RE: [Harp-L] Re: Tony "Little Sun" Glover



I always enjoyed reading his words in "Blues Harp."  He had a breezy, hip
style and I loved it.  Here are a few passages:

"Same thing with music...the flashiest, fanciest, fantastic-est mouth harp
technique is wasted unless it's used to help tell the story or paint the
mood.  Mechanics are only a tool.  Don't make the mistake of letting them
become an end in themself (sic)." 

"Yes, babies, it's best to take care of your harps...maybe in your old age
they'll do something nice for you."

"As far as I'm concerned, this Sonny Boy (II - my note) was the all-time,
non-stop BOSS of bluesharp...so it's a little hard to write objectively
about his style.  And it's not only his harp...it's his songs and the way he
sings them...for my bread, he was one of the top bluesmen, period."

And...

"Fourth is still another key to play the same harp in.  I discovered it (I'm
not saying I was the first cat to find out about it, but I discovered it for
myself) one night when I was trying to find out what key harp was on a
certain record."

Finally...

"First off, why is it necessary to "bend" notes?  Well, we all have to have
our little perversions, right?"

Tony Glover was my first teacher (in "Blues Harp") and I really dug the dude
and his hep cat lingo.  

Robert Gaustad




-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Richard Hunter
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 6:13 PM
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx; mr_jlemko@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Harp-L] Re: Tony "Little Sun" Glover

Joe Lempkowski wrote:
<Forty years later, reading his
<reviews of other harp players, he has no room to <criticize the performance
of others.  I never really <understood what the fuss was about with this
guy.

1.  A music critic needs good ears and the ability to write well. 
Glover has both, whether he's a great player or not.  Here's Glover's last
sentence from a review of Chess's boxed Little Walter LP set, maybe three
decades ago:
"Genius is a f---ed-over word these days, but Walter was one for sure.
What's more, he knows how to get you off."

I write this from memory, and I can do so because those words are memorable.
Like I said, Glover can write.

2.  Glover's book "Blues Harp" taught a generation of young players the
basics of blues harp, at precisely the moment when white America discovered
en masse the roots music of black America. It may not have been the best
book on playing harp ever written, but it was the right book at the right
time, and it was good enough to do the job.  It was a great inspiration to
me, and it was the main reason I approached Oak Publications in 1976 to
publish the book that eventually became "Jazz Harp," which may in fact be
the best book about playing the harmonica ever written -- at least that's
what Pete Pederson told me in 1981.

So Glover's made his mark on the world, and that's what the fuss is about.

Regards, Richard Hunter
hunterharp.com



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