I was planning on writing this sooner, but then my computer crashed. I saw Adam play live when he was up here in New York. It was a great show. Sitting in the front row I noticed a couple things about his style that I hadn't noticed or paid much attention to before.
Gripping the harmonica- I play mostly acoustic so I haven't spent as much time worrying about how to hold a microphone and a harmonica at the same time, but I don't seem to change my grip too much. I think the grip I use is based on something I picked up from one of Jason's videos. I hold my harp in my left hand. My fingers extend along the top, and my left thumb runs along the bottom of the harp. The heal of my right hand sits on my left thumb and my right hand curls up around to make the cup. At least when he has a microphone in his hand, Adam seems to have both his thumbs sticking up like field goal posts on either ends of the harp. I'm not sure how I'd get an air seal on the bottom of the harp that way. I have smaller hands and no chin.
Hand effects- I seem to have a pretty slow wah. If I had to describe how I move my hand, I'd say my hand is like a sheet blowing in the wind. Adam's hand is like that piece of metal on the top of a semi's smoke stack. It jumps open and slams shut with purpose!
Adam's Apple- Adam uses his throat to shape the sound way more than I do. His Adam's Apple is like a yo-yo when he's playing!
It was kind of cool sitting so close to the stage. The stage was up a couple feet and I was sitting, so I got a different angle than I'm used to seeing on YouTube videos. I would never have noticed the Adam's Apple from the sort of angles you see on YouTube. It would have been blocked by hands. The hand speed was what really blew me away. It looked like they were being blown open by an explosion.
The foot drum works really well with the harp. It gave the whole thing a driving bass underpinning. I hope I'm not giving away any trade secrets, but the Professor had to anchor the drum to his chair with bungees to keep it from running away from him!
most drumers do tie the bass drum to the 'chair' ... or use the spikes on the drum's feet to stop it sliding away. ---------- "Come on Brackett let's get changed"
Adam is the man he invented a way to play harp his own way . 20 yrs i been a friend of adam and i always respected him .. For the knoledge he has about the harmonica in his head is amazing ...I remember a show i was doing with my band in NYC The Deak Harp Blues Band .. and inbetween my sets Adam came over to my Baseman Amp and wanted to see what I had in the back of my amp .. That made you harp sound so broke up with Crunch Tone ... He already had my amp on a tilt to look behind it ... he was wondering if i put holes in the speakers to get that sound ...I gave him the lowdown on the tube selection i was using at the time ...We were always Friends and harp nutz to the instrument ....I know how to play harp the only way i know ... Put harp in mouth and tell me what key it is ....Im ready .....and same thing if im leading the band i tell them what key im going to be in ....But i dont know im hitting a flatted 5 th or any way to explain how im doing what i do ... Except in real time teaching I teach the old way .. The way i learned from James Cotton ...My teaching at HCH went over verry well .. and I was asked back by Adam .... As far as Adams knoledge of the instrument ... He is the man .. I am so proud of Adam for what he is doing for the instrument .... And we always been Fan's of each others playing ... And now that he is doing to OMB Harp Drums Vocals .. No Loops Live Blues ....Real time Foot Stomping Blues i call it ....Just like Me there isent words that can decribe how i feel ... Its just great ....That even Adam Respects what i started ....And now is doing it ... Long live the OMB Foot Stomping Blues ........Deak Harp.
Mason Casey was killin it before anyone in NYC-he was NYC's premier harp player-he cut my speakers in my Bassman-there was an article I still have about Mason "scientifically" cutting his speakers in Blues Revue magazine. I will always remember his shows at Mannys Car Wash and Chicago Blues.
I wrote the article about Mason cutting his speakers. I wrote the "Journeyman's Road" column in Blues Access.
Long before Mason was killin' it in NYC, there were great harp players killin' it: the guys that Mason and I learned from and followed on the heels of.
Bill Dicey. Nat Riddles. Bob Shatkin. Lester Schultz. Trip Henderson. Danny Russo. (He was THE guy on blues harp back in the late 1970s). Rocky Savino. Paul Oscher.
