[Harp-L] Re: How we learned diatonic harmonica in the "olden days"

[Joe Lempkowski <mr_jlemko@xxxxxxxxx>]

Q. How did you other "old guys" learn to play before
21st Century teaching aids were created?

A. Around 1980, I caught Muddy Waters playing at
Chicagofest.  Mojo Buford was playing with him.  It
was an amazing show.  Mojo sounded really good to me
and he looked pretty damn cool with that big leather
bandolero full of harps.  I picked up a harp and
started fooling around with it.

In 1981, I read Big Walter Horton's obit in the
Chicago Sun Times.  The obit made it sound like he was
the last of a dying breed, the Chicago bluesman.  I
decided to check out the remaining performers before
they were gone.

It was also around that time that the University of
Illinois at Chicago was featuring a free concert
series focused on Blues.  The first band in the series
was Billy Branch and the Sons Of Blues.  Every guy in
the band was under probably under 30 at the time. 
There were young and hip guys playing blues.  Billy
had fabulous tone.  To me, his sound was something out
of the streets of the South Side.  It was rough, tough
and fresh.  It cut like razor sharp barbed wire.

I went home and picked up that harp.  I didn't stop
playing for the next six years.  I started digging
into Blues and never looked back.  Now, I wouldn't
know 50 Cent from a half dollar.

Like everyone else, I picked up that Tony Glover book
and a really rare Tony Glover instructional LP.  After
the initial time, I don't think I ever listened to
that LP.  The tone on it was horrible and thin.  It
was nothing like Little Walter, Big Walter, Junior
Wells, James Cotton or any of the other guys.

When I turned 21, I started hitting the clubs.  I was
out four or five nights a week soaking it in like a
sponge.  I'd listen, watch and learn from some
fabulous harp players including: Cotton, Sugar Blue,
Junior Wells, Carey Bell, Little Willie Anderson,
Little Arthur, Louis Myers, Joe Berson, Mark Hannon,
Joe Charles, Scott Bradbury, Dimestore Fred, Jewtown
Burks and Billy Branch.

My first time on stage was at a blues jam at the
Kingston Mines hosted by Sugar Blue.  Talk about
intimidating, but Blue couldn't have been nicer. 
There were very few harp players that would go to his
jam.  I had some interesting times there.

Then I met guys like Joe Charles and Scott Bradbury. 
Both of them had been around for a while.  Nobody ever
offered advice, but they were pretty supportive by
letting me sit in every once in a while.

After I relocated from Chicago to California, I didn't
go out much.  I quit playing for a while.  Someone
suckered me into playing again a few years ago.  I've
had the opportunity to play with a busload of really
great musicians.  

People that are learning today have a lot of tools to
choose from, but I'm sort of glad that I learned the
old school traditional way and from some of the guys
that I learned from.  I think it's tougher now.  There
is so much instructional material that people are
paralyzed by it.  They can't decide what to buy.



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