Re: [Harp-L] overblow terminology

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Howard was not the first to call them overblows. When I met Will Scarlett in 1974 he was playing them and calling them overblows.
I remember Peter Madcat Ruth remarking that he used to seeÂHoward Levy at jam sessions in Chicago (Where Madcat grew up) and that early on Howard was trying for a lot of stuff involving overblows but not succeeding a good part of the time; even Howard took awhile to get it all together. I don't have a year reference for these observations; perhaps madcat could provide further context.ÂWinslow Yerxa
President, SPAH, the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica
Producer, theÂHarmonica Collective
Author, Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ Harmonica Basics For Dummies, ASIN B005KIYPFS
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ Blues Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-1-1182-5269-7
Resident Expert, bluesharmonica.comInstructor, JazzschoolÂCommunity Music School
      From: Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
 To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx 
 Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2015 2:26 PM
 Subject: Re: [Harp-L] overblow terminology
   
>
> Howard Levy once said that it took him several years to discover overblows
> and about the same amount of time to learn how to apply them. Howard was
> not the first to record overblows, several other people used them before he
> did. But they didn't call them overblows (from the sax and trumpet overtone
> series), they just played them.

I don't know when or where Howard made those statements, but they conflict strongly with my memory. I met Howard in the spring of 1973, when he visited a mutual friend at the university that I and the friend attended. At that point in time Howard was an astonishing player on piano, tenor sax, steel clarinet (which he played like a soprano sax), recorder, and harmonica. It was pretty scary to compare my own talents on piano and harmonica to his, I can tell you. I was advised by Howard that he had been playing harmonica for only two years at that point. As I recall, he was already overblowing with great facility; in other words, he already sounded like Howard Levy.

If my memory is true--and I have few memories so clear as this one, because Howard made one hell of an impression on me; it was one of the highlights of my college years--then after playing harmonica for two years, Levy was already an accomplished overblower with a thoroughly unique, heavily jazz-horn-influenced style.

If the alternative timeline from the quote above is available somewhere for reference, I'd like to see it. I suppose my memory might be faulty (whose isn't?), or that I overestimated his capabilities at the time, or even that Howard might not remember his own history accurately. In any case, I can't reconcile my memories with the statement above.

Regards, Richard Hunter