[Harp-L] RE: SPAH (continued)



I just didn't want to repeat what else is posted, since I'm a digest reader and I figure there will be other posts on this. Also, I only was there Thursday night through Saturday night/Sunday morning so I can't say what happened prior to that. But here are a few things, since fjm asked:
PT Gazell's playing really seemed to bridge between the chromatic jazz and diatonic players with his half-valved harps. His performance of jazz standards at one of the concerts seemed to go over pretty well with both camps. Really good backup band, also. However, at the teach-in I saw mostly diatonic players talking to PT (and I was one of those).
Dennis Gruenling gave a really strong performance with a band made up of members of Jason Ricci's band, Michael Peloquin on sax, and Dennis' usual vocalist, Gina Fox.
Ron Kalina's chromatic jazz was terrific, and he sat in on piano with various players at different times.
Stan Harper, whose career goes back to WWII, was hampered by a really poor quality cassette tape background and some sound system problems but still sounded great. Blazingly fast runs on chromatic that had everyone impressed, he doesn't seem to be slowing down .
Still some division between old guard chromatic/ harmonica trio and diatonic players, really seemed noticeable to me at the concerts as many of the older crowd didn't stay for the sets of some of the blues sets.
Jason Ricci was really something. His concert performance was incredibly high energy, really aggressive but he did dedicate a nice melodic tune to veteran Al Smith.
I think the Filisko teach-ins are a real plus, with many tables at which anyone interested could meet one-on-one or in small groups with performers and technicians . Seeing Jason Ricci demonstrate how he uses triplets to build patterns, etc. was enlightening. Dennis Gruenling did a great job of helping guys with their tongue blocking, etc. and there were many other tables to visit.
At the blues jams (which, for people that haven't been to SPAH, consisted of Joe Filisko playing backup guitar and Allen Holmes on upright bass, sometimes with Jimi Lee also on guitar, while players in a large circle took 12 bars, or sometimes 24 bars, of acoustic soloing) , it was really interesting to hear the different approaches to soloing over 12 bars. Among the guys really turning heads were Tim Moyer, Tom Albanese, George Brooks, Warren Bee, Chris Michalek, Ben Nathanson, and I'll be in trouble now because I'm forgetting who else. I never made it to the jazz jams so someone else can talk about that.
Dennis Oelling and Scott from Meteor Amps gave a good demo of dialing in good amp sounds and microphone technique. A variety of amps were available for tryout at other times, which was the only real chance for non-performers to plug in during the week.
Seemed like Cara Cooke had a bluegrass jam going on most of the time, as well as the other pickup jams in the lobbies.
Jimi Lee was a terrific blues performer/songwriter and participated in a number of the jams, open mics, etc.
What else? I leave that to more observant and articulate folks. I would just say in closing that I'd recommend this highly to players at any level. When I came there I only knew a couple of guys there other than by reputation but it didn't take long to feel welcome. The Mile High club and SPAH volunteers really had things running pretty smoothly. I'm glad that the Denver location made this pretty affordable for those of us in the West; the location next year is Milwaukee and I don't think I'll be able to manage that one but I'll see. For now, I need to practice!





I


On Aug 20, 2006, at 9:28 PM, fjm wrote:


Actually I hope you do expand on your Spah experience. The last couple of years have been thin in terms of the post event reporting. It's almost as if an unspoken what happens at Spah stays at Spah rule has been invoked. I include myself amongst the guilty. fjm







This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail 0.09 (Mailman edition) and MHonArc 2.6.8.