Re: [Harp-L] S.P.A.H. and an underappreciated player

["buzz" <buzzo@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I was at Joe Filisko's class that night.  Jim just knocked everyone out.  He 
is a wounderful player & a real warm person. {Professor is right } I 
certanly hope SPAH will be able to get him in Milwaukee . We have been 
trying for some time to get him to come to SPAH.  But because of personal 
family business he's been unable to leave Milwaukee  Thanks Mick for the 
great write up. Everyone should get a chance to see Jim Liban.
   buzz...............

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mick Zaklan" <mzaklan@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2006 11:41 AM
Subject: [Harp-L] S.P.A.H. and an underappreciated player


>   These days it would take a stick of dynamite to blow me out of my house
> and separate me from the TV remote on any given night.  I drive all day 
> long
> for a living.  The prospect of fighting Chicago's road construction 
> traffic
> for two hours in the evening in order to catch someone playing harp in the
> city no longer appeals to me very much.
>   Occasionally, though, I'll make an exception.  I don't know how Joe
> Filisko managed to coax harpist extraordinaire Jim Liban out of Cheeseland 
> (
> i.e. Wisconsin) for a harmonica workshop at the Old Town School of Folk
> Music a couple of weeks ago, but I'm grateful he did. To the best of my
> knowledge, Jim hasn't had a harmonica in his mouth in Chicago for well 
> over
> a decade. Furthermore, at the workshop Jim confirmed what I had suspected.
> Despite nearly forty years of brilliant harp playing in public; he had 
> never
> before addressed a group of harmonica players about what he does on the
> instrument.  Apparently, no one had ever asked.
>   "Professor" Liban spoke and played informally for about 90 minutes that
> evening.  For me, it was worth the trip alone to see the look of mild
> bewilderment on his face after receiving two standing ovations from the
> class and being swarmed at the end by harpists buying his hard-to-find
> cds--two and three copies at a time.
>   I'm not the first guy on the list to bring this up; but I do so for a
> reason.  There have been three major harmonica conventions in Denver over
> the last few years.  Not one of them managed to incude Dave Therault as 
> part
> of the entertainment.  A guy in their own backyard with a long-standing
> underground reputation as a significant, big-time player.  A guy who
> could've used the national exposure.  For whatever reason, it never
> happened.  I would hate to see history repeat itself in Milwaukee next
> year.  Jim Liban lives in Milwaukee.  He could fall out of bed and be
> anywhere in town within a half-hour.  Including a S.P.A.H. convention.
>   We're not talking about a good local player here.  We're talking about 
> an
> elite, important player.  A player Mark Hummel identified as among the 
> "best
> of the best".  A player Joe Filisko called "one of the greatest living 
> blues
> harmonica players".  As a guy who has tracked Jim for roughly 30 years, 
> I'll
> throw in my two cents.  Chronologically; Jim started out at around the 
> same
> time as Paul Oscher, Rick Estrin, Rod Piazza, Jerry Portnoy, Mark Hummel,
> and Kim Wilson.  Skill-wise, chops-wise, and dues-paying-wise; he more 
> than
> belongs in their company.  Moreover, of that group, he is stylistically 
> the
> most distinct and versatile harpist. I can tell you that Jim is also a 
> fine
> country harpist (ask Kirk Johnson and David Allan Coe about that), a 
> superb
> r&b player, and the best rock and roll harmonica player I've ever seen. 
> And
> he plays a mean Cajun harp, too. "It's all music", he'll tell you.
>   I understand that Jim has turned S.P.A.H. down before.  That shouldn't 
> be
> held against him.  S.P.A.H., the Milwaukee Harmonica Club, and Jim himself
> need to do the right thing here.  It would be a tremendous oversight to 
> have
> a convention next year in Milwaukee that didn't include this man.  Front 
> and
> center.  Frankly, S.P.A.H. would have a hard time finding a national or
> international harpist who plays American roots music as well as this 
> local.
> Just my opinion, of course, and I don't mind being the first to pop-off
> about it.  Better now than after the convention entertainment is set.
>
> Mick Zaklan
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