Kingley
3031 posts
Aug 24, 2013
3:28 AM
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Here's some great playing by some of the best diatonic harp players around. Every time I hear the country and gospel guys play it just reiterates to me how sloppily many blues guys play. If you listen to the intonation of the notes as they play them and the clarity they get on every note, it's simply breath taking.
In this example you get Phil Duncan, Buddy Greene and Todd Parrott showing how to embellish a simple melody with tasteful flourishes that stray from the main theme but still stay close enough to not lose the listener. Jimi Lee and Steve Baker show how to dirty it up and make it sound more bluesy. For me though it's Charlie McCoy's performance that is the undisputed king of this video. He just really takes his time, let's the notes breathe and plays the melody pure and simple. No frills or fancy flourishes. He just let's his deep rich tone do the talking and shows how playing a simple melody can be so beautiful.
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rbeetsme
1342 posts
Aug 24, 2013
5:33 AM
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Some of my favorites there, thanks for posting Paul! Terrific!
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Littoral
977 posts
Aug 24, 2013
5:40 AM
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Yes. A melody like Amazing Grace especially. It works so well that I hear most anything beyond the inflection and emotion of a note, the right note, getting in the way.
IMHO, and especially in this case which did lend itself to interpretation. This video does make for an interesting comparison though. McCoy's take was just easy on the ears. I could receive it. For me it's the lesson that it's always about the listener.
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kudzurunner
4213 posts
Aug 24, 2013
9:16 AM
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Kingley, I agree with you that this is an exceptional video--one of the greatest collection of harmonica players in this idiom ever assembled. I'll also agree with you about one element of Charlie McCoy's performance: it was arresting. I don't hear the deep rich tone that you hear, however. I hear a thin, clear, relatively undistinguished tone. All he does is play the unembellished melody, perfectly. He does nothing surprising with it--and THAT is surprising.
What I hear, in other words, is a player completely submitting to the melody. He doesn't try to add any personality to it. But I suspect that he's making a calculated decision here, a decision to go all the way simple as a way of distinguishing himself from this pack of Top Guns, and that decision in itself says something about what a shrewd player he is. Perhaps everybody expects him to to the uptempo thing, the bravura thing, the show-me-whatcha-got thing. And he refuses to play that game. I see what he does as another kind of game, but it's a great game. He compels your attention because you keep expecting him to throw SOME spice into the mix. And he doesn't. He just serves you the thing itself: the unadorned melody.
I thought every performance had something memorable to it. I preferred the thicker tone of Buddy Greene, some of the unexpected melodic choices made by Jimi Lee, and the darting embellishments that Todd threw in. But yes, I'll always remember how Charlie played this one, in every sense.
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Kingley
3036 posts
Aug 24, 2013
9:29 AM
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"All he does is play the unembellished melody, perfectly. He does nothing surprising with it--and THAT is surprising."
Yes I agree Adam. So much so that in the video you can almost hear Phil Duncan thinking "I didn't expect that" as Charlie plays.
"I thought every performance had something memorable to it."
Yes indeed.
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1847
1009 posts
Aug 24, 2013
11:00 AM
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check out jimi lee
i hear all these different melodies
the 2 nd phrase sounds like chestnuts roasting on an open fire
i also hear paul simon..still crazy after all these years
thats what i hear anyway... how do you subtly sneak in ideas like that?
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master po
i get a lot of request when i play my harmonica
"but i play it anyway"
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1847
1010 posts
Aug 24, 2013
11:09 AM
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4 out of 6 harp players agree.........
leave your shirt untucked for the best tone!
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master po
i get a lot of request when i play my harmonica
"but i play it anyway"
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kudzurunner
4214 posts
Aug 24, 2013
12:28 PM
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@Kingley: After all, Charlie McCoy is the Man. All those other fine players know that. I'm sure they all listened to and copied his recordings when they were learning. And there they are on stage with him. And HE knows that each of them is a great player in his own right who could easily give him a run for his money and could maybe match him note for note and even perhaps run circles around him.
So how, in that circumstance, does he maintain his position at the center, at the top of the heap?
The only way to do it is to do what he did: Give us the note-perfect melody, the essence. After you've done that, no other player on the stage can do that--because they'd just be copying him. So each player is both liberated and forced to do their own thing, and they can't match his thing.
It's possible that I'm reading much too much calculation into what he did here. Perhaps what he did is how he plays the song on record. Or perhaps he really is as shrewd as I think he is and, like an aging Zen master, he knew how to hold his place at the center with the fewest possible brush strokes.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Aug 24, 2013 12:29 PM
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1847
1011 posts
Aug 24, 2013
1:20 PM
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well my guess is.......
he has a pack of cigarettes in his top pocket
and is clearly out of breath. from years of smoking.
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master po
i get a lot of request when i play my harmonica
"but i play it anyway"
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capnj
154 posts
Aug 24, 2013
7:05 PM
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I'm glad he's out of breath on that one,no need to muck up a spiritual.That song is right in charlie and buddies wheel house,I crave melody over musical acrobatics half the time.Great show of different styles.
Last Edited by capnj on Aug 24, 2013 7:06 PM
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Kingley
3046 posts
Aug 25, 2013
2:28 AM
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Kudzurunner - Adam, it would seem that Charlie (at least some of the time) plays this tune very straight. Well at least this cut from his 1977 album Country Cookin' and the SPAH video would suggest that's the case. Live of course I wouldn't be surprised if he embellished it quite often. Having never seen him in concert though I can't really confirm that.
Last Edited by Kingley on Aug 25, 2013 2:31 AM
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lumpy wafflesquirt
735 posts
Aug 25, 2013
4:21 AM
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For a numpty like me, can someone please say which player is which, the only one I recognise is Buddy Greene :^(
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"Come on Brackett let's get changed"
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Kingley
3047 posts
Aug 25, 2013
4:40 AM
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Lumpy - As you look at your screen from left to right they are: Phil Duncan, Charlie McCoy, Buddy Greene, Steve Baker, Jimi Lee, Todd Parrott.
Last Edited by Kingley on Aug 25, 2013 4:41 AM
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lumpy wafflesquirt
736 posts
Aug 25, 2013
8:43 AM
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Ta
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"Come on Brackett let's get changed"
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Aussiesucker
1311 posts
Aug 25, 2013
5:02 PM
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Great stuff. I agree that Charlie for my ear was outstanding. Were all players using the same cross harp position? Whatever, it is such a great tune that lends itself to countless interpretation across any & every genre.
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HARPOLDIE’S YOUTUBE
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