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From: Pat Missin
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1998 17:41:29
Subject: African/Asian harmonica players (was Re: Ismael Lo)

Jonathan Ross wrote:
>

>BUT, we rarely hear about harp players from Africa (this is the first time
>I've heard it come up on the list, but I have a horrid memory). Similarly,
>Asia the home of the mouth-organ rarely gets mentioned. While Irish,
>Quebecois and Brazillian harp styles come up often enough (well, at least
>they come up:), allmost never are reviews of the truly non-western/american
>musical forms as played on harmonica brought up.
>
>BUT, I do know that we must have subscribers from East Asia and Africa who
>may be aware of local harp-playing in their areas, and I would urge you to
>write up and let the rest of us know what is going on harmonically in your
>neck-of-the-woods, as it were:)
>
>So, please drop a line to the L, let us know what's going on in the rest of
>the world:)

Well, we've not exactly been swamped with replies to this, so here are a
few tidbits in the meantime.

The harmonica was very popular amongst African folk musicians, but doesn't
seem to have made it on to recordings too often. One exception is the CD
"Siya Hamba!" (Original Music OMCD003) which has about half a dozen field
recordings from the 1950s featuring harmonica (including one extremely
bluesy track). The harmoncia is also very popular in Madagascar, the best
known player being Jean Emilien, but the band Tarika Sammy also feature
harp from time to time. Recordings by them (along with the whole range of
Original Music CDs) can be obtained from Sterns Music (www.sternsmusic.com).

One of my fave harp players at the moment is Frenchman Vincent Bucher, who
plays with Madagascan-born musician Tao Revao, mixing traditional Malagasy
music with blues. See Ben's web page for more info
(www.xhuan.com/indexuk.htm).

Finally, I think it is almost criminal that Asian players such as Yoshio
Morimoto, Juko Saito, He Jia-Yi, Lee Hea-Bong, etc., are virtually unknown
in the West. These guys are virtuoso players and I would love to hear that
someone was distributing their CDs in Europe and America.

-- Pat.