I don't think it can be denied. THIS is Modern Blues Harmonica!
I love this direction. I hope it takes off...
The harp player is Andor Olá, who I've never heard of before this. The band is called "The Mississippi Big Beat" and they hail from Hungary. This is cool stuff! ----------
I think it's a weird and fantastic video. I've just shared it with the faculty and students at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and with my Facebook friends. Wild weird stuff.
Great music!!! My only issue is that the songs visual imagery in "Hurricane" are not hurricanes at all, but rather TORNADOES!! Am I missing something here??!??
CarlA, I believe Adam might call that a dialectic, meaning it has two meanings. The tornado nor the hurricane reference is actually that, given the amount of Crossroads being shown, it might mean the devil is coming.
I'm glad y'all (generally) feel the way I do about this one. I actually found it during my monthly "Beatbox Harmonica" YouTube search (I like to keep tabs on that stuff). I think the "Beat" in "Mississippi Big Beat" is what got into that search string... Anyway, when I heard it, I was immediately struck. I wasn't even looking at the video (I multitask while at work). This is very cool. I was like "kid koala meets live blues band!" Then I looked up, and said "Wow, this video is really cool too!". The double whammy!
The only problem I see--in terms of crossover potential--is that this band is from Hungary. I see them doing REALLY well in Europe, but a band from Hungary calling themselves the "Mississippi Big Beat"? I worry that that won't fly too well with us Americans... ----------
Everything but the harp could be called modern,the harp is enjoyable, i like it but it sounds thin and would fit more if it was amped and modern tone with phased or echo involved...just my opinion !! also, what is being played on the harp sounds like what`s been done on harp for many years...nothing new....
Last Edited by colman on Feb 21, 2013 6:15 AM
I like it, but I wouldn't say it's a modern blues harp. It's a normal bluesy stuff in a modern context. I always think that modern blues harp should be something equivalent to guys like Keb Mo or Robert Cray on guitar and that would probably be someone like JJ Milteau
I'm a closet fan of Moby and The video's sound very very much like what he's been doing forever. He hasn't used Harmonica to my knowledge but rather a sax or synth. I do like it though, but I wouldn't really call it "new". The live stuff is interesting.
Last Edited by rainman on Feb 21, 2013 6:49 AM
yeah, that kind of stuff (naming) works well in Europe generally speaking (seriously huge huge audience potential). Musically, I like it, though I nearly stopped the first track after a few seconds because I'm subjected to the electrodiscopopfluffstuff here so much and think it's generally soulless drivel. Takes a real turn for the better then thankfully. Hereabouts (Berlin) I can see people thinking: oh that's cool, meaning the electrofluff mostly, with the harmonica being a nice accent. Conversely, I'm not convinced (and it really doesn't have to) that it would make someone interested in the fluffstuff (I'm being obviously polemic here) will go: oh cool, I want to hear more of that funky-quirky sound layered over the main track...
While I agree that the harp playing in and of itself is not "Modern", I would argue that simply by putting the harp into this context "modernizes" it to a great degree. A "creative reinvention by context" if you will. In any case, this is fundamentally different from the Moby, Tangle Eye, Kid Koala stuff in that it mixes electrobeats and samplism with a live band and live singing of new lyrics. The beats and samples are "there", but the feel is much more that of a "band" than a "dj". I've been waiting for quite some time to see a band go in this direction, and I'm happy to see it! ----------
Video is great, music is fun. But I can't take much of that dance beat. The video is the star without it I would have turned the music off after a minute or so.
I liked the Hurricane song a bit better. Issue for me is that music seems lacking feeling
The live thing was just not my taste at all-But then again I don't care much for effects or electronic rhythm sections
I guess to many Europeans the name Mississippi is just an exotic word that is the equivalent of folks here getting tattoos in chinese alphabet that they can't read. Budapest Blues Benders might have been a better,descriptive name I will say that their stuff is better than most of whats played on commercial radio. And they have an original sound-so more power to them
j.j.milteau is great-didn't think the singer fit in , but that man can play
Last Edited by Goldbrick on Feb 21, 2013 7:39 AM
The song was modern blues, but was the harp playing? I need to hear something that doesn't sound like postwar blues harp to feel that - that doesn't mean there are overblows, but there needs to be something modern sounding about it: tone, note choice, phrasing, etc.
There is a really cool Dr. Pepper commercial that has a modern blues feel. There is harp all over it. Some of the playing feels modern, but they mostly manipulated it in studio...the real time playing was more of a traditional harp sound.
I dig modern sounds with harmonica - whether the harp playing is familiar or fresh - and I don't dislike this song by any means. I just wouldn't call it modern blues harmonica. I would call it modern blues with harmonica, or something like that.
Concrete examples of modern blues harmonica - Jason Ricci's, "The Way I Hurt Myself", Carlos Del Junco's, "Just Your Fool", LD Miller sitting in on, "Your Funeral, My Trial", and Paul deLay's, "Beautiful Bones".
I enjoyed listening and I think its fine and clearly lots of others like this band. Thats great!
