Yes, this works much better on violin, clarinet and flute, but if tuba and trombone players can do it, why not diatonic harmonica. It is kind of the ultimate show off piece. You showed off some very fluid chromaticism on a diatonic. Nice work. I have a lot of work to do to get overblows to work well at tempo. At least now I know it is possible!
Nice effort here. It's a very tough tune for a diatonic harmonica, but I saw the late, great chromatic harp master Larry Adler do this on the old Johnny Carson Tonight Show on TV in the 80's and he just made my want to throw my harps away after listening to him do this tune. Just totally floored me. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
WOW! It's quite an accomplishment to play the song well on ANY instrument. You've done it on the harp.
I once had a Julliard educated flutist play it in my face at a bar in San Diego. I didn't care for her performance tho, admittedly, her articulation was crisp. (We played in different groups at the same bar. She had just done a ptooey on my performance because of my impure Roland Kirk/Ian Anderson type notes.)
Outstanding! Never thought I would hear this played at that speed on diatonic harmonica.
Alan "Blackie" Schackner received the Harmonica Player of the Year award at SPAH 1999. He played a long set (Five videos!) with many great songs on chromatic, and at the end of his set he took audience requests. Here in video #5 at about 5:05 he played an excerpt of "Flight of the Bumblebee". It does not appear to be at the speed of his earlier and younger performance of this piece that put him in the Guinness Book of World Records.
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Doug S.
Last Edited by dougharps on Apr 07, 2017 10:32 AM
Glad you seem to be interested in discovering Blackie Schackner. He did a lot of session work in NYC back in the day and was performing right up until he passed away a few years ago. One of the original characters, too.
I hope this inspires a few others on this list unfamiliar with him to take a closer peek, too. ---------- The Iceman
Thanks for that Alan Schackner video! Of course I know David Herzhaft's version of this. Without it I probably would have not recorded my version of the piece ;)
There seems to be a bot on Youtube...I have over 500 dislikes already !! ---------- www.konstantinreinfeld.com Harmonica Lessons via Skype: kr-harper
