First thought that springs to mind-- if you play harp well enough, i.e. have the musicality and taste to play just the right notes at the just the right time, you can play over, under, all around the vocal. Walter's not just waiting for the singer's pauses. He's all over the vocals, but it works.
I don't really like what Walter is doing in the second vid above. For the most part I don't think it fits.
On the other hand, what Walter plays in the following video is, IMO, just about perfect. It's completely in the groove--the harp part IS the groove, although the guitar is also the groove--and it all fits together. The very long five draw early on with the slight wavering bend is perfect. When you actually sit down and figure out this harp part, you'll realize that Walter is playing some very tricky, non-intuitive stuff. This is as good as it gets.
Edited to add: Now that I've just relistened to this cut after many years, I think it IS perfect. I don't think there's a single note out of place, a single note that isn't entirely justified. What's remarkable is how wide a range of tones, patterns, and note-durations Walter chooses from. He'll hold a bend 2 draw for three and three-quarter bars, then let it up and vibrato it. In the final chorus he does a kickstart kind of half-note triplet 25 draw split and bears down to make it growl. He's constantly changing note durations, yet always, 100% of the time, completely in the pocket. Just as importantly, he ALWAYS adds to what the vocalist is doing. He leaves big spaces between phrases more than once. This is perfect accompaniment.
Last Edited by on Nov 04, 2012 4:33 AM
Speaking of Johnny Shines/Walter Horton-- Here's another classic where Walter accompanies Johnny perfectly, "Evening Sun":
This was recorded on January 22, 1953, and Walter was "in the zone", no? (Just as he was when he accompanied Jimmy Rogers and recorded "Walking By Myself" and "If It Ain't Me"; both on October 29, 1956.)
Back to Shines/Horton. Here's another Shines/Horton song from the same 1953 session that produced Evening Sun-- "Brutal Hearted Woman":
Tom Ball had this to say about these 1953 songs:
"For my money, the ultimate amplified harmonica tone ever committed to wax would be Big Walter's 1953 recordings with Johnny Shines for J.O.B. Records, especially "Evening Sun" and "Brutal Hearted Woman." Although I've been inquiring about this session for decades, no one seems to be able to supply any information about the recording techniques or the equipment used. Of course it's only my opinion, but I consider this 78 to be the absolute pinnacle of possible Chicago blues harp tone - by all means, try to dig up this recording!" Tom Ball on harp-l, 1998
Both songs are great demonstrations of how to accompany a singer with your harp.
About the tone, nobody's said this before, but I don't hear an amp, if that's what Tom Ball is looking to discover. My ears tell me this is an acoustic harmonica played into to a glass in a room with hard walls. I'm surprised more people don't talk about this technique-- using a cup or glass to get a beautiful reverberant tone.
Here's what R.J. Mischo had to say about it: "Walter had great impact on my playing. He had unbelievable tone and control. He did a lot of tricks . . . played through a glass, his nose, used different hand tonalities and would put a mic up to his throat while he played. He played strong all night on the shows I saw."
Here's what Willie Dixon had to say: "They underestimated Big Walter because he stayed loaded most of the time, but once you got him in good condition he could run rings around all of them (Little Walter, Rice Miller, etc.). You couldn’t whistle, sing, hum or play a rhythm of anything that he couldn’t do like you wanted. He’d take a beer can, cut the top out of it, cup the harmonica in there and make that sonuvagun sound like a trombone and no one could tell the difference."
Oops, Johnny Young, Johnny Shines... not paying attention. I have those "chicago- The Blues Today" albums, wore them out in the mid 60s, but still have them. Both Johnnys are on that album, sorry I mixed them up, Kudzurunner. I agree with you, he does a great job of accompanying Johnny Young here.
Bruce Iglauer once said that he felt Evening Sun was the best harmonica solo ever recorded. I agree with him. The alternate takes are nothing short of breathtaking. His work as a sideman is very powerful. I really liked his work on Willie Dixon's "I Am The Blues".
I just spent the past four nights seeing RJ Mischo. His playing captures the sound of Big Walter more than anyone that I've ever heard.
