Re: [Harp-L] chromatic solo (rob)

[Rob Paparozzi <chromboy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yes, I agree with David's point, whether it is Bluegrass or any Genre when it's your "moment" go for it!! Instrumental Music will certainly give you more opportunities as you say too….

and of course it's always a treat to have HARP in Bluegrass as we all know some traditionalist have tried to keep us away but no dice!,-)

Studio Harp is quite the challenge as we've been discussing…not only making the STAR sound good but knowing how to communicate with the 'other' studio cats as Jon Kip pointed out in his excellent post. 

Now here's a session I did and the star really wanted to go for a down home bluesy sound. She already had her sax player on the date and we had a great guitarist and piano player…so I knew I was going to have a hard time finding 'space' around the vocalist with the others doing blues fills etc.

So, I took the bull by the horns 'before' the red recording light came on. I huddled with the band while the singer was on break and mapped out a plan, ok, let's have the gtr and harp open the tune….sax fill on the 1st verse etc etc…The end result, the sound was 'full' but never too busy and never stepping on the vocals and 'all' were featured nicely without taking away from the star of the show Dakota Staton….

My point being, learn to communicate the language of Music so you can quickly do stuff like this, in the studio time IS money and you only get 1 or 2 takes as a sideman!

Cold Cold Feeling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcqhFc4TY_Y

Unfortunately, when your a studio player, all your gigs are NOT this much fun or as glorious,-)

Back in the early 90's I was called to help create a harmonica book for a broadway show called The Will Rogers Follies.
Broadway is a tuff animal as what they SAY they want isn't always what it really IS,-)

This show had a 26 piece band with amazing orchestrations by well know arranger Billy Byers and original Music by Cy Coleman.
I sat with them both and we came up with some nice parts and recorded the cast album and we won best musical that year.

BUT, in the middle of the show was a "dog act" yikes! Hence a little country-bluegrass snuck into the ruckus part of the show…
One night the conductor came down into the pit between acts and said, OK since we won the Tony award they want us on Letterman tomorrow with the 'Dog Act' as Letterman LOVES pet tricks!

So of the 26 pieces myself and the fiddler (Larry Campbell) went to join the Letterman band….not much 'glory' here and a bit embarassing BUT we made the STARS look good arff arff!!,-))) 

When the bassist from the show Will Lee saw me in the hall at 30 Rock with my Harp Case he said, "Rob, your on the show today?"…I replied with my head down…."ah yes, with the dog act…" we both laughed……oh well a gig is a gig!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKwQ1mzMQrM

Hope this helps any aspiring studio harpers out there….happy Harping…..

Best,
Rob Paparozzi

On Apr 20, 2014, at 2:39 AM, JON KIP <jon@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> regarding david's response...
> The "rule"  certainly doesn't mean that as a sideman, you play less well during your solo bits (I'm told that Bluegrass folk call it a "break", but that's probably only to confuse the rest of the world when the leader tells them to take a break) ....it's more pointed at the stuff like Rob showed us , where he's playing behind a vocalist...the fills..... those things need to have their place behind the soloist..... nobody is saying that your top bluegrass virtuosos should hold back, unless,( and this would be interesting indeed)  you are singing, and they are doing fills behind you.... while I've not heard you sing, and don't want to make snap judgements this time of night, I believe that the number of vocals by you,  on your upcoming CD is going to be less than One, when rounded off to the nearest zero, and that, once again, just for spite, you'll be proving that you can play faster and more cleanly than I can. I suspect that that is the main purpose of this cd, which, by th!
> e way, everyone should buy.
> there are some flaws in my logic above, but it's late, and I'm hiding some easter eggs for myself when I get up tomorrow.
> jk
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> On Apr 19, 2014, at 8:37 AM, harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
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> jon kip
> http://jonkip.com
> 
> player of music, mostly written by dead people and played on a toy that everybody's Uncle except my nephew's has the good sense to keep safely out of sight in a drawer.
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