Re: [Harp-L] Early live recordings of amplified harp?

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

The late 1940s are usually cited as approximately when amplified harp
started - that is, harp that is not just amplified like a singer or
acoustic instrument might be, but electric harp - harp where the
amplifier is used to color and shape the sound as well as the attack
and the sustain.

Other players besides Little Walter have been credited with this
development - George Smith comes to mind. It seems like a natural
outgrowth of trying to be heard on urban street corners - some busking
harmoncia players would rent the use of an electrical outlet in the
home or commercial building near their street location - and being
heard along with electric guitar and drums and general noise in
nmightclubs. It's not a big step to cup the mic to intensify the sound.
Then the discovery of a new sound begins . . .

Some of Walter's early output with Muddy is clearly electric, as is the
1950s work of Junior Well, both with and without Muddy.

As to Juke, I'm confident that it's an amplified sound. Some of that
whole "Le Riff" controversy over whether the top note in the opening
riff (and later in the stop-verse riff) is a split octave or not is
complicated by the presence of octave harmonics on that one note (The E
in Hole 6 of an A-harp) present as sonic artifacts introduced by the
amp.

When Muddy played Newport in 1960, Cotton was just doing what Chicago
harp players had been doing (and recording) for a decade or more.

By the way, listen to SBWII's Chuck-a-Luck (aka Chicken, originally
issued under Baby Boy Warren's name on, I think, a label out of
Detroit). Clearly an electric sound, as is "Ninety-Nine" under Sonny
Boy's name on Chess. Not bullet-and-Bassman electric, but electric
notetheless.

--- Ken Deifik <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 
> >Could it be that Muddy W:s "At Newport" contains the earliest live 
> >recording of an amplified harp? This was in 1960, and the player
> James Cotton.
> >     Anyone who knows of something earlier?
> 
> The harp on LW's Juke sounds amplified to me, though for all I know
> it is 
> common knowlege that it was not.  Certainly Walter doesn't sounds AS 
> amplified on other recordings.
> 
> By comparison, SBW2's Trumpet recordings do not sound amplified to
> me, but 
> rather just given a little reverb by the engineer.
> 
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