Amazing! I see a cable running from the button side of the rack down behind the guitar. If I was to guess I would say the the rack contains a simple mechanical link that pushes the slide button that is activated by a foot pedal tied to a bicycle style cable.
both very technical and accomplished but way to busy/cluttered and frantic for my tastes. It is actually very easy to play like Jimi Lee but I find it of no interest after a few licks. It seems most people deem that stuff as high skill playing but I will take this style anyday. It has a loose jumping groove that is a ton harder to touch than it appears. It is a lot easier to spew out a million notes than hit the right ones and let the space become bigger than the music. Jimmie Vaughn and Omar Van Dyke did a Jimmy Reed tribute album. that took nerve because it isn't easy to play so simply and pack a whaloop. Most bands that try to catch the Jimmy reed vibe butcher it. I miss playing the black blues clubs. The audiences would go nuts over these kinds of grooves. White audiences go more for the busy stuff. Walter
this is a cool one I wonder if the full movie is available?
---------- 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
I'm with Walter. I could and have listened to Jimmy Reed for hours on end. His playing has a ton of soul. I don't give a rip if he couldn't play classical music on a harmonica. His music is classic stuff.
I'd be the last one to disparage the minimalism of Jimmy Reed; JR is on this website's Second-10 all-time list for a reason.
Too, there's no accounting for taste.
Jimi Lee has chops, but he's an extremely musical and tasteful player. The first clip that Mischa lays on us, above, in which he's playing "The Work Song," shows him rushing the beat slightly, but that's not typical of him. And what strikes me is how he has the musical wisdom to hold notes for a long time, and to leave space, and to CHOOSE notes (ninths, for example) that give his playing a jazzy vibe. He's hip.
The three players up for consideration in this thread so far are all great players. It's silly, frankly, to engage in comparisons that disparage a player like Jimi Lee. He's one of the very best players alive today, with an immediately recognizable voice on the instrument. It is not easy to do what he does, and the difficult has nothing to do with technique.
I would have to say that Tobias,s playing is quite incredible,not my style but very, very impressive.The foot pedal rig for the chrome is something else.For blues music I,d have to give John Hammond an all-time vote.After seeing him a number of times I was always amazed with his ability to rip on guitar,play rack and sing all together.I saw him yrs ago open for Duke R. and he came out toward the end of Dukes set and played just harp through the mic and that was quite the sh..... as well.Paul Oscher is also one of the tops on my list in this category.(Awesome to say the least)
