Okay, Sam Friedman is young and still relatively unknown, so perhaps "the great" is premature. But listen to this kid play: in my humble opinion he's phenomenal. (His channel is YouTube.com/SammyAsher.)
PIANO: Todd Gates HARMONICA: Sam Friedman GUEST OFF-STAGE HARPIST AT THE CLIP'S END: Todd Parrott
Sam is amazing. His style is unique and he has masterfully stepped out and away from all blues. He is a really nice kid. He tried out a few of my harps and I was really hoping some of his good habits would run off on them! Great guy.. and player ---------- Greg Jones 16:23 Custom Harmonicas greg@1623customharmonicas.com 1623customharmonicas.com
Sam is great. You sounded pretty darn good on the harp too, Todd! I really dug that acoustic solo thing you were doing in the hallway the night of the banquet.
@scojo Thanks Scott! (I played two solo pieces in the hallway that night, so I'm not sure which one you're referring to, but here are the links to both, complete with NYC subway reverb: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bac-CifaALU, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHaIzGVzODg)
Anyway, it was honor to get to accompany Sam: he’s like a young Howard Levy, only my personal taste preference leans more towards Sam than Howard.
Also in that room were Todd Parrott, Brandon Bailey, and Jay (last name??), and I had the honor of accompanying them on piano too. I’m going to put together another video of those jam sessions, but it will take a little more editing and I have to get permission from Todd first about how much of his piano playing I post, because he far-too-modestly says he “doesn’t play piano” (when in fact he sounds damn good!).
Yes the kid is technically very good,still a hard sell,since you don't get paid by how many notes you play.I am glad he is getting away from the blues,now he better produce with let's say the wine and cheese jazz crowd.My advice is to grab the tiger by the tail,get that big chromatic,and start laying down a future.Get that Toots Thielmen classy groove,and play with the masters.
I am not here to start a brouhaha,old school,newschool,nothing really new under the sun.Listening to this blues band with a black cat playing harp,he is smooth never overplaying,yet hits these short soft jazzy interludes.Talk to him later,he loves Toots,and I'm into Little Walter.
Last Edited by on Aug 22, 2012 8:02 PM
