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

billhines4@xxxxxxxxxxx · Mon, 07 May 2007 21:02:43 +0000

Wow. And *where* can we get this recording??

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: 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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> 
> 
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