[Harp-L] Sam Friedman

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I was not very pleased with some of the comments I read in critique of Sam's stuff. Not pleased at all. That All Blues video has about 300 views. That's about the number of views you'll have from an extended Harp L thread. So that would indicate to me that most of the views came from this Harp-L thread, thus that would also indicate to me that the dislikes clicked upon that video also came from Harp-L and I find that extremely uncalled for.  
It's no wonder kids aren't playing harmonica. You get a kid that tries something new - asks people what they think - and he just gets ripped upon, folks clicking "dislike" on his video. If I were Sam, I'd be telling people to go straight to ____ do not pass go, do not collect $200, instead of responding with dignity and class like he did.
 
So Sam, to answer your questions on the two threads you started. The only thing I liked about "Summertime" was the vocals. They were great. I think the rhythm is too radical a departure from Summertime. Y'all should take that rhythm and write a new song for it. Your stuff worked fine with what was there, but I didn't like what was there coupled with Summertime.
 
The Miles Davis All Blues thing, was a different story. When I was a kid, I used to go to the Elk River Public Library and listen to jazz records literally all day, but as an adult, I only very rarely listen to jazz. So, to get this, I listened to Miles a few times, get to the point "OK, now I know what is Miles is doing," then listened to you and see what you are doing. 
 
Your control over the overblows is incredible, that was obvious even before I familiarized myself with Davis' rendition. .Emico sounded a lot more like Miles Davis than you did. You sounded like you and I like that. As a young player, that is precisely what you should be doing. Brad Harrison was always talking about young players, he always got excited when young people played the instrument. He'd say "I want to hear them make mistakes. If they aren't making mistakes, they aren't experimenting." I didn't hear anything that sounded like a mistake, but I mention that simply because I think it is important for a young player to hear. 
 
You took the piece, let Miles live on in the recurring themes, but my impression was you made the piece your own - I can hear you weaving Miles in and out and there were times you were obviously imitating Miles' trumpet with your tone. 
I heard some good overblow bending in there - obvious overblow bending and I think there was overblow bending going on the whole time. Cause if you weren't bending the overblows up constantly, they would be flatter, I think. Is the draw plate also tuned higher than the blow plate? (Jason Ricci turned me on to doing that).
 
I didn't check the key you were in, so I will pretend you were playing a C harmonica as I mention this. 
The only note that sounded out of place to me was the A from the 3 draw bent down. As rock solid pitchwise as you were hitting everything else, that one note really stood out. Now, if you had that 3 blow tuned to up a step to A (as in Paddy Richter), you'd have that note right there, you could overblow the two for the G#
 
I checked out some of your older stuff to see progress and man, there is progress. Your control of the overblow has really improved and it was dang good to begin with.
Are you hooked up with Connor Frontera and Bradon Bailey's Justice League of International Young Harmonica All Stars in the Fortress of Solitude or whatever they call it? That would be a great place for you to network and get some better advice than you've been getting here. 


David Payne
www.elkriverharmonicas.com


Elk River Harmonicas Forum now available via Iphone app, www.elkriverharmonicas.com/forum


________________________________
 From: Sam Friedman <sammyasher@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Maurice Nazzaro <mauricenazz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
Cc: "harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> 
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2012 12:53 PM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] "All Blues" - Sam Friedman
  
Hey Maurice, thanks for your feedback. I actually do play the melody of
"All Blues" pretty clearly in the beginning and end. Take a listen to the
track from Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" and you'll hear what the original
tune is.

-Sam

On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 12:41 PM, Maurice Nazzaro <mauricenazz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> wrote:

> Blues can be interpreted In all genres however the common thread in any
> song, blues, jazz, rock, whatever is a MELODY which is non existent here.
> Melody and rhythm Please!
>
> Maurice Nazzaro
>
> On Jul 25, 2012, at 11:07 AM, Venky Ramakrishna <jazzyvenky@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
> > Sam -
> > The title should be- "Anything but blues"; there's some degree of
> confusion
> > between the influences if I may add- Howard Levy style and others. If I
> had
> > to take away all of your overblowing/ position playing techniques (which
> > you are good at) from the show, the blues rendition is just aweful. And I
> > don't understand the need for that extra playing- it affects the outcome
> of
> > your product in a negative way. In this regard, Todd Parrot and TJ Klay
> > stand out as impressive players.
> >
> > Also, listen to what Carlos del Junco has to offer and take it from
> there.
> >
> > Venky
> >
> > On Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 7:25 PM, Sam Friedman <sammyasher@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> >
> >> Hey all,
> >>
> >> Here's a recent video of my trio playing All Blues. Unfortunately the
> >> sound quality isn't great, so I recommend/encourage you to listen with
> good
> >> speakers or headphones to be able to hear the bass well. Let me know
> what
> >> you think!
> >>
> >> -Sam
> >>
> >>
> >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwu3AZG_47k&feature=youtu.be
> >>
>