Other web Sites
Harmonica Blues  Harmonica Amps
Harmonica Links Harmonica Pages
• Archives Home
• Years
 · 1992
 · 1993
 · 1994
 · 1995
 · 1996
 · 1997 		 · 1998
 · 1999
 · 2000
 · 2001
 · 2002
 · 2003
 
Web HarpL
Ebay Searches:
Amps:
Microphones:
Effects:
Harmonicas and Gear:
Harmonica Music and Instruction:

 

 

Harp-L Archives

[Previous Message] [Next Message]
[Previous in Thread]
[Start of Thread] [End of Thread]

From: "PM"
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 00:37:14 -0500
Subject: Re: Howard and da Blues

>In a message dated 98-01-13 10:30:13 EST, you write:
>
><< So, my conclusion is, even if he could, he just ain't "wired" that way .
. .

>I mainly wondered whether a modern master like him ever listens to those
old
>blues players and wonders "how did he do that?" and has trouble figuring it
>out. But like veryone's saying, there's a lot of individual personality in
it...

>Appreciatively,
>Graham

Graham:

To answer whether Howard has ever listened to all the old
masters etc, and did he wonder how they "did" that, the
answer is a resounding YES!!! One of the biggest
moments in his life(as he tells the story)was the
moment he got his first "bend."

He was walking back from a rally with the Chicago 8(Bobby
Seale was there too)at Northwestern U when the big moment
happened. (He was 19) . . .

He sez that he started playing harmonica because he "wanted"
to play BLUES(he had been a piano player and in his words-a
natural jazz improviser. He claims that he's never taken a
lesson in jazz-he's always just "heard" it).

Just to finish the thread, he says that he stumbled on to the
overblows because, after he had gone through the traditional
blues vocabulary, he started feeling that the missing notes "had"
to be there-somewhere . . . He's said that "physics" determined,
(like on a flute), that they had to exist-they just had to be "found."

So, on blind faith, he determined that he'd find out how to get
them. He sez he destroyed a bunch of harps, but within two
years, he had "found" all the overblows and overdraws . . .

(BTW, I realize that others had apparently done overblows
through the years, but Howard apparently knew nothing of it) . . .

Anyway, that's what "I" know about it.

Any other insights out there . . . ???


Best regards-Paul Messinger/Chapel Hill NC