This is what I sounded like when I was 17 years old. This is the band I had when I was in High School and these are all of my original tunes and some of them are on my CD that I released a few years ago.
Sorry for the really poor recording but all we had back in those days were boombox recorders, none of that fancy digital stuff.
The bassist was this girl that everyone hated but I liked her despite the fact that she had a really funky odor about her. I never understood why she wasn't liked and I never spoke top her again after high school because she moved to Portland to be with her dad.
The guitarist is now living in Tokyo and the drummer is living in italy - touring with some euro jazz band, the last anybody has heard of him.
The Moj .
Evenston .
The Journey (I wrote this after I heard the Flecktones for the first time) .
Swing Thing - named that because I never had a title for it and always called it that Swing Thing .
Brasilero Habenero .
---------- "The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
Chris! You finally got these on here! I listened to Swing Thing as that is my favorite tune of yours. Your vibrato was there and the tone was good but I can definitely see how your playing has advanced over the years. AWESOME stuff.
Thats awesome Chris. Your the best teen harp player I have ever heard ;). But really, WOW. Even at 17 you were one incredible musician. ---------- Brandon Bailey
thanks. I've always been very musical and able to hear music flowing through my head and all I have ever done is try to play it. I have some tapes of my playing when I was in my late 20s that is wicked, it's strange to listen to it after all these years. I was a very aggressive and non-relenting player then. I'm much more mature now.
I think I told both of you at one time that as good as you are now, I was on a different level then even at the same age. Of course I was much crazier. I didn't have a life and all I ever did was play harmonica until I feel asleep with it in my hand.
Brandon, I really like the direction you're going headed and Zack, you just need to focus on one thing for awhile and you could be better than everyone. Nobody I have ever met, has the level of focus that you do...but you're not focused on a single thing right now and that has become a barrier for you.
I still think Jay Gaunt is the best young player out there and the only one that reminds me of me, however I was an ugly kid and stayed focused on harp. Once Jay gets into girls, I bet it will be all over for him for several years. We'll see...
Right now, Brandon you have the best chance at success with the harmonica.
---------- "The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
I remember chatting with you about this once. I'm working on it and thanks to my growing knowledge on piano it is becoming easier to focus and play. And, Brandon, I want to hear some new stuff soon!
Pretty cool. As Zack says, 'Swing Thing' already sounds very developed regarding style and sound - I like that one best too. But also the Moj has a nice groove.
Can somebody help me out... in which position are they?
Edit: ok, I only have G harp here but... swing thing: G 3rd the moj: A 2nd ? ---------- YT
Last Edited by on May 06, 2010 5:30 AM
Buddha Great! You've already have your style, your phrasing, your style of timing, your vibrato. Jason Ricci in his 16 was awful especially comparing to you. Your musicians are good too!
GH, I am going by the version I have heard on his album, but I'm pretty sure Swing Thing is played on a C harp third position. Actually, I know it is considering I worked it out once, but maybe this version is different.
The Moj - is A harp 2nd position Swing Thing is C harp in 3rd position
Everything else is G harp in third position.
I was very much into playing in 3rd position and on lower keyed harps back in those days. I was also very much into Howard Levy and that sound comes from listening to his work with Lorraine Duisit, Bonnie Kolac and Claudia Schmidt.
I was very lucky to have a very cool local music shop called the homestead pickin parlor. They were very folk oriented and knew all of the great players I "needed" to listen. One of the employees is the person who made Bela Fleck's purple electric banjo.
---------- "The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
First is the origin of swing thing. I don't know how old I was but I was 16-17yrs. This is NOT good plauying but I was a kid, however so many seem to like Swing Thing, I feel it's appropriate to share some of this stuff even though it totally makes me cringe. I'm sure I have more stuff that progresses to the final version but I haven't gone through all of the tapes yet.
Origins of swing thing 1 .
Origin of Swing Thing 2, here you can hear the melody starting to come together a little more .
---------- "The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
Having just spent 5 days as a parent chaperone for my daughter's high school concert band trip to this years Banff Music Festival, I've had a pretty good look at and listen to the musicianship level of high school kids. Chris, those tunes are really good. How much harp setup adjustments were you doing at that point? Or is it just 3rd position out of the box playing?
(Gee...maybe if I ordered a Buddha harp I could play like that! Oh wait. I did already! :)
I mentioned about my harp set up in the blues in a dream set up.
As for you harp, I'm exclusively working on harps for Oda, Germanharpist and you so it's coming soon for all of you. ---------- "The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
yes but I was part of the twin city harmonica society and Dick Gardner was there. I would sit and learn from him every week for 4-5 hours. I would do little repairs for the club and then applied the techniques to the diatonic.
Because Dick was so highly regarded in the harmonica tech world other folks like Rick Epping would come out and I would learn from him too.
We also had some of the old school chrom players who would stop by like Jerry Murad, Jerry Adler, Stu Hunter, Tommy Morgan and Blackie Shackner. Dick would work on all of their harmonicas and they would talk about how they liked to have things set up. XXXx hole is a little lazy, xxx hole is too soft etc.... I learned so much when I was a kid.
---------- "The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
Thanks Chris, and Zack I will have some new stuff posted really soon. I just finished my last final exam today, and I will be playing harmonica ALOT from here on out. ---------- Brandon Bailey
This one has it's own thread but I think it should be here too because its from the same time period.
***
Blues in a Dream.
This is more stuff from when I was a teenager. I don't know when exactly I did this but it was definitely sometime before the fall of 1989 because that's when the guitarist moved away to tokyo for college. My best guess it was the summer after high school because we would go to open mics or play short coffee house gigs.
Things to note, I was bending OBs back then and that's due to how I set up the harps. I learned to do that stuff when I was 15-16 and have been doing it ever since. It's very likely the bent OBs in this recording are some of the very first ones ever captured on a recording. I know Howard wasn't doing it back then and I didn't know any other OB'ers at that time. I'm not claiming to have "discovered" it but I was very into finding all sonic possibilities on the harmonica. Also note that I hit the 1 hole OB as well.
You can also hear my Sonny Terry influence in the blues.
.
---------- "The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
And yes I used to play the Chromatic. I actually own 8 of them in a couple of different keys. And the very first recording session I did was with the Chromatic.
---------- "The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
oops, Waits started with Ribot in 1985, before this was recorded, and that is where much of his direction comes from...
still, very good harp playing buddha for a young one, maybe you will come around full circle someday? it would be interesting to hear your approach to the same concept now
Buddha. Around the time you were in HIgh School, the Mpls area had some really good blues bands. Lamont Cranston, Hoopsnakes, Mick Sterling, Butanes, Doug Maynard...
Seeing how you seem to know everybody, I'm wondering if you knew any of these guys?
I used to jam with the drummer from Mick Sterling and a bass player/drummer that filled in with Lamont Cranston on occasionally. My first guitar teacher was from another local band called Crow which earlier had the Evil Woman hit.
I don't know. If you read about it, the south east asians tend to show it more than anybody else on the planet. My mother is vietnamese and it's a very tonal language, many words are pronounced exactly the same way but the pitch is what gives the definition and they are often vastly different definitions.
---------- "The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
Buddha Then you tell you don't believe in talant! Perfect pitch is a great and useful talant! AFAIK, it's impossible to develop perfect pitch. ---------- http://myspace.com/harmonicaboris
Last Edited by on May 08, 2010 6:55 AM
