Re: [Harp-L] Re: Harmonica Mexican
Rick,
Thank's very much for taking the time to respond in detail to my musings. If you have any idea where I could get hold of 'early, ethnic harmonica recordings' (that's it exactly!) in any form at all, I'd be extremely grateful.
I was searching last night through archives of Alan Lomax' recordings, and once again, was struck by the absence of harmonica, other than that recorded in the US, with a few odds & ends from the other predictable locations (UK etc)
I wonder if even astute folklorists such as Lomax may have eschewed, say, a Zulu playing a harmonica in favour of one playing a bamboo flute, because it didn't represent a 'pure' folk tradition. Perhaps not Lomax himself, but I can imagine the instrument in the early days of recording being regarded by academic folklorists as something of a post-industrial age 'pollutant'.
I have listened to a great deal of ethnic music from all around the world over the years, and am struck, by the dearth of recordings of an instrument so popular and cheap.
The USA seems to have been open to recording the 'harp' for a couple of reasons: obviously there was a dollar to be made, and, as Calvin Coolidge had it 'The business of America is business'.
But the idea that there would be a market for some field hand from Missippippi or wherever honking away on a tin toy is distinctly a US concept; "The century of the common man" - I think it was Henry Wallace - no other country seems to have made such an industry out of its vernacular music; I suspect that in other places, such as South America, where you might expect to find the harmonica in abundance, all types of bureaucracy, government, business, media, were probably bound by a more old world formalism, that would reject the idea of recording less sophisticated musical forms.
But that may be drawing too long a bow. In the States, 'the poor', who would have been the prime market for the various forms of vernacular & regional music, weren't 'poor' like someone from Mexico, Brazil or Columbia. How often have I heard of farmers from Texas or wherever shelling out for a Jimmie Rogers record during the depression?
Anyhow, I'm not going to break my neck, but I intend to quietly track down recordings of 'early, ethnic harmonica recordings' .
That Zulu recording sounds very interesting (great pic too - thanks!) Can I get it from somewhere?
I would like to contact Pat Conte who supplied the sides for the 'Secret Museum' series on Yazoo to see if he has any leads; he's a hard man to track down, however.
Even among his available resources (the Yazoo CDs and the archived radio shows: http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/SM) there is precious little harmonica.
Thanks for reading the ramblings of
Your's Dementedly,
Rick Dempster,
Melbourne,
Australia
>>> "Rick Epping" <rickepping@xxxxxxxxx> 27/06/2008 1:43 >>>
Hi Rick,
Of course the harmonica survived and thrived in the USA, which really
adopted it as its own. But even in the USA, I would dare say that some of
the existing diatonic accordion genres developed out of the harmonica. One
interesting harmonica style that survived the introduction of the accordion
is that of the Amish, where the harmonica - to my knowledge exclusively the
Auto Valve - is often the only musical instrument permitted to be played.
The USA sells the vast majority of Hohner's Auto Valves and, based on
information from wholesale distributors, well over half of these are sold
into the Amish community.
At its peak, the harmonica was sold all over the world. I've seen catalogs
from the 1920s with sections of models produced exclusively for South
Africa, South America, India, Australia, China, Japan, Great Britain and
Ireland, and most Western European countries. I've also heard some nice
recordings of Zulu harmonica playing; here's a cool photo of a Zulu band
that includes a harmonica: http://www.mustrad.org.uk/graphics/zulus.jpg
The late Manfred Haug, former export manager for Hohner, told me of a Hohner
rep who, while visiting an African tribe, witnessed preparations for a rite
of passage, where the young, soon-to-be men were sent into the bush with
nothing but spear and loincloth. He remarked that it must be lonely for the
boys out there, and wouldn't it be a good idea to give them a harmonica as
well, to help them pass the time? So they did! Models were produced for
Africa with long and short chains, to be worn, respectively, around the neck
and on the ear, as the tribal people had no pockets.
The dearth of early, ethnic harmonica recordings might be due to the
harmonica passing out of favor before the widespread introduction of
recording into these regions, or maybe harmonicas were played mostly by
non-professionals. Or maybe some of those doing the recording didn't
consider the harmonica a serious musical instrument. I've heard that the
harmonica got its start in Hollywood during a musician's strike; harmonica
players were not considered "real" musicians and were not permitted in the
Musician's Union, so they could be hired to work in the movies when no other
musician could.
Best regards,
Rick
On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 2:57 PM, Rick Dempster <rick.dempster@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> Thanks for that informative response, Rick.
> Yet the
> harmonica survived and developed as a 'folk' instrument in the USA, and in
> white rural music (read 'country' if you want) it hung in there, not
> necessarily replaced by the accordion, which never became a defining sound
> in that area, but stayed alive in the form of the 'Lost John' players, 'fox
> chasers' etc. (eg Henry Whitter, Kyle Whooten, Wayne Raney, Lonnie Glosson,
> Palmer McAbee) The latter stuff is out of the black tradition of course
> (Sonny Terry being a prime example of early black tradition) and so I
> conclude that the technique of pitch-bending, not possible on the accordion,
> was the reason the instrument prospered.
> With the
> exception of this tradition, and some early recording artists like Humphrey
> Bate and Herman Crook, playing largely non-bent first position fiddle tunes,
> the harmonica didn't get much of a look in with 'country' till Charlie McCoy
> upped it's profile from the 'sixties onward.