Mason is a terrific harp player. He was never New York's premier harp player. Mason would be the first to correct you on this. He was a kick ass player who was part of a free-floating group of fine players from the City and the surrounding counties and Jersey, including Danny, Rocky (who worked frequently with Marked Deck), Ron Sunshine, Trip Henderson, Lester Schultz, Jon Popper, William Galison, Bill "Kid Java" Ferns, Speedo Jones, Big Nancy, Dennis Gruenling, Jeff Newsom (who moved out to Idaho and and has an incredible CD to his name) Wade Schuman (part of the scene slightly later), Mark the Harper, and others whom I've surely forgotten to name, including Rob Paparozzi. NYC had a lot of fine harp players in the 1980s and early/mid 1990s. I was one of the few who became a national touring artist. Mason went to Europe and gained a reputation over there. I consider him my soul-buddy, and my admiration for him is huge. He's a very powerful performer, and he does some sick things on the chromatic.
Mason moved to Amsterdam in the late 1990s and hit it big over there thanks to his talent and to his several records on the Blue Frog label, Popa Chubby's brainchild. Last time I spoke with him, he was living on a houseboat in California and writing screenplays and children's books. Mason was always a wildman; he had the true spirit of the instrument.
Danny Russo, Bob Shatkin, Paul Oscher, and Nat Riddles were killin' it in NYC long before Mason. This doesn't mean that Mason wasn't an important part of the scene. He was. But he stood on the shoulders of a bunch of guys who deserve respect. And Mason would be the first one to tell you that.
Last Edited by on Aug 03, 2010 8:05 PM
It says "From 1994 to 1998 he was billed as New York City's Number One Harmonica Player." Hah! That's because Paul Oscher was in retirement and I was out on the road playing big festivals with occasional pauses to be photographed for the cover of Living Blues and Folk Roots. :)
But he was fine, and it's precisely because he knew how to promote himself and do crazy s--t that he made it out of the local scene and into an international reputation. Anybody who watches the video above, ten years down the line from the 1994-1998 window, will understand that Mason is a brilliant performer. In fact, I'm inspired by his example and I'm going to cut loose like a mofo next time I get on stage.
Last Edited by on Aug 03, 2010 8:04 PM
Lester Schultz had a bad stretch where he was in and out of Bellvue. He ended up hanging himself in his own apartment.
This means that five of the NYC harp players I knew, learned from, and was friends with, are dead: Bill Dicey, Bob Shatkin, Motor City James, Nat Riddles, and Lester Schultz, are dead.
The others, as far as I know, are still with us: Trip Henderson, Paul Oscher, Mark the Harper, David Barnes, Speedo Jones, Bill "Kid Java" Ferns....Rocky Savino had some medical issues. I don't know where Danny Russo is, but he can play.
Spencer Jarrett was another guy out of Brooklyn who hung out with Big Walter during the late 1970s and could really play.
I neglected to mention the two guys that Nat Riddles always invoked, along with Bob Shatkin, as guys who really had the stuff: Marty Fink and Lenny Rabenovets. (I just googled Lenny and found an obituary for Leonard "Lazy Lenny" Rabenovets dated 2006. I think that was him. I spoke with him once on the phone.)
Plus--now HERE was a guy who could play: George Beckett. Does anybody know that name? A monster on the chromatic. I saw him play a few times.
Last Edited by on Aug 04, 2010 4:36 AM
Spencer was a bit of a recluse in New York; he was one of those guys who could really play but didn't come out that much. I met him when I was busking solo on Central Park North (59th street) and he came along, stopped, then pulled out a harp and said, "Can I try one?", motioning towards my mic. I handed him the mic and he played for about 60 seconds and I still remember what he did: he played the 3, 2, and 1 draw, in sequence, tongue blocked, in perfect time, and made deep blues. That taught me the importance of the groove and the right bend on the 3 hole.