I never had the opportunity to see Big Walter, but everyone that I've ever met who saw him or knew him speaks of him with great reverence.
In my opinion, these videos are, by chance, a dazzling lesson about "conflicts" between the singer and the harp player, the worst beeing in the first video. After this one, we find nuances in how to settle those conflicts, till the great solo in Evening sun, where actually there shouldn't have been a song. Southern women is my preferred, along with Evening sun.
Last Edited by on Nov 07, 2012 6:31 PM
"Evening Sun" is definitely remarkable. I like the "Mumbles" Walter Horton stuff from the same period--recorded at Sun Studios. "Blues in the Morning," etc.
The amped-up tone on "Evening Sun," combined with Joe L's comment about RJ Mischo raises an important point: One thing that makes Walter's tone so remarkable is that he was making those sounds 60 years ago. The "big" amplified harp sound was still a relatively new thing. It was innovative. When RJ Mischo makes exactly the same sounds in 2012--if he's capable of making, or wants to make, exactly the same sounds--they mean something different. They aren't innovative. They're recuperative. They're keeping an old sound alive, rather than creating a new sound and exploring its potentials. Recuperative art-making is important, but it shouldn't be confused with innovative art making--which is what Big Walter's playing on "Evening Sun" was, back then.
I encourage all contemporary blues harmonica players to familiarize themselves with the best recuperative playing and the best innovative playing of the time in which they find themselves. I also encourage them not to confuse the two--and to appreciate how seemingly identical sounds produced 60 years apart have entirely different aesthetic orientations and social meanings. I think that some people are confused on this point. (I'm not saying that Joe L is confused on this point.)
Last Edited by on Nov 05, 2012 9:43 AM
I hadn't listened to Horton , really, since college, and I reminded again that tone and phrasing are more important than speed. His work is a lesson of inspired note selection, emphasis and intonation. Beautiful harmonica playing here. ---------- Ted Burke http://youtube.com/watch?v=-VPUDjK-ibQ&feature=relmfu ted-burke.com tburke4@san.rr.co,
I agree. What makes his stuff so special is that he manages to perfectly complement the singer while, at the same time, changing up what he's doing--textures, tone, note frequency--from chorus to chorus, even while making those changeups seem organic, with each phrase, each chorus, growing out of what comes before. Unity-in-variety, with intensity and perfect balance. That's hard to do!
Adam - I agree. It's very hard to do. The stuff Walter was laying down happened 60 years ago and he was a true innovator on the instrument. When you take into consideration how few people can recapture that sound, the tone, the phrasing, the texture and the funkiness of it all, it's still somewhat remarkable 60 years later.
There's a reason why people are still digging that music 60 years later. It's because it's amazing music that reaches the soul. The old songs have conjured up emotional feelings since they were originally issued.
Big Walter did that with a harp. Otis Spann and Eddie Boyd did it with their voices. Robert Jr and Luther Tucker did it with their guitars. Big Walter was a fabulous artist and an amazing accompanist.
Big Walter was perfect. He had recordings that didn't measure up to his earlier standards. The stuff he with Hot Cottage was sub-par.
Agreed re: RJ! I also remember the first time I heard some serious sh9t from Mischo. Somebody sent me a dub of HE CAME TO PLAY. "Mojo Lounge" is the real deal. I encourage all forum members to preview the entire album and think about sending .99 his way today for that cut. He's got the squall. He's got a huge personality on record. It frightened me. He's got the "thing," whatever it is. In person, he's just a nice, hang-loose guy. (We hung out in Tulsa earlier this year.) But watch out. He's dangerous.
http://www.amazon.com/He-Came-Play-R-J-Mischo/dp/B000C4JH5S/ref=sr_1_5?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1352170717&sr=1-5&keywords=R.J.+Mischo
Last Edited by on Nov 05, 2012 6:53 PM
@Adam: "...changing up what he's doing--textures, tone, note frequency--from chorus to chorus, even while making those changeups seem organic, with each phrase, each chorus, growing out of what comes before. Unity-in-variety, with intensity and perfect balance. That's hard to do!"
