Re: [Harp-L] YouTube - AFTER YOU'VE GONE-- shtreiml

[Richard Hammersley <rhhammersley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Splendidly put Richard:
> SNIP
> The challenge, which few master, is being able to play fast with a  
> tone that makes the hair stand up on your arms.  A number of jazz  
> horn players have that ability; relatively few harp players do.   
> Brendan Power does that to me sometimes too, especially when he's  
> using that amazingly wide vibrato that seems to turn the harp into a  
> twisting snake.  When he turns that vibrato on, Brendan reminds me  
> of the early-jazz clarinetist Sidney Bechet--blues roots, jazz  
> sensibility, a big shaking vibrato that gets all your attention from  
> the first note.
>
> Regards, Richard Hunter
> latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp
To which I would add that many great jazz horn players are immediately  
recognisable from their tone and voicing, which gives a unique sound.  
To my ear, there are few such harmonica players as yet. I have a lot  
of harmonica players on my ipod shuffle. Out of interest the living  
people whose sound is immediately recognisable by me when I am not  
expecting them include

Richard Hunter
Winslow Yerxa
Brendan Power
Frasier Speirs (add to list of current UK harmonica players that we  
around last week - Rab Noakes and Frasier Speirs "Lights back on" is  
the best place to start in my view)
Jason Ricci - although for him it is not really tone I recognise, cos  
it is very varied, as much as some of the long, intricate licks that  
nobody else does much.

There are a lot of other incredibly good players who don't have a  
completely personal sound I can recognise from a few notes.

Richard Hammersley
Grantshouse, Scottish Borders
http://www.last.fm/music/Richard+Hammersley
http://www.myspace.com/rhammersley
http://www.myspace.com/magpiesittingdown