so good, why 
 have we never discussed Lee Oskar. My first influence on harp, with War from 
the  70's, who I got to meet and jam with in 1978 at a studio in Seattle. We 
became  friends ever since, his music and playing literally stands the hair up 
on the  back of my neck, goosebumps. He is so right in the soul that if you 
don't feel  it, I don't know what to say. He took ideas for the harp and 
instead of fighting  with a traditional diatonic and force notes from it, fought 
against the mega  giant Hohner and created his own tuned harps, which he plays 
with extreme  beauty. Not understanding music theory puts me at a disadvantage 
with them, I  have spent my life with two different styles, working 3 jobs, and 
never took the  time to learn. At the Dave Barrett Masterclass in 1998 or 
1999, Lee was there,  it was good to see him for the first time since we met in 
78. We had spoken on  the phone all the time, been through hard times at 
periods of our lives, so good  to feel his energy again. He never changed. At one 
point in the jam session on  Friday I think it was, I looked over at Lee and 
just said, "Let's do something".  All he said was, "Sure". We went onstage and he 
asked me what key I had, then  pulled out one of his tuned harps, and I 
started laying down a Sonny Terry  rhythm. Lee chimed in over it with his beautiful 
style, and the two melded. Then  he looked up and started playing the base, 
and I took off and tried to put my  love of his style together with my own, and 
we just let it rip. To this day I  cannot remember a single thing about what 
we played, it just was there for the  moment. Dave Barrett said it was one of 
the coolest things he ever saw. People  like Lee bring out more in you than 
you really have on your own. His music,  playing style, and feeling should be 
listened to if you have not. Go to _www.leeoskar.com_ (http://www.leeoskar.com)  
 and get his CD's, they  all are great. His discography is impressive. 
Whenever we have time together he  always plays Brazilian beats and music like that 
for me, that is where his  inspiration comes from. In Japan he is a God, too 
bad we don't appreciate him  here like we should. Just my opinion, but no one 
on this earth does to my soul  what he does. These are things I think we should 
focus on, along with other  simply harp related things. There is so much to 
talk about besides how great we  all are. My mentor said, "it's hard to fall 
when you're on your knees".