I'm sure that some forum members are familiar with these two names, but I wasn't. Stumbling across two exceptional videos (audio w/visuals, really) yesterday, I knew that these deserved sharing.
Eddie Mapp is a prewar player and here he plays first position in a way that you just don't hear these days. Makes you realize that players back in the 1920s really pushed the boundaries. He recorded this when he was 20 and he died soon after:
Kid Thomas is a postwar player who moved from straight-ahead Deep South/Chicago blues into rock n' roll. Most people know him as a rocker of the Little Richard wildman school. This recording would be a good party-trick: play it and ask folks to guess who it was. Would you have guessed? My initial thought was that it was early James Cotton, because of the wild edges on some of the notes. He's a great blues player:
Here's his rock stuff. Check out the extended "rock harp" solo! If you're looking for the father of rock harmonica, somebody who stands back behind Magic Dick, this guy is a great candidate. He strikes me a sort of missing link. The beginning of his solo seems like a comedown from the gritty blues of the earlier recording--and then he catches fire and takes off:
And here is his Wiki entry. Mississippi-born, it should be noted:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid_Thomas_%28musician%29
Last Edited by on Nov 24, 2012 6:46 AM
