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

["Robert Gaustad" <robertgaustad@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Johnny T wrote:

Snip...
 
"I was greeted by the sight of James Cotton strolling merrily along the
sunlit  pavement and hitting those high blow-bends as he walked, alone in
his own  world.  I thought I must be hallucinating.  By some kind of grace,
I  wasn't.  Things like that can keep you deeply, deeply hooked on harp."
  
Peace and Respect
Johnny T

Snip..


I remember vividly around 1974 seeing James Cotton, 1st row center, at the
Academy of Music on 14th St., just blow us all away with his harp playing.
He came out blasting, walked down the ramps they had set up at the Academy
and played about two feet from me.  The whole joint was shaking and I just
knew right there that the harp was the most unique and fantastic instrument,
that I'd picked the right one for a nonconformist to play.  I'd been to the
Academy many times and never saw a guitarist get the crowd on its feet as
quickly as James Cotton did...and this was a jaded New York crowd.

The only other time I saw the place explode with insanity, again 1st row
center, was when Papa John Creach played there.  Hey, it might have been the
same show for all I remember.  He came down the ramps and actually kneeled
in front of me while I tried to take his picture...he was just grinnin' away
and wailing on the fiddle while my shaking hands tried to get a good photo.


But the harp and the fiddle in the hands of those two masters just blew the
place apart.  I remember looking back at the crowd and everybody was on
their feet screaming.  It was freakin' insane.

Robert Gaustad