Re: [Harp-L] Playing in the groove...

["Planet Harmonica" <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I didn't want this to turn into an endictment of André's playing. his playing is fine, and, honestly, if I could play the tune half as well as he does, I'd be happy ! 

My point was, if you listen to Soulive's original tune, the groove is very different from the groove heard here. I'm not making André into an example, but the reality is that many blues players will carry that groove over to jazz, rock, funk, yuo name it. When / if you hear Sébastien Charlier's Diatonic Revelation, and whether you like it or not, I think you'll understand what I mean. The phrasing has nothing in common with blues phrasing. It just sounds like a jazz instrument. I don't like his tone, and I don't like his lack of expressiveness, but he has a jazz groove (and he can't play a blues to save his life ;-)

Ben FELTEN
http://harmonica.typepad.com
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Leonardo Kenji Shikida 
  To: Planet Harmonica 
  Cc: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 5:55 PM
  Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Playing in the groove...


  Hi Ben

  I'll try to answer in Carlini's name, because he does not speak
  English and he asked me to do so.

  talking with Carlini, he explained to me that, in this specific song,
  he was concerning more on the notes accentuation, rathen than using
  other scale than the blues scale. He cited Maceo Parker as a musician
  that uses the blues scale in the funk rythmn context.

  as you said, many harp players start from the blues and they bring
  this language in their work. I think Carlini was trying to reach both
  audiences, the bluesy and the funky ones.

  of course, as you said, "Playing in the groove is, to me at least,
  different from playing "groovy stuff" ie. funk, hip-hop, etc.", so I
  think Carlini was trying to explain why he can play funky using a
  blues scale, so it's not related to "playing in the groove", but to
  the "groovy stuff"

  about if he's using a chromatic or a diatonic, I am not sure, but I
  believe he's using a diatonic.

  best regards

  Kenji


  On 9/22/06, Planet Harmonica <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
  > << I think the groove of jazz is called swing, most other grooves don't have a name or probably haven't been analysed as much as swing has, so most jazz players will know how to swing, and (in my experience) many funk players think they groove but they don't...>>
  >
  > I know you shouldn't quote yourself but...
  >
  > Most diatonic players started out playing blues, and most often, when they move towards different genres, be it rock, funk, jazz, whatever, they bring their blues groove with them. The phrasing, the placement on the beat, it all comes from blues. The link that Kenji posted is characteristic in that respect. The guitarist is playing a funky line, the drummer is definetely funky, but André's groove is, to my ears, a blues groove. Doesn't mean it's horrible, just that, to me, it doesn't groove as funk should.
  >
  > A lot of Popper bashing has me baffled because this guy has shaken the blues groove off and has (or at least used to have, I'm not convinced by recent releases) a rock groove. This guy could play with any other serious rock guys and be *in there* whereas most diatonic players would sound like out of place blues players.
  >
  > And then of course, but here I run the risk of moving into flame war territory, there are many many blues players who *haven't* nailed the blues groove. To my ears. Even some quite renowned. Or they'll have the groove, but their band doesn't. This last example struck me with many of Gary Primich's records. His playing is amazing, honestly this guy floors me, but the bands on the records I've heard, they're so square, so un-groovy...
  >
  > I dunno. Probably a good part of that is subjective listening too, and I know I love stuff that makes me shake my inner booty... Like I was saying on a different list yesterday, I'm most sensitive to that aspect of music, others are probably sensitive to other things and don't care if a band doesn't groove as much as another band...
  >
  > And you wondered why my blog was called Harmonica RAMBLINGS ?
  >
  > Ben FELTEN
  > http://harmonica.typepad.com
  > _______________________________________________
  > Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
  > Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
  > http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l
  >


  -- 

  []

  Kenji
  _______________________
  http://kenjiria.blogspot.com
  http://gaitabh.blogspot.com