I never saw him with a band of his own; I just saw him sitting in. But he was certainly one of the New York guys who could play, and play well, before I came along in 1983, and before Mason moved to New York. Memory tells me that Mason showed up at Dan Lynch in 1987 or 1988.
Last Edited by on Aug 04, 2010 4:41 AM
Time line is irrelevant as far as yourself and Oscher -like I said-he was billed as NYC's number one harp player for a reason. He performed with more heart and soul than anyone I know-I knew and grew up with Mason in the 60's. He always gave 100%,no matter what it was-music,stage,theater,partying. He was playing locally in Putnam and Westchester with his band "Whack Attack"-they would pack the clubs there-Mason and Pete Bosworth would draw huge crowds-after the death of Mason's two brothers,he moved to NYC,where he beagan his "healing" process by kicking ass everywhere he went.
Last Edited by on Aug 04, 2010 5:16 AM
That brought up a lot of memories. Being from the Newark NJ area, it was just a PATH train ride to NYC. I had gotten to playing to a couple hundred people a night in funky working class Newark area bars thanks to a mob connected booking agent named Sylvia. The money was great and the crowd energy intense. When I ventured over to NYC I was shocked to see such talent playing to small crowds for peanuts. Bill Dicey took me to his apt and told me he never saw anyone use their diaphram like me. He said he was going to take me under his wing. He sent me to bleeker street to play some dive with a bunch of junkies. They tried to get me high and when I told Bill about it, he got pissed and tried to smash my head with a meat grinder. That kind of summed up my NYC blues experience from the players side. I was thrown out of Dan lynch's at one of bill's sunday jams. I waited months to get up and play a song and once I got going, the band changed keys on me and laughed. I punched them all out and got thrown out. There was Danny Russo standing out there with his harp and said welcome to the club. I ended up playing a lot with him in his cab. I have had my best times outside of clubs and Danny was my first one. Bobby Radcliff was the only other NYC city musician besides lousisana red that treated me like a human being. I found the NYC scene to be small, and the musicians clinging to their gigs with life and death vibes. I grew up with violence and figured why go all the way to NYC for more?
Then there was Terry. He ran Tramps. He liked me and got me up to jam with most of the touring talent that came through the club. That led to me getting some gigs opening for albert collins and buddy guy/junior wellls at the lone star cafe. Terry always told me I had more spirit than the entire NYC blues scene. It was a great experience being around it, but after about a year of trying it out, I tired of it and stuck to Jersey and soon left for California.
Another couple nice guys I met in the NYC scene were John Narucki, the crazy dj at WFMU. He always had me play on his show when I was in town. Ted Stills would come in from NYC when he heard me playing and add his guitar playing. Anyone know what he is up to? The dj's at rutgers new brunswick and columbia university were also supportive of my music. While playing on the columbia station I was singing about a woman giving birth. The station phone rang and this guy says his wife just gave home birth to a boy while the song was playing. They named him Walter.
I found more success playing in NYC with guys like buddy bowser (horn player for the NY Dolls). We played every thursday at one of the biggest drug dealers in NYC browstone. He sold to the rich and famous and had a floor with a pistol range, one with state of the art sound systems, and one with us playing. We were paid great and got to go bags filled with cocaine, pot, mushrooms, and anything else we wanted. That gig lasted 2 years! I was a madman onstage then. I was dubbed pre punk by the punkers once they started. I would dive off the stage onto tables while blowing harp, break bottles and pitchers on the dance floors and roll on them while playing, fight with dancers while playing, and generally making jason look like a laid back mover onstage. The dead kennedy's had me open acoustic for them around that time. I am glad I grew up out of that stage. That jumping around madman playing gets old. It is limiting. Kind of like heavy metal guitar playing, you show it all in a few seconds..... One needs to go through that because that is what adolescence is about. But as you get older it is natural to focus that wild energy into increasingly short intense bursts. That is what I saw the blues greats do in thier latter years.
