Re: [Harp-L] Country Western harmonica players

[Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx>]

On Jan 6, 2009, at 7:29 PM, Vern Smith wrote:

> Could a harmonica "fit in" to:
> Play runs & fills during long notes and rests in the melody?
> Play harmony with the solo instrument emulating the two-part  
> bluegrass vocal harmony?
> Trade off with the fiddle for variety?
>
> Because many CW/bluegrass tunes are laments, the harmonica can set  
> a sad mood by crying better, IMO, than other instruments can.  e.g.  
> in Tanya Tucker's "Delta Dawn."
>
> Vern

I have to be frank and honest here and say "Who needs em". I mean, I  
do the Charley McCoy stuff and I don't HAVE a banjo, fiddle, nor  
mandolin. Let's be serious here. In the overall big enchilada, guitar  
rules, and there is very little call for fiddle, banjo and especially  
mandolin in any music (these days) except country & bluegrass. And  
they're hardly used in western at all.

In trad jazz (sometimes called dixieland), the instruments are, in  
order of preference:
1... Clarinet (which was once king) @ soprano
2... Trumpet @ alto
3... Trombone @ baritone
4... Tuba or bass horn @ bass
5... Banjo @ rhythm
There was no one marching with an upright bass, and the only time  
piano was used was in stationary situations. If you were going to  
drop an instrument, you would drop the banjo.

Progressive, modern, bee-bop, re-bop, and hard-bop replace the  
clarinet with saxes. The clarinet is just about dead. Occasionally a  
flute gets thrown in. but if you were going to drop an instrument in  
a jass band (to save money) you would drop the flute. Why? Most sax  
players can play several reeds and most horn players can play several  
horns.

As for harmonica, it has THREE things going against it and therefore  
went unused until amplification came along.
It was:
1... Too quiet and didn't carry
2... It was a comparatively young instrument
3... You could also argue (which I won't) that diatonics couldn't  
change keys at will and couldn't negotiate the 'changes' on the run.  
And it wasn't till the late 20s that this changed. And even then,  
there were dang few chromo players that could do it. By that time,  
these other instruments were rooted deep into the musics that were  
being played.

Why just tonight, I was playing with a trumpet player and clarinet  
player in their upper 80s. They were doing all that old old old crap  
and while I wasn't having any trouble with it, there aren't too many  
players that even KNOW this old old old crap.

We're reaching a point where the old generation (that's running the  
show) are disappearing and NOWZ the time to take harp in new directions.

got my sMo joe workin (roogalatah)
> ---