[Harp-L] Once upon a time . . .

[Joseph Leone]

The problem, as I see it, and remember I could be totally full of it. BUT NONE of the players mentioned play a ‘Head' or a complete ‘Melody’ of a tune. At least they haven’t demonstrated
that they CAN. All I hear are riffs and runs. Now riffs and runs are good. And DO give a flavor to a piece. But they can only take you so far (musically) and I think this is one of the reasons
that the diatonic isn’t taken as seriously as other instruments. Corrections to the above are cheerfully solicited.

‘Pa’ Pua

> On Feb 1, 2019, at 7:52 AM, The Iceman via Harp-L <harp-l at xxxxx> wrote:
> 
> really fast is good if you don't have a lot of time ..   everyone liked when you could get from NYC to England REALLY FAST in an airplane instead of slow on a boat way back
> However, sometimes it is the slow voyage that is way more enjoyable than the fast trip.
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Trip Henderson <trip.tunes at xxxxx>
> To: harp-l <Harp-L at xxxxx>
> Sent: Fri, Feb 1, 2019 7:38 am
> Subject: [Harp-L] Once upon a time . . .
> 
> Dan Lynch's Bar, NYC late 80's.  Me, Adam Gussow, Mason Casey, Lester
> Schultz, Bob Bavido, a couple of others, aka the usual freereed bothers are
> waiting our turn to sit in with the amazing Holmes Brothers who hosted the
> regular Saturday afternoon Blues jam.  In walk some army fatigue wearing
> scruffy college punks (with their parents Volvo keys in the cargo pockets
> of their pants), and they announce that no they don't want to jam at the
> jam, they want to play a couple of songs by themselves, ok, fine. Up they
> go and play some non-blues music, we all shrug, then the singer pulls out a
> harp and plays REALLY FAST. Then down they go, out the door, see you later.
> The freereed brothers are speechless, finally someone says, "wow he was
> fast", we all agree, "yep REALLY FAST", then more speechlessness, finally
> someone says, "but no tone" like a pack of dogs we all chime in, "yes, NO
> TONE!!!" having dismissed them with the ultimate harmonica player dis we
> all blissfully settled back into our camaraderie.
> 
> A couple of months later I'm mountain biking in the hills of New Jersey and
> I see scrawled on an old abandoned barn the name, Blues Traveler.
> 
> Its a good thing I'm not an A&R man.
> 
> -- 
> *Trip Henderson*
> https://soundcloud.com/trip-henderson