Other than the older black blues men, the blues scene has never really been to excited about what I do. The rock world has been much more supportive over the years. Go figure. I did meet Adam one night at tramps. I was sitting in with johnny copeland. He was playing solo acoustic. I loaned him my dobro for a set and Adam was outside on the break. All in all I never did put in the time to break into the NYC scene. The cost of getting over there, parking, low pay, small crowds, highly competitive and addicted players, all added up to not very inviting. That is sad because I was a house on fire inspired learner and most all the players there shunned me. Thank you Red, Danny, Bobby, for helping me through that up and down experience. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
@tmf: I love what Mason does, and did. I was responding to your claim above that "Mason Casey was killin it before anyone else in NYC." That's simply wrong. Sugar Blue was tearing up New York in the late 70s. Nat Riddles was tearing up Dan Lynch before Mason moved to NYC. Lots of guys were. Mason came along after that. I'm delighted with his success. He's earned every single drop. I've shared many, many stages with him, at Dan Lynch (dozens of Saturday and Sunday jams), Chicago Blues, Manny's Car Wash. He'll always be a killer player.
Last Edited by on Aug 04, 2010 9:17 AM
Great story well told Walter . Thanks for sharing it.
re. NYC blues scene - I have no take on it as I was schooling and playing up in Buffalo NY -where there was a genuine blue collar/steel town blues scene with some great players. - First bar gigs where with Spoon and the Houserockers. 'Spoon' was a black steel worker and father of 8 by day - with a voice kinda like BB Kings. He ruled the roost at the Buena Vista on Hertel at night - but I digress.
Loved the Poppa Chubby / Mason clip. Good showman, good band. As much importance as we give the harp and it's virtuosos, the music, the atmosphere and feeling created -be it party, church (or both) overall are what count for most folks. The harp is just one instrument we bring to help make it happen.
Wish I coulda been at one of those house parties Walter! ----------
I haven't heard from Rocky Savino in at least 8 years and the last time I was in contact with him, he had been suffering from cancer.
I've known Danny Russo personally since the mid 70's and he had the Howlin' Wolf sound (that was his idol) and the Cotton sound (especially the slow tongue roll sound along with both Wolf's and Cotton's vibrato) better than anyone else I've ever met. Since about 2004, he's been pretty much retired. Hung out with him a lot whenever he was up here in boston, and you almost always saw him whenever Muddy was in town.
Marty Fink used to hang around a lot with Danny and occasionally I saw him come up this way too along with the late Joe Berson, whose quick temper often got him into trouble. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Bonedog569: Those nights with Buddy Bowser at that apt were a real trip in more ways than one! I learned alot from Buddy about when to let it rip and when to hold it back. I was pure rip back then. The dead Kennedys actually had me open acoustic for them with just my harp and guitar. I kept their audience happy til they came on. It has been fun growing up and focusing that crazy stuff to groove and occasional wild bursts of days gone bye. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Dont forget about Gene Plotnick-learned from Cotton and used to hang around Danny. I had the pleasure of meeting Gene and watching him play one night at Terra Blues ,as Steve Guyger invited Gene,Danny and my friend Carlos Colina up to play. Gene is the closest to Cotton I have ever heard. His vibrato is stong,yet sweet-huge chording-yep,Gene is the real deal. He now goes by the name Gene Carpenter-grew up in Brokklyn and was giving lessons there a few years back.
Last Edited by on Aug 04, 2010 11:24 AM
I've met Marty Fink before. He's a really good player and really nails the Big Walter sound. Earlier this year, he was in the Bay Area. Steve Freund featured Marty, Steve Kaufman and me at one of his gigs. Marty sounded great.
Spencer has been getting out quite a bit lately. He's been a featured artist with a band called Tip of the Top. He's been doing a gospel thing and fronting his own blues band
@tmf: Gene Plotnick! Now you got me. Who is Gene Plotnick? I've never heard that name. But I love the sound in that video you posted. Thanks for putting his name up on the screen. What's his story? Do you have an email address? Send it to me. The guy deserves to be better known.
asgussow@aol.com
Carlos Colina used to live in my neighborhood, Inwood, at the northern tip of Manhattan Island. He always was a fine player. I know he's done well in the decade since I left the city.
