[Harp-L] Richard Hunter’s CD, “The Lucky One”

[Michael Rubin]

I am not sure I agree that "The praise that matters the most to us all is
the praise
from people who know and have done the most."

The other day I performed a show.  In the front row right in front of me
was a teenager with down syndrome.  His praise, given simply by a great
smile was one of the best compliments I have ever received.
Michael Rubin
michaelrubinharmonica.com

On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 10:54 AM, Richard Hunter <rhunter377 at xxxxx>
wrote:

> Peter Madcat Ruth wrote:
>
> <Richard Hunter’s CD, “The Lucky One”, is simply amazing!
> <
> <Each of the twelve songs on this CD features one or more mind-blowing
> harmonica <tracks, and every harmonica track features a different
> electronically enhanced <sound.  Richard has created such a large
> palette of harmonica sounds: raucous & <clean, complex & simple,
> cutting & smooth, beautiful & weird, other-worldly, and <impossibly
> lush…  And all these amazing sounds support well constructed and
> artfully <performed original songs (plus one cover tune).  The
> production quality of this CD <is flawless.  I highly recommend it.
>
> Thanks Peter.  The praise that matters the most to us all is the praise
> from people who know and have done the most.
>
> I'll just take this opportunity to note that there are many harmonica
> records that feature novel and interesting sounds for the
> instrument--Peter's own records include many, many examples going all the
> way back to the mid-1970s.  What I've done with this record is to use a
> wide range of sounds to put the harmonica into new roles in a rock band.
>
> The traditional role of the harmonica in blues and rock is lead instrument,
> with occasional limited support for other functions in a band. That lead
> instrument role is traditionally inevitable given the range and tone of an
> unaltered harmonica--an unaltered harmonica sound doesn't have enough
> weight or harmonic flexibility to put it at the heart of the rhythm
> section, for example, not with keys and guitar competing for the same sonic
> space.
>
> Magic Dick took important steps with the J. Geils Band to put the harmonica
> deeper into the rhythm section.  Lee Oskar put it into the horn section.
> With modern electronics, it's possible to put the harmonica into a much
> wider range of roles--to orchestrate the sound with harmonicas the way
> Jimmy Page orchestrated Led Zep's music with guitars.  That's what I did on
> "The Lucky One."
>
> With the arrival of a usable MIDI controller based on the harmonica, the
> roles available to harp players expand even further. The DM-48 is not
> really a harmonica, of course--many of the expressive moves that players
> can use on a real harmonica aren't available on the DM-48, at least not
> yet.  (Brendan Power noted in a recent post that he's built an add-on for
> the DM-48 that uses a lever to bend. That's precisely the mechanism used on
> a MIDI keyboard--which is an example of how different the DM-48 is from a
> harmonica.)  But that's not the big issue.  The big issue is that a harp
> player armed with a DM-48 is absolutely unrestricted in terms of what roles
> can be played in the band.  Can't find a decent bass player for the band,
> or a decent organist?  Pull out the DM-48, load up a bass patch or an organ
> patch, and do the job.  Two or more harmonica players can now co-exist in a
> band without stepping all over each other.  Doing so demands a solid
> understanding of how the various instruments in a band interact with each
> other, which means that harmonica players need to think farther and wider
> about the music they're playing.  Great!
>
> I've said before on this list that in the 21st century a musical instrument
> functions both as a sound-generating mechanism in its own right, and as a
> controller for other sound-generating mechanisms.  Harmonica players now
> have the tools they need to enter the 21st century. Let's do it.  We don't
> have to leave the 20th century behind; we can take everything we learned
> with us.  But we can do so much more now that these fabulous tools are
> available to us.
>
> Regards, Richard Hunter
>
>
> --
> Check out our 21st Century rock harmonica record "The Lucky One" at
> https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/richardhunter
>
> Author, "Jazz Harp" (Oak Publications, NYC)
> Latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://hunterharp.com
> Vids at http://www.youtube.com/user/lightninrick
> Twitter: @lightninrick­­­‪­‪­­­‪‪­­‪­‪­‪­­­­‪­­‪‪‪­‪‪­­­‪­‪­­­­‪‪­­‪­‪­­­­
>