[Harp-L] In Praise of Paul deLay (Wolf Kristiansen)

[Dave Shannon <daveshannon@xxxxxxx>]

>Message: 5
>Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:02:53 -0800 (PST)
>From: Wolf Kristiansen <wolfkristiansen@xxxxxxxx>
>Subject: [Harp-L] In Praise of Paul deLay
>To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
>Message-ID: <217120.56871.qm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
>
>Paul deLay, Portland songwriter, singer and harmonica player, deserves to be heard by all on this list.  He died on March 7, 2007. Most of you will have heard him, on recording at least, by now. For those who haven't, seek out a CD or two, and listen!  Your ears will be opened.
>
>I've been listening to him a lot lately.  His first recordings were clearly blues based; his later ones not so much.  He always retained a bluesy feel, to my ears.  His songs always had a spark of originality.   In his later years, he had the advantage of having a jazzy, talented, rhythmically sophisticated organist and arranger in his band, Louis Pain. 
>
>He was much more than a harmonica player.  But-- since this is harp-l I'll focus on what I hear in his harmonica playing:
>
>1.	Subtle manipulation of tone by hand placement.  Not for him the constant supertight grip to get a dark compressed tone à la  typical "Chicago Style" blues harp.  His normal grip was a looser grip, with the corresponding treblier sound.  He would throw in contrasting darker tones via tighter grip when appropriate.  He often darkened the tone when he hit the low notes.  The tone changes added a lot to the character of his playing.
>
>2.	Wonderful use of a delay pedal.  He should have written a book-- "deLay on Delay".  Anyone know what he used?
>
>3.	Use of arrangements to add power and punch to his live and studio offerings.  Some of his solos, to my ears, are clearly improvised, but there are always parts in his songs that have been carefully thought out.  As an example, he often uses what we used to call "pushes", where the band plays ryhthmic shots in unison at some point in the song.
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>4.	Absolutely original note choices, runs and harmonies.  You will hear things in his playing you haven't heard anywhere else, either before or after Paul's moment in the sun.  He was equally original with chromatic or diatonic.  His third position diatonic playing was outstanding, and wasn't limited to minor key songs.
>
>5.	A preference for a cleaner sound than most blues based harp players.  Despite being relatively clean, the notes had plenty of body.  The cleaner sound let him put in more detail.  He had plenty of musical detail to offer.
>
>6.	Perfect pitch.  Few or no rhythmic missteps.  He swung when he wanted to, but played in all sorts of rhythms.  Whatever he did, it was always rhythmic.
>
>Anyways, I just thought he needed fresh acknowledgment on this list, especially for the benefit of the newcomers who may not have heard him.
>
>Cheers,
>
>wolf kristiansen

Thanks for the reminder and analysis, Wolf. Let's not forget the wholeheartedness and honesty of Paul deLay's approach to music. You felt him right behind every lyric and every note. Regarding his grip, when I saw him play he used a bullet mic and used one hand only for 99% of the night - almost no tight grip at all, but big juicy tone all the way.

Dave Shannon