[Harp-L] Pipe Harmonica

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ludo wrote:

"<<the Pipe Harmonica or Calliomonica and try and figure out if I can  
actually make it.<<

If you succeed, put me on your list of potential buyers.
Bill Barrett would love one as well, he told me.
Get to work JR ;-)"

Don't hold your breath.  I've got a few other projects in line first  
(hmmm...three to think of harmonica wise, and that doesn't count the  
time needed for restoring the reed organ), and even then this design  
seems very difficult to actually figure out.  I know someone who has  
tried, and I think the adjustments are very, very crucial--and not  
necessarily shown in the patent diagrams.  Which is why I'd love to  
get my hands on the originals to see how they deal with it and copy  
them.

Ludo also wrote (in another thread):

"It's a pity Bill Barrett isn't better known in Europe yet."

It's a pity he isn't known more in the US.  He has quite a few albums  
out, but hasn't broken through to the quasi-mainstream like, say,  
Heinrik Muerkens or even Howard Levy.  And that's not a huge level of  
commercial success I'm talking about--just minimal acknowledgment of  
existence in the mainstream jazz-type press (ie, every ten years or  
so they mention your name in a sidenote to some other article).  I'm  
not sure why, but then I'm also not sure why Les Thompson (who I just  
discovered thanks to harp-l) didn't get through and Toots did when  
they were at much the same place in their 50's recordings (the album  
is misnamed "Toots Blues", but is a half-and-half affair).  Actually,  
from a technical standpoint Thompson was way ahead--and the phrasing  
and other ideas were quite comparable.

If I knew how these things work, I'd be very, very rich.



 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()   & Snuffy, too:)
`----'