Re: [Harp-L] Re: From the heart

["CHARLES BASSI" <jeanchar50@xxxxxxx>]

Man, I read two beautiful posts from you today - the one on Brownie and Sonny,
and the one on Lee Oskar. From the heart, indeed. Thank you.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: SONNYTONE@xxxxxxx<mailto:SONNYTONE@xxxxxxx> 
  To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx<mailto:harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> 
  Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2006 12:09 PM
  Subject: [Harp-L] Re: From the heart


  >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<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". 
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