> In the hands
> of the bluesman it was the ideal 'poor man's horn', the pitch changes
> distinguishing it from the accordion while it retained possibillities for
> simple but rhythmic chording that obviously made the former instrument so
> useful for accompanying dancers.
> But what
> bothers me is that there is very little recorded harmonica music from places
> where you would think it would catch on. Where are the examples of
> recordings from African countries? Just how widely was the harmonica
> marketed? Did it not sell well in some places? Very little from Carribbean
> cultures too, where you might expect to find it.
>
> In South
> Africa, it was the penny-whistle that was the 'poor man's horn', not the
> harmonica (but not accordion either, as far as I can hear)
> In the
> southern USA, the button accordion is found in Tex-Mex and Cajun, both
> cultures having a connections with 'European' cultures (which always seem
> attracted to that instrument) via French, Spanish, German or Czech
> connections.
> Maybe it has
> something to do with inherited musical tastes. I also suspect that in a lot
> of places, the harp was strictly for 'domestic entertainment', and just
> didn't cut it with the commercial recording interests.
> The accordion
> never really became a part of traditional white rural music in the southern
> US (Cajun, Tex-Mex etc aside) where the fiddle, banjo and (later) guitar
> were king. I know there was some use of PIANO accordion (as opposed to
> diatonic/button accordion)particularly in 'western' music (as opposed to
> 'country - or 'eastern') like Pee Wee King's band, and, yes , I know, Bill
> Monroe gave it a whirl for a short while.
> The 'pop'
> world was a holdout for harmonica of course, though pretty much dominated by
> the more sophisticated chromatic players, and particularly by the novelty
> all harmonica trios etc.
> Sorry to
> rave on here, but I listen to a lot of old ethnic music, and continue to
> wonder about the lack of harmonica (and particularly diatonic harmonica) in
> recordings from places other than the USA, UK, (Canada too, I know now
> thanks to info on harp-l) and my own country, Australia, where it was
> extremely popular, though always played in the old 'vamping' style you speak
> of ( and no bent notes!)
> A research
> project for someone doing their Phd, maybe.
> Cheers,
> Rick Dempster
>
> >>> "Rick Epping" <rickepping@xxxxxxxxx> 21/06/08 6:53 PM >>>
> The harmonica in Mexico suffered the same fate as that in many countries
> around the world with the introduction of the diatonic accordion. Some
> years ago I met a couple of Mexican tremolo players at the Smithsonian
> Folklife Festival, the elder of which told me how the harmonica was taken
> over by the accordion in the early 20th century; a story similar to ones
> I've heard here in Ireland where, like in Mexico, traditional harmonica
> players are today few and far between. The two instruments are similar in
> tonality and in the manner in which they're played, but the accordion is
> much louder, making it more suitable for playing for dances, and thus
> making
> it a more financially attractive instrument for musicians in the
> pre-amplification era.
>
> Last year at the Willie Clancy Week, Mick Kinsella and I gave a lecture on
> the history of the harmonica in Ireland, in preparation for which I
> contacted the curator of the German Harmonica Museum, who confirmed my
> theory that this phenomenon was worldwide. The diatonic button accordion
> really started taking off in the 1920s, when worldwide harmonica sales were
> at their peak. During the 'teens and 20s, German harmonica exports to
> Great
> Britain (including Ireland) were over 1.3 million per year, Russia 1.1
> million per year, Argentina 800,000 per year, and Brazil 700,000 per year.
> In 1913, 3.4 million were exported to the USA, with over 7 million in 1929.
> These sales started dropping off as accordion sales rose.
>
> One can, however, look to the playing style in early diatonic accordion
> recordings to get a notion as to the playing style of the pre-accordion
> harmonica, as many of these early accordion players were likely to have
> started out as harmonica players. The tongue-block vamping technique used
> on the various diatonic harmonica models is very similar to the left hand
> technique of the diatonic accordion.
>
> Best regards,
> Rick
>
>
> >
> > Message: 5
> > Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:23:43 +1000
> > From: "Rick Dempster" <rick.dempster@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Harmonica Mexican
> > To: "harp-l" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>, "victorio montes silva"
> > <silvaharp@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Message-ID: <485BCB7F.7C8A.0066.0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
> >
> > Victorio;
> > Enjoyed looking at the pictures of these interesting old
> harps.
> > What I'd be even more interested in would be archival recordings of these
> > instruments being played.
> > As you say, the tremolo harp is the harmonica " most
> > representative in the past " of Mexican harmonica playing.
> > I have quite a few recordings of Mexican music, and like it
> > very much, but there is no harmonica on any of it.
> > I'm not interested in present day people playing blues, jazz
> > etc etc; only in traditional Mexican music, and the older the better.
> > Do you have any suggestions, sound files etc. you could send
> > me?
> > Regards,
> > Rick Dempster,
> > Melbourne,
> > Australia
> >
> > >>> victorio montes silva <silvaharp@xxxxxxxxxxx> 18/06/2008 3:30 >>>
> >
> >
> > Hello everyone
> >
> >
> > Today I share with you the blogspot a good friend of mine.
> >
> > http://armonicademexico.blogspot.com/
> >
> >
> > Together we are rescuing the tradition of harmonica tremolo in Mexico
> >
> > They may see photographs of the harmonic most representative in the past
> > Mexican.
> >
> > Besides adding new information on an ongoing basis.
> >
> >
> > To enjoy it and hope your comments.
> >
> >
> >
> > Atte.
> > Victorio Montes Silva
> > 04455 1681-5162
> >
> >
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