[Harp-L] Lee Sankey on the PowerBender

["Brendan Power" <bren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

For those of you who don't know of him, Lee Sankey is a British harp player
with a fabulous traditional tongue-blocking style. Dave Barrett was blown
away by his huge acoustic tone and high-level tonguing technique at the
recent NHL Bristol harmonica Festival - and Dave knows his onions when it
comes to good tongue blocking!

Lee is also a very articulate and thoughtful man, who is currently writing
what promises to be a fascinating book on how musicians perceive music in
their minds eye when playing. He travelled to the USA recently and
interviewed top harp players like Howard Levy, Joe Filisko etc as well as
big-name jazz saxophonists and keyboardists for the book.

Lee had a successful career fronting his own band as a pro harp player but
decided to concentrate on the business world instead, and currently works in
a London IT company working up applications for big companies like Skype.
That's why he drives a Porsche and has a pretty nice lifestyle :) But Lee
hasn't given up on the harp - far from it, and he's recently been putting
out some excellent instructional YouTube videos demonstrating classic blues
harp techniques in a very clear manner, showcasing his awesome acoustic
tone. These have been getting a lot of respect from other tongue-block
players trying to get that great sound.

I love Lee's playing but we have very contrasting styles: I'm a lip-blocker,
use alternate tunings, half-valve my harps and play mostly single-note
stuff. So it was quite a surprise when I got an email from Lee ordering a
couple of PowerBenders. 

I imagined they might not suit his traditional chord-based style - but was I
wrong!! Lee has taken to the PowerBender like a duck to water, and recently
put out three videos showcasing his playing on the tuning. Lee is doing some
wonderful new stuff with the PowerBender, including adapting his trademark
tongue-switching and chording. With his different technique, he shows up
some cool possibilities that I had never explored. 

If you're a traditional tongue-blocker wondering about the PowerBender, his
playing will illuminate some cool possibilities that open up with it. Here
are the videos:

GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE POWERBENDER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpZxqIWeXmo

ORIGINAL TUNE WITH TONGUE SWITCHING ON POWERBENDER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxXHs_ZCCWo

BLUES SHUFFLE IMPROVISATION ON POWERBENDER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqvMxbV-yxs

For anyone who is wondering, Lee has done these videos totally off his own
bat, and there is no cosy deal going on: he paid full price for his
PowerBender harps. 
Along with the likes of Alex Paclin, I'm proud and humbled that such great
players are starting to adopt the PowerBender for their own playing. Here is
the promo video if you want to check out its further possibilities:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNoxhd0EdLU

Brendan Power
WEBSITE: http://www.brendan-power.com
YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/BrendanPowerMusic