[Harp-L] Surprise harp pullers

["Mick Zaklan" <mzaklan@xxxxxxxxx>]

   Was watching the old Mike Douglas show back in ' 69 or ' 70.  Hadn't been
playing harp very long.  Douglas would have a guest cohost for an entire
week and I was yucking it up that week because it was Wayne Newton.  Back
then, Newton was the epitome of phoniness and Vegas-schmaltz to me.  Never
occurred to me that, in his own way, the guy was just being a professional
and giving his audience what it wanted.
   At the end of the week, Mike profusely thanked Wayne and asked him what
he wanted to close with.  "How about some blues?", Wayne asked.  Well, I'm
really cackling at this because I figure it's going to be deliciously
terrible. It wasn't.  Newton sat on stool with a semi-hollow body electric
guitar accompanying himself.  As I recall, he sang either "Stormy Monday" or
Willie Nelson's "Night Life".  His guitar fills were a little more Roy Clark
than Otis Rush; twangy but very tasteful and his vocal actually good.
Halfway through the tune a spotlight went on behind him, revealing an
extremely attractive blond woman with bangs looking positively angelic.  One
of Newton's backup singers; dressed in a long, flowing white gown and
hunkering down on a harmonica.  I stopped laughing pretty quickly because
the woman appeared to be in cross harp; something not that common back
then.  She was making a full bend on the two hole draw, producing good
warbles, and took a very competent solo to huge applause.  It was so
surrealistic to me that I never forgot Wayne shouting into the mic, "Ginny
Gambini, ladies and gentlemen!".
   Decades later, I was leafing through an Enquirer or Star my wife brought
home.  A story about a celebrity who had started out as female
drummer/harpist in Vegas caught my eye.  The woman married a Sinatra
imitator with the last name Gambino and eventually wound up drumming and
singing backup for Wayne Newton.  Her name was Jenny Gambino but eventually
went into a career as a standup comedienne and later hosted an infamous talk
show.  Most know her as Jenny Jones.  Not a bad little harp player.

Mick Zaklan