Okay, hate to be the buzz kill. Neither the harmonica playing or material strikes me as modern at all. It sounds very traditional in many ways. Sure there's the techno aspect of the material and the use of electronic production, but it doesn't hit me as "modern blues music."
To digress further, I never have been so crazy about the use of the phrase "modern blues music." Blues music by Robert Cray has always struck me as modern. It is certainly blues based, but the chord structure is different and doesn't rely on it being 12 bars all the time. But there is no denying I'm listening to blues when I hear it. A lot of Adam's music material doesn't strike me as modern, but his harp technique is very different from traditional harp playing. Funky fing is a perfect example, very contemporary sound and technique, but the material is a very basic blues structure song.
Last Edited by 6SN7 on Feb 21, 2013 11:15 AM
Ford Brothers Blues Band and John Nemeth are artists I've listened to in the last 24 hours that play modern blues....their arrangements are influenced by factors that extend beyond the blues of the 50's and 60's. The vocal style does as well. Finally, but have harmonica being played in a style that is influenced by postwar blues, but not limited to influences and styles from the 50's and 60's.
I think the OP here is more of a mashup of genres than blues music played with modern overtones.
It is hard for me to articulate, but there is blues influenced by modern technique and sounds and then there is blues played in a traditional manner with modern elements added on top.
The first video ("Want Some")-- I hear a one chord (funk?) groove. I like it.
I'd have no problem weaving in, out and around the groove with my harp, though I do not play modern harmonica. I agree with the posters who say the harmonica in this video is pretty traditional.
The "modern" feel is only because most of the music comes from a synthesizer rather than acoustic or electric instruments. Substitute traditional instrumentation (e.g. acoustic or electric guitar, etc.) and the song would sound like many one chord vamps, from John Lee Hooker onwards.
These reactions are quite interesting to me. It's clear that the qualification of "modern" means different things to different folks. What's really interesting to me is that BOTH folks who've self identified as traditionalists AND those who've self identified as modernists have been quick to call this harp "traditional", and this sound as "nothing new".
Personally, I don't see a difference in the "effective modernity" between a) playing the harp in a "new" and "modern" way, and b) taking traditional harmonica playing to "new" and "modern" musical contexts. I think they both achieve what I see as the goal of "modern blues harmonica": moving blues harmonica to places it hasn't been before. I see this song/band as a clear example of that.
One thing I will say, however, is that upon several listens, I'm starting to think the particular beats they are working with are a bit too weak. Especially in "Want Some". Perhaps "weak" isn't the right term, rather than that they are definitely euro/techno sounding. I think a more hip hop/club groove, with heavier hitting drum sounds (like classic 808 or 909 drum machine sounds) would fit better. But that's my own subjective opinion. :) ----------
The trick, of course, is that there is more than one word modifying 'harmonica' in modern blues harmonica. It's fine to adjust the structure of a song, but at some point is it blues? The forum has modern harmonica players who may not be blues, and blues guys who may not be modern. I'd say this definitely still has some blues signifiers, and is modern compared to traditional blues. It might be retro for dance music though.
Pretty cool mix of sounds, and the video is amazing. I'd add that it has a little touch of an iTunes ad mixed in. :)
puri: Thanks for that! Amazingly, your posting here is the very first I've heard of that video/recording. You are absolutely right. It's modern in every respect while still echoing all the old stuff.
JIMI HENDRIX Is modern blues.over 40 years old but still as modern any blues has ever seen.He`s LIGHTYEARS AHEAD of any thing I`VE HEARD since and a box ain`t gonna make even a harp modern it`s the attack...hendrix`s was from another demention !!!
Boy I am cynical. I have heard this type of song a lot, it is not blues, it is dance music and I think it is well done and I could dance to it. The harp is doing nothing new although it works very well with the song. The video is the best part about it but without the attractive women I would have stopped watching after a minute.
To me Puri is most accurate. Is modern dance music with not-so-modern harp. Hopefully they will take it to a higher level - they have the right idea but need better harp and better blues v. dance. I do like it though. Maybe it was as Michael said, the women had something to do with watching it all. Thanks for posting. But would put JJ Milteau above it for sure.
The two produced videos are fantastic. The live performance doesn't quite get it accross - for me anyway. They don't have anyone on keyboard or beat machine. Never thought of myself as into 'dance' music though I'm now exploring similar turf with my iPad looping experiments. My biggest gripe about it being the soul-less nature of the machine genereated beat. Combining it with something human and bluesy changes it for the better. That 'Some Body' video also makes me feel better about minamalist lyrics in the this context.
The JJ Milteau video is also killer. The lyrics and delivery by the singer a huge plus on that number.
Thanks for the turn on to both of these bands.
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Last Edited by bonedog569 on Feb 23, 2013 10:09 AM
Just all goes back to that taste thing-I loved the music on the JJ Milteau piece but disliked the singer-to me she sounded like an artsy wannabe abby lincoln-had the pipes but too much drama delivery instead of heart felt But hey thats what makes music interesting
Last Edited by Goldbrick on Feb 23, 2013 10:16 AM
