Re: [Harp-L] Horns Sounds Like Harp Sounds Like Horns

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Rick Dempster <rick.dempster@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I would have thought Filisko would have got the initial shove 
> from Blues Birdhead, going by his espoused tastes and history of 
> listening. Birdhead was the first I ever heard do a decent growl 
> on the diatonic. Growling on the diatonic could take up a decent 
> chapter in a harp 'how to'; it's a subtle and difficult art. 

I never heard Filisko do it until I exposed him to the early Ellington
orchestra and asked him to play some of the specific parts and solos
from those records. When he did, it sounded specifically like those
growlers and not like any harmonica growling I've ever heard.

> Bubber Miley was the man who established the wah-wah thing 
> in the Ellington orchestra as far as I know. 

Re-reading, after a long interval, the memoir of Mercer Ellington,
Duke's son, you're right, it was Bubber Miley, though Mercer makes a
point of describing how Tricky Sam made a science of it. He doesn't
mention Whetsol in this regard, stating that the chief exponents in the
band of growling over the years had been Bubber Miley, Cootie Williams
and Ray Nance on trumpet, and Tricky Sam (Joe Nanton) and Tyree Glenn
on trombone.

He also gives this analysis:

"There are three basic elements in the growl: the sound of the horn, a
guttural gargling in the throat, and the actual note that is hummed.
The mouth has to be shaped to make the different vowel sounds, and
above the singing from the throat, manipulation of the plunger adds the
wa-wa accents that give the horn a language."

So both gargling and singing are part of it on brass instrument. Throat
gargling is difficult on the inhaled breath unless a note is being
bent, while singing a note presents similar difficulties while
inhaling.

Filisko has managed to make a consistent throat growl on blow, unbent
draw, and bent draw notes, allowing him to play entire passages in
growl (I don't think he used any sung notes). This sounds different
from anything I've ever heard another harmonica player do.

Winslow


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