Yonnet has talent and his band is truly awesome. It's really great to see NPR feature a harmonica-centric performance.
If you look at the comments, the general feeling was that people were impressed that the harmonica can be used in this way. That makes me quite proud to read.
Maybe he'll pave the way for Howard to get featured. It's actually quite surprising to me considering Howard had done so many musical appearances on Prairie Home Companion over the years and Bela Fleck has already been on Tiny Desk.
Obviously having Dave Chappelle be present is still far more marketable, but I can dream! ---------- Ridge's YouTube
A very good player... way overrated in my opinion, but still very good. I'm with ridge in that I'm happy to see the harmonica featured in this way, still, it would be nice to see Howard featured, or Jason or Carlos for that matter. As an entertainer Freddy may be great, but technically he's lacking in certain areas, and quite frankly I find some runs sloppy and making no sense musically. Criticisms here, no matter how polite, often elicit such responses as "look at the audience, they enjoyed it" however, this is harmonica forum, not an audience, so my critique is from the perspective of a harmonica player. Don't get me wrong, I like Freddy and have been listening to and following him since he was playing Weltmeister Blackbirds (aka Seydel). I think he's very good and I think this performance was a good representation of how the harmonica can be used in different styles.
All due credit for being an accomplished player,but I find him a little overvalued. He negotiates tricky changes and has a good melodic sense, but his tone sounds tinny, flat, occasionally brackish. He definitely sounds under amplified on this set and makes me think that he's trying to compensate for being so low in the mix. ---------- www.ted-burke.com
Original Jazz Funk harmonica. I like it and applaud Fred for taking the instrument into a different arena from its usual blues context. Yes there are others who do this and we can differ in opinion as to who does it better but to me that's not important. He's doing his thing and doing it well, and maybe helping to change some perceptions of the harp as a limited instrument best left in the hands of Dylan imitators or old Blues guys. Maybe he's demonstrating it played in a more modern context and making it a bit cooler at the same time. Nice job Frederic Yonnet!