Last Edited by on Aug 04, 2010 6:14 PM
Gene played a lot around the 5 boro's in the late 60's and early seventies. He was also a fine biologist-he had some problems,and eventually ended up a recluse. He did come back to Brooklyn to play and teach for a whilthen when back to being a biology teacher. The last I saw him was Terra Blues when I first met Steve Guyger. That's all I know about the man-and that he took lessons from Cotton.
Just out of nowere Mason Casey sent me a IM on facebook .... Wow samll world I gave him the heads up on the MBH form .... I hope he comes here and sign's up ....i also told him about HCH .... now that would be cool to see him at HCH ......Just a thought Adam....
I NEVER called Myself NYC's #1 Blues Harmonica Player.
I was Very honored Manny's Car Wash, the Top Blues club in NYC, gave me the title and advertised it, frequently.
Started going to Dan Lynch Blues Bar, in 1982; met Bill Dicey there, he loved my tone, became my mentor, he was a True Bluesman.
I'm impressed by Deep Tone in a Harmonica player, NOT a million rapid notes or overblows. My friend Paul Oscher would tell ya how he feels about that too...
Mason Casey
Last Edited by on Aug 13, 2010 9:02 PM
Hi all. I came across this page while wondering what ever happened to Danny Russo. I first met him at a Muddy Waters gig at the Gaslight around 1968. I saw some of the posts about me, and here's the real story. I had been playing in New York before leaving to the Midwest for a job as a forest ranger. While there I was a member of Willie Pooch's blues band, and also traveled to Chicago with Steve Freund and played up there. When I came back to New York I played with Robert Ross, backing up people like Otis Rush, Big Mama Thornton, Wilbert Harrison and many others. Family responsibilities and health issues were pressing and I made a choice to play out less. Currently I front a blues band in San Francisco, but mostly play guitar with several black gospel groups. One of them, the Gospel Travelers, has been my surrogate family for over 12 years. The musical rapport with gospel audiences, and the feel of the music is close to what I felt in blues clubs in the old days. Singers sing their hearts out, and players play their tails off. I occasionally blow harp at church programs, which people enjoy since so many grew up hearing blues. A couple of things about my playing. I like a fat bottom so my style mixes rhythm and lead. There's slop in there, like the percussive thumping that church organists do. I'm probably a sparser player than most, because it's always an ensemble thing, how we sound together. My breathing was shaped by listening to old sides by the Golden Gate Quartet like "Gospel Train." Best to everyone, Spencer Jarrett
Last Edited by on Sep 06, 2012 12:56 PM
Spencer: Welcome! You and I go way back, as you and I know but as most folks here don't know, and I'm delighted that you found your way to this forum.
For people who don't know, I'll just say that the first time we met, back in the fall of 1985 (if I'm not wrong), I was busking solo through a Mouse on Central Park South in NYC--where 6th or 7th avenue enters the park--and you paused, listened for a little while, then came up and said Hi when I took a break. I handed you my harp mic and you blew for about a minute, and I still remember what you played, because I've sometimes played that exact riff when I'm teaching workshops. It was basically 3d, 2d, 1d, all quarter notes on the beat, and yet with tongue blocking and an exceptional inner sense of balance AND swing that made the riff sound alive.
You were a serious, experienced blues harp player when I was very much a barely-apprenticed work in progress. Thanks for stopping by, acknowledging me on that day, and showing me something. It meant a lot. I'm glad to know you're still contributing your good, seasoned music to the world.
Please feel free to direct us, in this thread or anywhere else, to your personal website and/or some place where we can watch, listen to, and/or buy your music--or see you in live performance.
Last Edited by on Sep 06, 2012 3:48 PM
Adam and others, there's tune-age here: www.spencerjarrett.com Also a video of the Gospel Travelers with me blowing a little here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxBCqOKWrq4
