[Harp-L] Harmonicas covering classic horn parts!

[Shirley, John]

Hey all.

I have long been curious about how it would sound to cover classic songs and replace all of the original wind and brass parts with harmonicas, so when my recording students asked me if I could assemble a faculty band for them to work with this past spring I jumped at the chance to pick tunes with some tasty horn arrangements. They recorded us as their end of semester project and I just finally got around to mixing our version of Born Under a Bad Sign. On this session the brass and baritone sax parts (as per the original Albert King recording) were performed using various diatonics, a chromatic (for one line) and a slider bass harmonica (for the baritone sax parts). By carefully pairing mics, amps and embouchures with each harmonica/voice I tried to emulate the sounds of the original instruments; thanks to Dennis Gruenling for introducing me to these tonal possibilities, as well as to both Dennis and Christopher Richards for the great mics!

Anyway, I think these experiments were quite successful. Here’s the link:

https://youtu.be/sxA64AH6JKY?list=PLD-VQNdNliVQSdAzC3qxLaITHH8x9oTw6

All the best,

- John

John Shirley, Professor of Music
UMass Lowell