Re: [Harp-L] NY Harp Sightings

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"robert paparozzi" wrote:
<I had a fun gig last night in NY, one of my songwriting heroes from New
<Orleans Allen Toussaint stopped by and caught our show and I had a 
<chance to chat a bit with him and thank him for all the great music.

<Two really great harp players came to the show as well, I was thrilled 
<to have the great Lee Oskar and Richard Hunter down so I had Lee up to 
<play on an instrumental version of:
<"Love the one Your with" Stephen Stills ala King Curtis' version.....he
<played his booty off!

<Then we did a funk blues and I had Hunter up to play WITH Lee so I was 
<in heaven and hopefully able to 'steal' great licks if I can remember 
<them this morning before I start to practice!! Boy these two guys 
<played SO great their musicality is first class and they kept it very 
<soulful...bravo guys and THANX for makin' it to my gig in NYC.

The pleasure was all mine.  This was a great night.  A few of my 
comments follow.

I was stunned when I showed up around 9-ish and found Lee Oskar in 
attendance.  Rob is right: Lee sounded GREAT on "Love the One You're 
With," but no greater than Rob on a chromatic version of "Body And Soul" 
 that preceded that piece.  In fact, I turned to Lee when Rob was 
wrapping the piece up, and said "I hope you're following that, and not 
me."  When I got up to play, I was reminded of a story Madcat Ruth told 
me about how Howard Levy and Sugar Blue showed up at one of his gigs one 
night; Madcat looked to his left and his right, he told me, where he was 
flanked by those two guys, and thought, "Well, I'd really better start 
playing now..."

Lee played better than I've ever heard him, hands down.  It is SO 
inspiring when the people who inspired you 35 years ago are still 
growing.  Lee's work in the 1970s was about a beautiful sound and long, 
langorous lines that kept you yearning for the next note.  He's still 
got that sound, and his lines now mix those beautiful, long notes  with 
quick runs and lines that range all over the harp.  He used an F harp 
with a "Blues Tuning" of his invention, which has also been used by 
Carlos del Junco (who acknowledged Lee for the "inspiration" on one of 
his records).  I tried to get the details on the tuning; it includes 
tuning the low C on a C harp down to a Bb, tuning the low D on that harp 
up to an F, tuning the draw 7 down from B to Bb, and a few other changes 
I didn't get.  (If anyone else knows that tuning, please advise.)  The 
low-end chords Lee played with that harp were simply amazingly big and 
beautiful, with a huge, open sound that's very different from the close 
stacked-thirds voicings you hear from most harps.  His tone through his 
Beyerdynamic double ribbon mic straight into the PA was a no-apologies 
pure harp sound that was sweet and perfect, full of pure emotion, and it 
more than matched the awesome power of the band.

Rob's playing was just great.  He used a Shure SM57 mic straight into a 
Fender Blues Junior (I think) amp.  The tone had much less distortion in 
it than many harp players use. It was loud, clear, and punchy over the 
sound of the band, and it meshed perfectly with the tenor sax.  I wrote 
in 1999 that Rob was the real star of the Buckeye Festival that year. 
He's better now than he was then.  You can still hear his Butterfield 
roots, but he's taken Butterfield's style much deeper into R&B and jazz 
than Butterfield did.  (If you think that's heresy, you haven't heard 
Rob.) Rob's diatonic playing is powerful and smooth, with a lot of 
rhythmic drive, and I don't think I've ever heard chromatic played 
better in any R&B band.

The band Rob fronted last night was simply, totally, non-stop killer. 
Will Lee on bass, Bernard Purdie on drums, George Naha on guitar, John 
Korba on keys and voice, Chris Eminizer on sax--there's a bunch of 
well-known names in that crew, and they basically alternated between 
laying down some of the fattest grooves I've heard in years, and tearing 
the room down with solos that showed how much power they'd been holding 
in reserve.  Purdie in particular was a revelation to me. I've heard him 
on thousands of records, beginning in my teenage years, but I never 
realized before how a drummer can make the rhythm talk to you the way he 
did last night. It was beyond groove; it was like a big river flowing.

A number of New York's finest players, like Jerome Harris from Sonny 
Rollins's band and singer Elaine Caswell, were in the house, and they 
were rocking as hard as the rest of the audience.

It was a great show.  I was glad to have a small part in it, and very 
glad to hear two great harp players at the peaks of their powers.

Anyone who gets the chance to hear Rob play and sing--whether with the 
Hudson River Rats, Blood Sweat and Tears, or the Blues Brothers--is well 
advised to do so.  This guy runs in fast company.

Regards, Richard Hunter
hunterharp.com
Latest mp3s always at http://www.broadjam.com/rhunter