Fwd: [Harp-L] Bob Herndon, master Harmonettist

[johnnyace55@xxxxxxxxxxx]

I found this on Youtube for those that have not heard the Harmonetta 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db5LJiH6PDA&feature=related 
----- Forwarded Message ----- 
From: "Winslow Yerxa" <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx> 
To: "michael rubin" <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx>, "harp-l" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>, "MPAMichael Polesky" <m.polesky@xxxxxxxxxxx> 
Sent: Friday, September 3, 2010 6:34:29 PM 
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Bob Herndon, master Harmonettist 

I have to chime in with Michale and Michael in praise of Bob Herndon. His fabulous Harmonetta playing has been a relished not-in-the-guidebook treat for many at SPAH and Buckeye for as long as I've been going. 
Bob used to hold down the chord position - on Harmonetta - Âin a trio that included Al Fontana on chromatic and Johnny Thompson on bass harmonica. I heard these guys the first time I went to SPAH (1992) and they were playing Charlie Parker tunes like Confirmation, in straight-up, no-excuses full-on jazz style. Johnny was playing jazz bass, not bass harmonica style. Bob was voice-leading his chords smoothly and playing sophisticated jazz harmonies, and it was amazing to hear. 
In subsequent years, Bob tended to find a couch in the lobby or some such area. Once he started to play, jazz musicians on the level of Mike Turk, Chris Bauer, Tom Stryker and many others would glue themselves to Bob. Not only could Bob provide the sort of harmonic and rhythmic background that jazz musicians demand, he would also take full-on solos, harmonizing his melody lines as he went. 
And he makes it look so easy. He's playing all this complex, beautiful stuff and yet his hands just seem to be moving on and off the outer keys in a relaxed way, with no apparent effort to form them into chord shapes. 
I've had a Harmonetta in pieces for several years, but I'd been looking for a working one recently. Tom Stryker knew this and was able to hook me up with a seller who had a good one. I swallowed hard at the price, but took the plunge. 
Then, out of the blue, Bob came up to me and started chatting me up about music in general. Once he knew I had a Harmonetta, though, we spent some real face time and he was able to hip me to all sorts of things about playing technique, stylistic approach, and even repairs and tweaking. Now I'm feeling just about brave enough to take that other Harmonetta and get it running again. 

For those who are wondering what the heck a harmonetta is, imagine a desktop calculator with a grid of buttons on the top, but a harmonica mouthpiece on the front. The buttons are arranged in patterns that make it easy to play simple chords but also allow you to play any sort of melody. You still have to move your mouth to the right places on the front (it has nearly a three-octave range, equivalent to a tenor chromatic), but you have to press a button on the top to get a note to sound. 
However, the Harmonetta is not limited to simple chords. The arrangement of buttons, coupled with mouth placement (and tongue blocking) allows you to make any combination of notes in both chords and melodies. The more you know about harmony, the more you can do with a Harmonetta. It's an amazingly flexible instrument 
However, playing the Harmonetta also requires that you master two things: not only do you have to get your mouth on the right holes; you also have to get your fingers to all the places you want on the grid layout of buttons. One saving grace is that you get the same note whether you blow or draw. 
The Harmonetta never became widely popular, probably due both to its complexity and its expense, and Hohner stopped producing them about 1975, after having made them since about the early 1950s (perhaps a historian can supply precise dates). 
Really fine Harmonetta players have been rare, and Bob is the best I know of. I'm sure he was happy see both me and Michael Rubin eager to play and coming to him for advice, and Bob was very generous and supportive. I look forward to seeing him next year and showing him the fruits of that generosity, 
Winslow 
Winslow Yerxa 
Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5 
Harmonica instructor, The Jazzschool for Music Study and Performance 
Resident expert, bluesharmonica.com 
Columnist, harmonicasessions.com 

--- On Thu, 9/2/10, Michael Polesky, MPA <m.polesky@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 

From: Michael Polesky, MPA <m.polesky@xxxxxxxxxxx> 
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] I want to talk about Bob Herndon 
To: "michael rubin" <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx>, "harp-l" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> 
Date: Thursday, September 2, 2010, 5:27 PM 

Hi All, 
----- Original Message ----- From: "michael rubin" <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx> 
To: "harp-l" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> 

> Bob Herndon is the undisputed king of the Harmonetta and showed up at 
> SPAH. I recently bought a harmonetta. He gave me 3 free hours worth 
> of lessons. He took my harmonetta home with him and improved the 
> action and returned it to me within two weeks and included a 1953 
> recording of his band the Harmonikings. All free. I am forever in his 
> debt and intend to learn many songs on the harmonetta in his honor. 
> Michael Rubin 
> Michaelrubinharmonica.com 

I have to concur that Bob Herndon is not just the king of harmonetta, but a prince of a person! This was Bob's first SPAH in several years and I admit I didn't take enough advantage of it. Bob can take any tune and turn it in to a harmonic masterpiece with his incredible use of harmonic motion that always leaves me dazed and, sometimes kind of scared . . . :-0. Anyone who hasn't heard him play is missing something. 

Michael