[Harp-L] Under The Radar

["Brendan Power" <bren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks to Robert Bonfiglio for alerting us to the astounding talent of
Inagawa-san
( <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mUhQlCMCIU)>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mUhQlCMCIU)
 
I share Rob Paparozzi's amazement at Inagawa's brilliance. I had a
chance to hear him up close last November when he visited the Suzuki
booth at the Yokohama Music Expo, and spent a couple of hours playing
prototypes of Suzuki's soon-to-be-released 'Fabulous' series chromatics
(the ones Stevie Wonder dug at NAMM). He really is something special,
incredible technique and maturity at such a young age. I think he's
raised the bar for classical harmonica, and without yet even recording
an album. As Rob says, watch this space!
 
Another young world champion who seems curiously little-recognised on
Harp-L (probably because of its leaning towards the American scene) is
Filip Jers of Sweden. He won both diatonic jazz and folk/blues
categories at Trossingen in 2005. A master overblower of Levy-like
ability, he's more recently turned to the chromatic, and is playing some
world class stuff on that too! Check out his MySpace site for diatonic
and chromatic clips: http://www.myspace.com/filipjers

If your taste is more blues/country, an excellent diatonic player who
lives close to me here in Kent, England is Al Clark. A local legend, he
also doesn't have his own album out, though I keep hassling him! He's
done some great amplified playing on this album:
http://www.myspace.com/andylestersbluetrain Check out 'Sins of the
Father' for some tasty minor playing.
 
Cheers,

Brendan
WEB: http://www.brendan-power.com <http://www.brendan-power.com/>