Re: [Harp-L] Sinatra and harmonica

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Danny Welton is not an easy guy to work with; saw this close up at the 1994 SPAH convention, while George Smith is not someone who would have been on the radar of people working with Sinatra. Toots would have been on their radar, and could have worked out on a better day, perhaps. Tommy Morgan would have defintely been on the radar and in LA , would have been the guy to call normally.

Winslow
 Winslow Yerxa
Producer, the Harmonica Collective
Author, Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
            Harmonica Basics For Dummies, ASIN B005KIYPFS
            Blues Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-1-1182-5269-7
Resident Expert, bluesharmonica.com
Instructor, Jazzschool Community Music School
President emeritus, SPAH, the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica


----- Original Message -----
From: Wilbur Euler <dubyail@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Mick Zaklan <mzaklan@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: harp-l <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2015 5:22 PM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Sinatra and harmonica

>From what I can come with This Town is the only time Toots played with Sinatra.
Regards,
Wil

Sent from my iPad




> On Nov 21, 2015, at 2:12 PM, Mick Zaklan <mzaklan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
>   I posted previously about a negative harmonica reference I found in the
> new Frank Sinatra biography by James Kaplan.  I found one other interesting
> harmonica item in the book.  The author mentions a disappointing recording
> session partially "redeemed by the weirdly wonderful "This Town"---the
> closest thing to a straight-up blues Sinatra ever recorded, complete with
> wailing harmonica...."
>   Listening to the track (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxSRxwx581k), it
> definitely cooks but the harmonica stuff is pretty pedestrian.  How much
> better would it have been if they had used a guy Sinatra had worked with
> before, Danny Welton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn-nfSr0n_Y?  Or
> brought in Charlie McCoy, who did a nice job on a blues with Elvis Presley
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7Q6OlKHywA.  Or if George "Harmonica"
> Smith had been nearby.  Definitely a missed opportunity, to my way of
> thinking.
> 
> Mick Zaklan