RE: [Harp-L] Sharing Harmonicas

["Eugene Ryan" <ryan.eugene@xxxxxxxxx>]

Nate wrote:
> > but then I'm not Jerry Portnoy or Junior Wells am I.

Hey Nate,

I remember seeing something very similar on another live Muddy concert with
Jerry Portnoy and James Cotton from the roughly the same period.  I remember
being a bit amazed that he handed the mic and harp (Bb Marine Band) over to
James Cotton on Kansas City.  I guess they were different times - different
ideas about harp sharing.  Anyone know the particular concert I'm talking
about or where to get my hands on it?

But what a sound!  I had just started out playing harp, and then I heard
Jerry playing this screaming blues harp - my jaw dropped and I just had to
learn this music.

Speaking of learning solos note for note, I learned every note from the harp
on this concert - or as much as I was able to at the time.  In general, I
wouldn't advocate playing a solo verbatim, but every player steals ideas
from other players - how else do you learn that style and learn to play
idiomatically?  I continue to do it, it's just that it tends to be from
instruments other than harmonica these days.

A little story from a few months back - the jazz group I play in was playing
to an almost deserted pub during a really hot summer's evening (it means
most people were outdoors).  We were playing Miles Davis' So What and as an
initial idea, I played the first couple of bars to Miles' solo as I had just
learned it off.  Then, for the craic (fun), I decided to keep going with the
rest of Miles' solo - the place was so empty it was more like a practise
session than a gig.  The trumpet player turned to me afterwards and said
"nice solo" completely unsarcastically.  "Yeah, not bad, I'' admit that", I
chuckled...  Don't try it at home folks - more than a couple of bars of
copying will get groans and complaints from the other musicians.

All the best,
Eugene
http://www.eugeneryan.com