Blues Week is an event run by the Augusta Heritage Center at Davis and Elkins College in Elkins West Virginia. This year the harp instructors were Charlie Sayles, Jay Summerour and Larry Eisenberg. Other instructors included Sapphire - the Uppity Blues Women, Nat Reese, Howard Armstrong and others. The guest artist was Bob Margolin of Muddy Waters fame.
This was my second year. Last year I went as an utter beginner and learned much from Phil Wiggins who is a patient and very instructive teacher. My hopes where high this year that the instructors would bring up to the next plateau in harp playing. I was to be disappointed.
This year there were 33 harp players in addition there were people who registered for other instruments or voice and wanted to learn some harp. Harp classes had 20 to 30 students as compared to guitar classes which had 6 to 12 students. Phil Wiggins could not make it this year, but will be back next year.
Jay Summerour is a wonderful player. His style is sparse and very laid back. He plays mostly chugs and rhythms, with an occasional burst of a bright colors. He is not, however, a good teacher. He did not have any lesson plan that I could figure out and we spent the whole time doing train sounds and preparing for the student concert. Jay was once in a harmonica orchestra and wanted to set us up to do some simple stuff for the concert. He taught very little and mostly that to the beginners. His class was a waste of time to most of the more advanced players,
Charlie Sayles is a visionary performer. He is introduced as being in the Chicago tradition, but he is influenced by his career as street musician. His performances are characterized by an incredible instinct for showmanship. At the instructors concert he did a variation on the harp train that blew me away. Playing alone he dazzled the crowd with his skill.
Charlie, however, teaching method is very visceral. He believes that it doesn't matter what you play as long as you feel the beat and play at the right time. In class we had to dance in a circle playing call and response. We also took apart some SBW2 songs, playing the bass and guitar parts as well as the voice parts and then singing the harp parts. Charlie's methods don't work well with students expecting to be told what hole to blow through. He never tells you what to play, only when to play it. I enjoy his classes, but I am never sure exactly what it is I am learning.
Larry Eisenberg is the exact opposite of Charlie Sayles. Larry is a student of Levy - right down to the overblows and the Golden Melodies. He plays in lines rather than riffs and is extremely cerebral in his playing and his teaching style. He spends the classes lecturing, rarely playing and hardly ever trying to get the class to play something that he has taught.
Many students like Larry's style. As a person, he's a heck of nice guy, so I find it difficult to criticize him. But his playing style makes me cringe. He is not turned on to the blues tradition. He is a great stunt man and plays notes and lines that are way beyond mortal men, but it's not blues. It isn't even good jazz. Levy is very musical in what he plays. If you leave Levy's skill and take away his feel for the music, you have Larry Eisenberg.
BUT - nobody goes to Blues Week to learn. The main thing is the Jams. The first night, my brother and I got in trouble for bringing Amps to the Ice House. The Ice House is a series of rooms with a piano where students can jam. We brought that "devil's music" with the amp sound and it was not appreciated by the teachers who were mostly acoustic players. We got our amps banned, but not before some great things happened. My little Premier Amp has an attitude now because it's heard how a harp should be played. There were some hot harpers there. I play mostly rhythms and don't take a solo unless forced to, but even I took a turn at the fun that sunday night.
On Tuesday night I heard some jamming on the patio outside the dorm where the teachers stay. Bob Margolin was there leading a small Jam. I pulled up a chair and took out my harps. Damn! I was Jamming with the man who played guitar for Muddy. My brother came around so I told him to go get a camera, but he came back with his guitar and sat in with us.
Wednesday was the Picnic and I jammed until around 4 in the morning. There was free beer and some real West Virginia moonshine. I am told that my harp playing was hot, but I remember none of it.
Thursday night my brother and I broke the rules and brought the amps back to the ice house and Bob jammed with us until 4:30 in the morning. When I left, Bob Margolin and the Sapphire women were outside sitting on a car bumper taking pulls from a bottle of tequila, too drunk to play, but they were trying.
The week cost me about $450. I didn't learn much, the cafeteria food was bad and the dorm rooms were dirty, but all in all I'd say I got my money's worth.