This is as good a description about what makes for inspired and memorable improvisation as I've read. It underscores the fact that an ad libbed solo is in essence a composition, with no less theme and variation than something than a scored piece of music would be. And, as you've mentioned , what keeps the stuff interesting are the change ups and variations in emphasis and tone, at precisely the right, but built coherently and cogently on the ideas that came before. This is what all memorable players have in common when they improvise, I think. The elements you've laid out are what distinguishes improvisation from mere riffing, which I would the demonstration of thechnique over inspiration. Riffing , of course, is something that's needed in order to learn the contours ofa song, and one can build a solo from that, but riffing is something that is comfortable for people to stay in rather than advance their expressiveness. The goal , it seems, is to progress from being technicians to being inventors.
I was listening to some Otis Spann recordings this weekend and came across some stuff he did for Chess with Big Walter on it. On this one, the band just smokes. Robert Jr really rips it up.
There is another track, I'm Leaving You, doesn't seem to be on youtube. It's killer, too.
I love RJ's style and the fact that he leaves space between the notes and chords for the other musicians-super nice guy-I got to spend three days with him at Amandas RC in Phoenix.
I also need to take time to mention Sugar Ray Norcia as another of Walters protoges carrying on the tradition-"the man can blow",as Sonny Jr would say
WoW i guess its just me but until we get to the track Adam posted it sounds like Walter was just crawling all over the singer and didn't care on wit.
Second cut is better at first but then come the second verse on he starts stomping again.
When we get to Tighten Up though you can hear him doing some of the same licks and riffs he does in the first video but dynamically it is completely different. Its low key and under the singer not over shadowing, but supporting. totally different player really.
Tone wise he is always a monster. The first couple tracks he is just stomping the vocal pretty hard. What he is playing I like a whole lot but its not serving the song really as a whole.
TheoBurke!!! YOU nailed it, that is a wonderfully insightful way of interpreting Adam's thoughts and looking at the big picture overall :)
Adams quote > "...changing up what he's doing--textures, tone, note frequency--from chorus to chorus, even while making those changeups seem organic, with each phrase, each chorus, growing out of what comes before. Unity-in-variety, with intensity and perfect balance. That's hard to do!"
Theo's quote > This is as good a description about what makes for inspired and memorable improvisation as I've read. It underscores the fact that an ad libbed solo is in essence a composition, with no less theme and variation than something than a scored piece of music would be. And, as you've mentioned , what keeps the stuff interesting are the change ups and variations in emphasis and tone, at precisely the right, but built coherently and cogently on the ideas that came before. This is what all memorable players have in common when they improvise, I think. The elements you've laid out are what distinguishes improvisation from mere riffing, which I would the demonstration of technique over inspiration. Riffing , of course, is something that's needed in order to learn the contours of a song, and one can build a solo from that, but riffing is something that is comfortable for people to stay in rather than advance their expressiveness. The goal , it seems, is to progress from being technicians to being inventors.
Well, from having seen and befriended him tons of times in the 70's, I learned a lot from him and the two most important things were breath control and tone control/tone color variety and you can't have one without the other and there is no bit of gear in the world that's ever been made or ever will be made that can substitute for that, plus how he used his hands to shape the sounds, and even placing the mic on a sweet spot on his neck to amplify where the harmonica was resonating off his neck, which also gave him a very different sound altogether.
Leaving space is another very important element to learn so that you allow the tension to build up as much as possible on its own so that even one single note can have an extremely powerful effect and like SBWII, he's also a classic example of less is more.
Many of the things he did wasn't 24/7 in your face but much of it was very subtle and the more subtle things are, the harder they are to pick up and duplicate properly.
His one minute lesson using MY harmonica showing a friend of mine how he actually did his cover of LW's Can't Hold On Much Longer that he recorded on Alligator was a gigantic eye opener for me and a lesson I've never forgotten. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Thanks for the Sugar Ray posts Tom, great to see him with The Blues Survivors. He's one of a few guys I think don't get nearly enough attention. ---------- Most wisdom I've seen written on a harp forum ever: "The harps voice is so unique that it sticks out like a violin or something. This is fortunate and unfortunate at the same time. If one wants to make the harp really count I think there are many times that one must use it sparingly"<-> Mark Prados
