Re: Subject: Re: [Harp-L] looking for a new home...


On Jun 3, 2010, at 10:28 AM, MundHarp@xxxxxxx wrote:

Well said Elizabeth!
As a chrom player who went diatonic 5 years later, and now plays both
"axes"... I am most "at home" at Harp-L and have been here, with a few gaps,
since about 1994... But I've been on "Slidemeister" too...

Bought a diatonic Christmas 1951. (I was 9). That lasted a week Run over by a streetcar.
Bought a chromatic spring of 55. Played that for a few years. Then got more diatonics.
So, in the 50s I played mostly chromatic, 60s mostly diatonic, 70s mostly chromatic, 80s mostly diatonic,
90s mostly chromatic, and this century, I am playing both about evenly AND at the same time.

Both are EXCELENT resorces.... I have learnt SO MUCH because of BOTH
places!

Same here, except I was most at home on slidemeister SIMPLY because I am at a higher percentile with
chromatic. I'm around 87 percentile with chromatic but only 76 percentile with diatonic. I know a lot more
about chromatics and have experimented with them more.

MY (personal) opinion is that if one were to endeavor to play BOTH of the small harps, they should do them
both in the same time frame. If I had concentrated on one or the other, I might have been somewhere by today
but concentrating on one while neglecting the other leaves you with a dillema. It takes a lot of lost time to 'Catch
up' when returning to the harp you weren't playing for a while.

I started playing "mouth organ"... Chromatic, as it happens, back in about
1956... YES I'M THAT OLD... I was 8 years old then, and was INSPIRED (and I
still am) by the great jazz chromatic harmonicist Max Geldrey.. The best
jazz harmonica player that I have heard (Yet!). CHECK out Max Geldrey out
on _www.youtube.com_ (http://www.youtube.com)
I was influenced as well, of course, by Larry Adler and others.... But I
didn't hear any "short harp" playing till I was 13 years old.

I didn't hear any short harp (other than myself) till I was almost 18.

.And that was Little Walter Jacobs... WOW.

With me it was Rice Miller.

...And now, I'm (mostly) known as a blues harp
player... It's funny... I play mostly "African American" music... & I'm not
American, and have never even BEEN to Africa! (YET).

I don't play African-American music PER SE. But I was heavily into doo-wop, and still into jazz, dixieland, ragtime.
Most of my favorite artists and musicians happen to be African- American. So, while I am not a blues person, I still
respect it. It's the mother of American music.

Heck... Good music is good music...
Great harp players can play ANYTHING...

For example, Robert Bonfiglio "nails" classical chromatic AS WELL as "Blues
Harp"... All power to him, and the rest of us fanatics who play THEIR
harmonicas. I don't know if I have ever heard ANYONE improvise so well as
Robert Bonfiglio can improvise, either on chromatic, or diatonic harmonica.


I could listen to his stories for hours. At first I didn't know what to make of him.
But, I gotta be honest. Robt (Le Bon Vivant) is a lot of fun to be around. I think it's Charisma?
smokey joe

P.s. Another player has taken my place with the Cat Daddies at the Edison in Ft. Myers. His name? Pat Hayes. Terrific short harp player. Very authentic 'Chicargo' sound/style



Sincerely,

John "Whiteboy" Walden.
English harmonica player... Residing in Cebu City,
Republic of the Philippines.



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