I'm a long time lip purser. "Blowin' the Family Jewels" is a great study for people (like me) trying to learn tongue blocking. It's also a great example of William Clarke's creativity.
CREATIVITY
A long time ago, our blues band members talked about what made Little Walter great. I said, "It's his incredible technique on the harmonica". Our bass player and drummer agreed. Our singer/guitarist, the creative genius in the band, scowled and corrected us-- "What are you talking about? It's his creativity!" As soon as the words came out, I knew he was right. I, the harp player in the band, was embarrassed for thinking otherwise.
William Clarke had that creativity. Not all harp players do. Listen to "Blowing the Family Jewels" and decide whether you've heard anything like this from any other harp player.
TONGUE BLOCKING
William Clarke's tongue blocking in this recording of "Blowin' the Family Jewels" (Satch Records, 1987) comes out loud and clear, especially in the first part of the song. Have a listen. Perhaps it will help you understand and use tongue blocking. William recorded it again on "Groove Time" (Alligator Records, 1994), but it's not nearly as demonstrative of his tongue blocking technique.
I hope I embedded the video correctly. In case I didn't, here is the URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9bclh-8s7w
Cheers,
wolf kristiansen
Last Edited by wolfkristiansen on Jun 19, 2018 1:10 PM
Wolf: Agreed! The creativity is key to what made those guys great. LW, BW, SBWII (William Clarke too) - the special thing they all possessed was that they were creative geniuses and crafted their own sounds and played in ways that nobody else did. I can play just about anything that these guys recorded from a technical standpoint, but there's no way in hell I could create what they created.
As an analogy, I can speak English just fine, but I didn't invent the English language.
And as for Blowin' the Family Jewels, that's a great instrumental and there's definitely a lot to learn there. I used to play that one as a William Clarke tribute and set closer with my old band, and it always seemed to go over great. Clarke had a creative bag of tricks a mile deep - I definitely suggest studying his stuff to anyone who's not familiar with him.
There's also one other big thing that all of the harp greats have in common and that is that they don't do the totally dumb thing harp players are notoriously guilty of doing, and that is, listening EXCLUSIVELY to harp players because all of them listen and borrowed tons of stuff from other instruments and then adapted them to the instrument and moved beyond that.
Creative musicians take chances based on stuff they've learned and built upon over the years and aren't afraid of possibly making mistakes. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
I agree with Bob. I had the pleasure of meeting Bill on a few occasions and he mentioned several times that he was a great fan of saxophone players. You can see it in his song choice and hear it in his playing.
Last Edited by Little roger on Jun 20, 2018 8:14 AM
I wonder if saxophone players/sax forums ever post that mostly all saxophone players would be foolish not to spend countless hours listening to harmonica players
........just curious
In addition, with so many harp players consistently fantasizing about the saxophone, why not just learn to play the sax? Let’s face it, no matter how talented a player is, horn lines NEVER sound as good on the harp as they do on the sax/trumpet, etc
Last Edited by CarlA on Jun 20, 2018 8:39 AM
"...horn lines NEVER sound as good on the harp as they do on the sax/trumpet, etc." Fine. But horns can't do what a harp can either. And I'll get what I can for trying horns on harp. This is me, trying hard, 20 years ago. Ambitious, at least. And in a William Clarke thread, no less. But at least this IS all TB. And I'm using a JT30 with an element I took out of a green bullet -because William Clarke told me that was what he was using. He was pure bad ass (all respect -DG).
@Carl A -- My good buddy Sax Gordon, who's a GREAT saxman and friend of mine has told me a number of times he's borrowed stuff from harp players too! ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Bob, Maybe it's "mama always told me if you don't have anything nice to say..." Since I acted like I was doing horn things I'd "enjoy" your take on the recording above - even if you have to do it in all caps... :)
My aunt always told me if you don't have anything nice to say... sit right here and tell me all about it.
Last Edited by wolfkristiansen on Jun 20, 2018 11:37 AM
I think there are several harp players that play both. Sax Gordon wrote the lines for one of my cds and I and Thomas Feldmann (harpsucker) played them. Sax does or can influence your lines on the harp - Little Walter is a good example. Evans Shuffle is borrowed from a sax line from a Bill Doggett song. There are many examples.
Evans Shuffle borrows from the Honeydripper and Bill Doggett never recorded that at all. LW does quote on the opening line in his chromatic instrumental Let Me Off Uptown by Gene Krupa with Roy Eldridge on trumpet and Anita O'Day on vocals and he also quotes Charlie Parker's Salt Peanuts in the instrumental Flying Saucer. William Clarke quotes Charlie Parker's Yarbird Suite in Fishing Blues. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Here's another song where William Clarke creates. Not like "Blowin' the Family Jewels", but creative nonetheless.
Funk!
Harmonica players don't play funk or, if they do, play it successfully. William channels James Brown/Get Up Offa That Thing and Kool and the Gang/Jungle Boogie in "Cash Money", but gives his own slant on funk. Have a listen--
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Here's the URL if I didn't embed the video correctly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gomqs1_1_vU
Cheeers, wolf kristiansen
Last Edited by wolfkristiansen on Jun 21, 2018 2:54 PM
