Re: [Harp-L] Re: country/western/McCoy

[Philharpn@xxxxxxx]

Doesn't anybody remember Don Les? Don Les (1914-94) was perhaps best known 
for playing bass harmonica in the original Harmonicats. The group that had the 
big hit with Peg O My Heart. 

But Don also liked to play the diatonic. His theory was that if he tried to 
play both the diatonic and the chromatic one would suffer. So he stuck with the 
diatonic. But he didn't play blues. He made some cassette tapes toward the 
end of his career that were sold at SPAH. I'm not sure whether he was playing 
cross harp or straight harp. He was playing melodies using bent notes and 
overblows to play big band type tunes.

And if Don Les was playing melodies, I'm sure other people were, too. All you 
have to do is look at all the people who played the Marine Band and won 
contests in the 30s. You don[t get a few million people playing Marine Bands 
without a few dozen figuring out how to USE the bent notes for something other than 
train songs and fox hunts.

***
The vocal technique that seems to mystify some people is called melisma. 
Instead of singing a separate note for each syllable, melisma will use several or 
a series of notes for one syllable. It's a vocal technique that dates back to 
the Torah chanting in the 7th and 8th centuries and the Gregorian chant (circa 
900). In modern times (1900 forward) it has appeared in the black gospel 
church. 

Ray Charles, Sam Cook and Aretha Franklin brought melisma out of the black 
gospel church setting into pop music and from there it took off. Now it's common 
in virtually all popular music.

***
I always thought there was a difference between County AND Western music -- 
even thought Billboard had to have a category after getting rid of Hillbilly. 

What's the difference between Country & Western music? 

Country uses a major 7th chord and Western uses a 7th chord (dominant 7th 
chord).

Phil Lloyd




In a message dated 7/16/08 1:52:05 PM, leone@xxxxxxxx writes:


> 
> On Jul 16, 2008, at 1:49 AM, Rick Dempster wrote:
> 
> > "> He really turned it into a 'voice', and really made me think very
> >> differently about the instrument.
> >
> > I ALWAYS thought about it that way. I suppose listening to Neopolitan
> > love songs, gave me an idea of where I wanted to go.
> > "
> > ..........If you started out on chromatic Joe, I can understand 
> > that. But I'm not aware of anyone prior to McCoy who combined the 
> > blues-born technique of pitch-bending with a European concept of 
> > melody, on the diatonic.
> >
> > RD
> >
> Ok, the key word here was 'voice'. If you watch American Idol or Show 
> Time at the Apollo, you will notice that singers no longer 'stay' on 
> notes. They will do something I like to call 'dance around the 
> notes' (if I'm in a good mood), OR 'warble around till they find a 
> note that fits' (if I'm in a naughty mood).
> 
> In other words, instead of singing "Oh say can you see", we get "o-o-
> oo-o-ah, sa-a-a-ay Can you-o-oo-o-oo-o Se-eeeee". Now imagine that 
> while you are mouthing these words, the musical notes are all OVER 
> the treble staff. Sometimes the singer doesn't even hit the CRUCIAL 
> note, and they don't always stay true to the chords. Usually placing 
> anywhere from 6 to 9 notes into the warble, its still important to 
> land on the crucial mandatory note.
> 
> Ok, you don't get this garbage with Neopolitan ballads. The singers 
> are in the alto range (not tenor) and they add more like 3 to 6 notes 
> (not 9), and they aren't warbling around in an effort to impress 
> everyone that they have soul. The HAVE it........ naturally. If I 
> were to play a tune, I would study the singer who made the tune MOST 
> popular. Chances are that there was a reason that that singer had a 
> hit. Example: If you're going to do Alfie, do it like Dion Warwick.
> 
> Now, while I'm sure he wasn't THE first, the first time I recall 
> noticing 'dancing voice' coming from an American was Stevie Wonder. I 
> don't know why, maybe the high pitch attracted my notice. He is one 
> of the few where it fits. Most singers turn it into a scream-fest.
> 
> The same thing happens with some harmonica players. Some will go into 
> orbit and forget where the space station is. Then they're lost in 
> space and can't find their way back. So, after they run out of fuel, 
> they drift around. The idea is to 'turn' the chords but stay true to 
> them. In other words, work around but DO wind up where you're 
> supposed to be, or everything sounds like trype.
> 
> a... Good example of going into orbit and NOT getting 
> lost..............Mike Turk
> b... Good example of someone hitting strange note combinations...Toots
> 
> When I was a youngster and spent my first 18 years pretty evenly 
> divided into 2 year stints between New York City and (mostly) Italy , 
> there were 3 kinds of musics one could listen to. They were:
> 1... Local Italian...nice stuff but an awful lot of mandolins
> 2... Armed Forces radio out of Heidelberg...30s & 40s American big 
> band geared to the senior officers and non coms who were left behind 
> after the war.
> 3... Radios Wien, Praha, Buda-Pesht, Bucharesti. You had to have a 
> short wave. We had a Telefunkin.
> 
> So, my early influences were these. And it was a time when musicians 
> were musicians. Not noise makers. Eventually I played at the Sea 
> Garden. It was a cafe/bistro/restaurant/night club that was in the 
> park on the waterfront in Mergelina Naples. We did tunes like 'La 
> Stella di Napoli', Maruzella, Quando si Bella Roma. That's why I 
> played chromo first. The drifts from majors to minors and key changes 
> were not conducive to diatonic.
> 
> smo-joe
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