Re: [Harp-L] Harmonica MasterClass Workshop concert (first night of two)

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

I was present at the Friday night show. First Filisko doing the prewar
rural stuff, then Dave Barrett doing the urban 1950s-70s, followed by
Kinya with a Paul Butterfield tribute, culminating with Dennis
Gruenling presenting the modern blues harmonica, backed by Rusty Zinn
on guitar and Mike Peloquin on tenor sax added to the backing band
already in place (John Garcia on guitar, with drums, a bassist who
doubled on second guitar, and a piano player).

This was the first night of two, and there had been the usual variety
of technical difficulties setting up the room, stage, and sound and
recording equipment on top of a full teaching schedule and the
knowledge that this was being recorded for posterity. Naturally this
led to some tension and awkwardness, but some really great music and
playing were delivered once the paricipants warmed up. I wasn't there
the second night, but I hear that things were more fluid the second
time around.

It's easy to be dismissive about a concert (and CD) that re-creates
music that has already been recorded in superb performances, and the
"why-do-it?" question certainly occurred to me. Once could go out and
find the dozens of CDs and out-of-print recordings that informed this
concert, but you'd have to know what to look for, and for some folks
this process of discovery has taken decades. OK, maybe you could cobble
together the rights and access to put out some sort of historical
anthology CD with the original recordings. But the amount of music 
would be huge, and again, people would have to know what to look for.

The value of a live presentation goes beyond just gathering significant
music in a single package. There is a dimension to real-time live
performance that goes beyond listening to old recordings. Re-creating
music live in front of an audience brings it to life and makes it real
in a way that can't happen with even the best old recordings. Seeing a
real live person in front of you playing this music lets you know that
this amazing music is playable by real, live humans and not
supernatural beings that we can hear but never see. You can witness
that the sounds the players create and the techniques they use are not
recording tricks or the result of some sort of production process. Dave
Barrett alluded to this briefly when he mentioned in the course of
introducing a tune that Walter Horton always had huge tone even in home
recordings made in someone's living room or at a party.

And the repertoire can be synthesized and combined in ways that are
quite creative and very difficult to pull off. It's true that just
recycling old riffs is not particularly creative; a casual visit to a
blues jam will confirm the cynical credo that anything worth doing is
worth doing badly. But that's not what was going on here.

For instance, Filisko's presentation method was something that could
not be duplicated by playing old recordings. The most visible part of
his creative process was his weaving together of the work of several
old masters in the context of extended pieces. For instance, he opened
the concert with an unaccompanied train piece that combined many of the
most notable parts of train pieces by George Bullet Williams, De Ford
Bailey, Lonnie Glosson, Palmer McAbee, William McCoy, and several
others, calling out place names along a line as was done on so many of
those old train pieces, ending the piece with a deboarding call for San
Jose, where the concert was given, placing all that history in a
context of here and now.

Joe employed the full stable of acounstic harmonica tricks ffrom the
pre-war period, including whooping, falsetto singing, playing one
harmonica with his nose while playing another with his mouth, and
putting the harmonica in his mouth like a cigar and playing with no
hands.

Joe did do a few standalone pieces, like Blues Birdhead's "Mean Low
Blues" (with piano accompaniment, one of the few accompanied pieces in
his mostly solo set). Before each piece he listed the players whose
work contributed to the piece, and noted significant things about their
careers, place in history, or styles and techniques. He brought the
timeline up to John  Lee Williamson's bringin of rural styles to
Chicago, and ended with Rice Miller'ws Bye Vye Bird played no hands

Dave picked up where Joe had left off, with the development of the
urban electric style out of John Lee Williams. He started with an early
Little Walter piece, "Evan Shuffle," and continued with "Juke" and
"Roller Coaster" before going on to numbers from George Smith, Jerry
McCain, Walter Horton, and Junior Wells. Once warmed up, he delivered
these with great gusto and elan, really bringing the music to life. I
had never seen Dave play more than perhaps one full number before, and
his passion for the music (and his musicality and chops and delivery)
really came to life before my eyes and ears; it was a very satisfying
performance. 

He brought Filisko up to play Little Walter's "Blue Lights," one of the
rare instances of Joe playing chromatic harmonica in public (this is
one of those tunes where Walter switched back and forth between
chromatic and diatonic). As a humorous At one point Joe even held the
mic up to the amp at just at the moment where feedback is audible on
the original recording (Joe's attempt here did not succeed, but it was
fun if you knew why he was doing it, and it provided a humorous
commentary on the whole premise of the concert).

Kinya Pollard's tribute to Paul Butterfield was as much about the
effect on his own life of the discovery of Butterfield's music as it
was about Butterfield's place in a timeline of harmonica styles. His
storytelling over the "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" signature riff
brought to life the transformative effect on a young man from a
background that did not encourage exuberance of finding an album whose
liner notes declared that the music sounded best if played loud (this
was the first Butterfield album). His subsequent delivery of that song
and the instrumental "Work Song" demonstrated the profound effect a
musical discovery can have on a young person, and Kinya clearly
conveyed his love and enthusiasm for Butterfield. In some ways this was
the most personal statement of the evening.

While Joe and Dave had the nerve-wracking assignments of not only
re-creating faithfully old recordings but bringing them to life
convincingly in fornt of an audience that knew every note of the
original, Dennis Gruenling had the easiest time of it in one respect -
he wasn't trying to re-create or survey an earlier period or style. By
way of presenting modern-day blues harmonica, he was just doing his
thing and doing it very well, and the added support of Mike and Rusty
really propelled him to some fine playing - he had the crowd (and the
other performers on the sidelines) howling in appreciation.

The concert ran late and there was no time for the "harmonica
swordfight" promised . This might have helped open out the present-day
side of the story. But it was nonetheless an ambitious project and one
that, whatever the concept, produced some fine music and a very
enjoyable evening.

Winslow


--- Greg Heumann <greg@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I wasn't able to attend the entire 3 day workshop this year, but I  
> did manage to sneak down on Saturday, take a class from Dennis  
> Gruenling and attend the History of the Blues concert. This is a  
> concert Dave Barrett has been working on with various people for 3  
> years. Joe Filisko did 50+ minutes of absolutely masterful pre-war  
> blues - he researched and studied a variety of artists, and presented
>  
> their styles note for note from recordings dating back to the early  
> 20's. This included a lot of names I forget, as well as Sonny Terry  
> and Sonny Boy Williamson (I).  Dave Barrett himself (who is a MONSTER
>  
> harmonica player) spent the next 50+ minutes showcasing post-war  
> blues, performing tunes by Little Walter, Big Walter, George  
> Harmonica Smith and others. Again, "note for note, technique for  
> technique, lick for lick". The School of the Blues band backed these 
> 
> guys up in appropriate style as well. The last "set" represented  
> modern blues and was performed by Dennis Gruenling. Along the way, we
>  
> were treated to some extra performances by guests Rick Estrin, Gary  
> Smith, Michael Peloquin and Kinya Pollard. Not a bad show for an  
> evening. It was amazing to watch not only these fine players, but  
> also 40 or 50 rabid harmonica playing brothers and sisters all with  
> their jaws on the floor throughout the night.
> 
> If you haven't had the chance to attend a Harmonica Masterclass  
> Workshop, this would be a good one to catch when it is near your  
> town. Dave is, in my opinion (and that of just about everyone who has
>  
> ever met him) probably the best teacher of harmonica that the world  
> has to offer.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> /Greg
> 
> http://www.blowsmeaway.com
> http://www.bluestateband.net
> 
> 
> 
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