Subject: [Harp-L] The Chrome
Chris Smith writes:
" The chromatic harp is a truly exciting axe for
blues with tremendous potential for improvisation in
all keys not just the delicious 3rd position . Little
Walter obviously relished it (check out solo on I Just
Want To Make Love To You) but like most straight ahead
bluesers he rarely, if ever , used the button. I
really dug Mike Turk's riff but that's definitely on
the jazzy side of the blues equation AND THAT'S OK
CUZ DOGGONE IT PEOPLE LIKE JAZZ ( to paraphrase Stuart
Smalley).
As far as Elizabeth's comment of wanting to hear
on it (the chrome) what she hear sax players do that's
an extraordinarily tall, if not impossible, order. Sax
and clarinet are two of the most fluid single note
axes there are and the note-bending capabilities are
almost unlimited.
Last time I checked I only have one mouth but 10
fingers and all those fingers can go a lot faster than
the one mouth. The sax is a large instrument that
without any amplification is LOUD !! The harp is a
tiny instrument that almost always requires
amplification. Every instrument is like a different
personality with its unique qualities, plusses and
minuses. I really like the sax's jazz improvisational
capacity but I really
wish it had the multivoice sound of the piano. Absurd
right ? Nurturing and discovering the harmonica's
unique, personal and evocative voice is what it's all
about, n'est-ce pas ? And frankly when it comes to
real blues as far as I'm concerned leave your sax
parked in your den- just bring the Mississippi
Saxophone : the blues harp .
P.S. I do a fair amount of chromatic blues in my
shows- hope to
see you somewhere this summer (see giglist).
Keep cool,
Chris"
....and I don't disagree with you at all, Chris...as a matter of fact am
quite a fan of your music - you're probably one of the first harmonica players
whose music I ever listened to from Harp-L, but I do have to correct one small
misconception about what I actually wrote.
I in NO way said that I wish "to hear on a chrome what I hear sax players
do"......nor do I believe that's possible. I agree completely with you that
they are two entirely different instruments and that it would be absurd to
expect one to sound like the other. I play piano/keyboard...so do get the whole
frustration between how much faster my fingers can go on a keyboard compared
to my mouth on a chromatic (and I'm purely at newbie level on a harmonica)
but it's much less to do with speed than the sound I'm looking for...what I
did write was:
"but I still have never experienced what I really think could be done with
the instrument in jazz or Blues, the way I've heard favourite saxophone
players express themselves."
....that is quite a different thing. Winslow understood what I meant..it's
in the expressiveness in how a sax player uses his instrument...his fluency -
soul, improvisation - what's coming from the musician, not the actual
instrument itself...though I do confess to being completely enamoured of the sound
of a sax. But I also love guitars. And pianos, And flutes, And
trumpets..... :)
Every so often I hear a snippet of someone getting it....that melodious
sound... that "tone" that echoes what I hear in my head. It stops my
breath...and it's always from a more contemporary Blues and/or Jazz chromatic player.
So I know it's there. I just wish I had the ability to bring it out in my own
instrument.
I also meant that, much as I believe in paying homage to (and even enjoy to
a degree) the "old-timey" (and I don't intend that as an insult) chromatic
playing people do who are in the majority at the Conventions, I personally
yearn for something more from the instrument....I know it's possible. Too many
people think of the chromatic as an old-style instrument...and Blues as
something to be played solely on a diatonic.....so I think this discussion about
Jazz, Blues & Jazzified Blues played on chromatic is refreshing and might
surprise some players who never thought of a chrom that way before.
But I'm also not a Jazz "purist". I see nothing wrong with growing and
adapting....music is very subjective to the individual. What sounds right to me
might not please anyone else....and that's perfectly all right. Like you, I
too think the harmonica has a distinctive and most evocative voice - I don't
want to play another instrument...I just wish I could make mine speak the
music from my dreams.
Elizabeth
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