[Harp-L] Howard Levy - Out of the Box, Vol 1. (long)

["Tim Moyer" <wmharps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I bought a copy of Howard Levy's "Out of the Box - Vol 1" the other 
day, and last night finally got a chance to watch it.  I wouldn't 
really classify this as an "instructional" video, though it could be 
that for some.  Rather, I consider this a "demonstrational" video of 
the extended capabilities of the diatonic harmonicas into areas 
where it's not traditionally found.  

The video is organized into performances and explanations of a 
series of pieces Howard wrote, which demonstrate playing a single 
diatonic harmonica, in the key of C, in the full range of keys.  
There's a "mix minus" section at the end where his accompanists play 
several of the pieces without the harmonica, presumably so the 
viewers at home can try and follow Howard's explanations and 
actually play along.  I don't see myself trying this for some time!  

This isn't some "parlor trick" where he picks a tune or a set of 
changes and then modulates through the whole chromatic scale, 
improvising.  Rather, these pieces were written in particular keys 
and modes and styles that exploit the expressiveness of various 
techniques used to sound notes on the diatonic harmonica.  Howard is 
clear that he arranges the pieces to exploit the modalities of the 
harmonica, although he rarely makes mention of "positions".  Rather, 
he gives detailed explanations of what chords and changes are being 
employed, and how those relate to the notes of the harmonica as they 
are available through straight, bent or overbent playing.  

Most of the pieces show Howard and a guitarist accompanist, Chris 
Siebold, and in some cases joined by Miles Levy on percussion.  The 
accompanyment is of the highest caliber, and the recording quality 
is very good.  In a couple of the performances Howard chooses a 
bullet mic and an overdriven sound, though he clearly isn't 
emulating any blues harmonica heros here.  Most of the performances 
have him playing into a high-quality studio mic.  His tone, as you 
would expect, is impeccable.  

Some of the pieces are accompanied (both in the performance and 
explanation) by still image "slide shows" of Howard.  I think these 
are probably tracks which were overdubbed, with Howard doing the 
piano parts himself, and then recording the harmonica over it.  I 
still would have preferred to see Howard playing, even if it was 
unaccompanied in the video, but maybe this just wasn't practical in 
production.  

Howard demonstrates that he has reached a level of accomplishment in 
his ability to get "all" the notes out of the diatonic harmonica 
that few can rival.  In some cases he's purposfully exploiting the 
bend-ability of notes around tonal centers, such as in his raga 
example.  He also demonstrates a very deep and thorough grasp of 
music theory that goes well beyond what harmonica players generally 
understand.  Not trying to disrespect anyone here, but his 
explanations are going to leave a lot of us fumbling for our 
reference materials.  

This is music at the highest level, and is fascinating to watch.  
It's also very instructional, in the sense that it shows guys like 
me how much more is out there to learn.  I doubt I'm going to be 
trying to learn Howard's pieces from the video, but maybe if I watch 
it enough times, some of it will rub off on me.  I'm still coming up 
to speed on his now-15-year-old "New Directions" video!  

One thing I did find rather annoying about the video's organization 
(and maybe I just didn't set up properly) is that it is divided into 
performance, explanation and "mix-minus" sections, with a "play all" 
option on the main menu.  I would have preferred, and it was 
obviously intended in production, to have the explanation followed 
by the performance.  As it was, I chose "play all" and watched all 
the performances, then all the explanations (I skipped the "mix-
minuses, aside from a few seconds to see what they were like).  

I enjoyed the video, but I was a bit disappointed -- maybe in 
myself -- that it was so much over my head.  I'll go back and watch 
it more times in the hope that I'll eventually chip through those 
barriers, but this is only possible because the pieces themselves 
are so enjoyable.  

-tim