Re: [Harp-L] Custom Harmonicas: Rick Epping's Role

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Buddha wrote:
<We all know Overblows were around before Howard Levy and for a player
<like me, it's almost impossible to concieve that I learned OBs before
<I ever heard of Howard or his music. Mike Turk used several OBs on his
<"beans taste fine" album recorded in 1967.  Mike Turk is the person I
<give credit to for learning OB's however one could argue that it was
<Howard Levy who started the OB movement even though Mike Turk was
<doing it in 1967 when Howard says his first one popped out in 1969.

At least one of the key dates listed here, and possibly both, are wrong.  "Beans Taste Fine" was recorded in the 1970s, not 1967.  I doubt that Mike Turk knew Papa John Kolstad, the guitarist and vocalist on that record, in 1967. Mike had just started playing with him when Mike and I were housemates in 1973-74. 

I met Howard Levy in the spring of 1973, when he visited a mutual friend in Cambridge, MA. At that time he told me he'd been playing harp for two years, which would mean he picked up the harp for the first time in 1971. Certainly Howard was overblowing fluently when I met him.  (He was also playing killer piano, steel clarinet, and tenor sax.  It was all a little scary.)

The first overblower I ever met was Mike Tratner, who showed me overblows in the spring of 1970, very soon after he discovered the technique.  I haven't heard from Mike in over 30 years.  Mike certainly wasn't the first--players were overblowing on record in the 1930s, or so I've heard.  Techniques are always out there waiting to be discovered.  

It's pretty clear, though, that Howard has taken it further than anyone.  I think Howard deserves most of the credit for getting harp players excited about the potential for the technique.  (Don't know whether he gets the blame for all the people who got TOO excited...)

Regards, Richard Hunter 
latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp