[Harp-L] SPAH Memorable Moments

[David Fairweather <dmf273@xxxxxxxxx>]

More memorable moments:

1.  Getting one-on-one "lessons" from Sam Friedman, Grant Osborne, Charles
Spranklin, and Winslow Yerxa, (just to name a few).  Abundant opportunities
to  learn directly from the best is what makes SPAH so incredible.
2.  Performing in front of an audience with the Fourkey diatonic at the
Friday Night Jazz Jam.   That was the world public debut of Fourkey tuning
and we got a nice round of applause, thank you!
3. Getting up early the next morning to co-present the "Introduction to
Fourkey Tuning" seminar with Prof.Roger Myerson.  The seminar was pretty
well attended considering it was 9am Saturday morning!   We had a nice
Powerpoint presentation which got cut a little short when we ran out of
time, so I didn't really get to talk about or demonstrate the LeGato
Chromatic much,  but anyone who wants to see the entire presentation can
find it here.   http://home.comcast.net/~rbmy/fourkeyintrod.pdf
4.   As I said before, it was a blast to jam with Jimmy Gordon.  He was
playing his CX-12 in the key of E (he loves those sharp keys!) and I was
playing the LeGato Chromatic on "My Girl" and "Isn't She Lovely".   You
can't help but smile when JG is around.   Thanks Jimmy!
5.  So I'm hanging out for a bit on Saturday night with the legendary Will
Scarlet.   I show him the Fourkey diatonic tuning and he's all ears and very
complimentary.   Then I say to him "So what's this "Will Scarlett" tuning,
that's listed on Overblow.Com?"     He had no idea what I was talking about.
  But then he says,  "I do have this one harp in my box that I tuned.  It's
kind of different."   Will then proceeds to play me an almost indescribably
exotic flowing solo with flavors of Middle Eastern, Indian, and Gypsy.
 Really beautiful entrancing stuff that goes on for several minutes.   It's
nothing like the bluesy stuff I usually hear him play.    After the solo I
ask him to play just the blow and draw chords and we both crack up laughing
because the chords sound like they're straight out of a 1950's Suspense
thriller where, as Will put it "Something Really Awful is About to Happen!"
  I wish I had thought to figure out exactly what the notes were, but they
weren't just diminished chords, more like demented chords!  The fact that
Will could get such beautiful exotic music out of those chords is even more
astounding to me.
6. Saturday night, of course was the banquet where I accepted the Merit
Award for Michael Polesky, and watched great performances by Buddy Greene,
Stan Harper and that fabulous Harmonica Quartet from Trossingen featuring
Gerhard Muller and a trio of lovely, incredibly talented ladies.   WOW!
 I'm sure someone else will fill in all the details but their technique was
jaw dropping.   I was impressed by the way even the ladies were able to cup
their chromatics almost completely enclosing them.   And in another example
of how you can learn directly from the best at SPAH,  after the show,  I sat
down with Gerhard and he showed me exactly how to hold my hands to get that
cup!
7.  After the show everyone was looking to jam.   I ended up in a back
corner near the Vendor's Room with Slim Heilpern (who brought his Ipad with
iReal Book player for our accompaniment),  Ron Kalina, and several others
who drifted in and out  (sorry I can't remember everyone's name.  I think
Sam Friedman,  Roger Myerson, Grant Osborne and several others.)    Anyway,
  I wish Smokey Joe Leone had been there, because he had been wanting to
hear me sing, and I got to sing several of my vocalese numbers like "Groovin
High", "Tin Tin Deo",  "Confirmation",  "April Skies", "Star Eyes" and a
bunch more.   I can't even begin to describe how much fun it was to hear
these guys swingin' behind me while I sang     As the evening came to a
close I found myself trading fours on the Fourkey on the tune "Four" with
four great chromatic players!   I will always treasure that moment!   So
thank you SPAH and Ron Stryker and everyone else who helped put it all
together.   See you in Texas!