nothing unusual going on here. just 8 harpers waiting to take their turn. the climax??? it is a show, after all, and you gotta give the paying crowd what they want. it was nice that not everyone was playing the same licks at the end. sometimes 12 bars just aint enough
Without that context - yes, far too many. With the full understanding of what was happening here, absolutely not. When I'm in need I hope my mates play their hearts out for me too.
Last Edited by on Jul 01, 2011 5:02 AM
I was part of the Cambridge Harmonica Orchestra and the single largest turnout we ever had was in 1986 at the Adams Morgan Day Festival in Washington, DC, where we had 86 people on the bandstand. There were two lead sections, two rhythm sections (both of those harmoncias), plus a chromatic section, chord harp section, bass harp section, augmented by melodica, accordions, wash tub bass and drums, and it was a hot muthafuya out there playing in the swealtering heat in the summer there.
What that was big band harmonica, working more like a big band horn band with players of may different levels of playing ability and musical styles. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Personally I can't usually stand to hear more than two (three maximum) harmonicas being played at the same time unless it's in the context of either an orchestra or a "Harmonicats" style outfit.
Typical "blues harmonica" jams like this in my experience end up with a wall of noise that's akin to screeching cats! Unless all the harmonica players are playing "Brass" style riffs in unison. I often feel that they are doing the instrument a disservice. When they embark on this "let's all play at the same time" mentality.
Of course that's only my opinion and I'm sure plenty of people disagree with it.
One of the things that gives harmonica musical and emotional appeal is the contrast between the distinctive "voice" of the harp and the timbre of the other instruments.
This is not an artistically aesthetic performance. It's a circle jerk.
you got to put in context. it's a jam type atmosphere for a friend.
but if you take it for it's face value; yes. too much. but i guess you guys that dont like it would say the same thing when any instrument is used in quantity by people that done rehearse playing as a group, huh?
Well, IMHO, certain minimal musical standards apply even if the players are just jamming. Personally, I'd be embarrassed to be a part of such a mess. But, in reality, there are certainly a lot of harmonica centric harp players out there who would think stuff like this is cool. To them it's like, the more harp the better, right? Go figure....
Adam - YES (too many harps at once), but the part about 3 min when they all play together is good in weird kind of way (wouldn't want more than a few bars of it though!) Also kind of weird is the negative comments - a little while back you posted a clip of Jimi Lee on guitar with yourself, brandon, jason, alex etc etc all taking it in turns to play. Strange that the overall tone of the comments was much more positive. Umm .. wonder why that was? For myself, harp always sounds better when balanced with other instruments. Play 10% of the time and sound 100% better.
