I went to the Portland Blues Festival for a while yesterday and to my surprise Franck Goldwasser, who is a guitar player and singer, played the harmonica. He sounded really good. He wasn't using much technique but his phrasing and what he played really enhanced the music. That is my definition of good.
He told me once that he had tried to learn to play the harmonica and appreciated how difficult an instrument it is.
There were lots of harp players before and after him, but I thought what Franck played did the most to compliment and enhance the music. So I liked his playing best.
Franck (aka Paris Slim) is a really good guitar player. He's a very knowledgeable guy about Blues. He cut his teeth playing with some real legendary guys in Oakland. He's rock solid. He's also a good singer and a fine harp player. It was a sad day when he left the Bay Area.
The thing is that it's not just about technique and there are plenty of technically great players that can't connect with an audience because their technique has become far too important and kinda basically become aloof to the crowd, which tends to turn people off. Technique is important, but there's also playing expressively, tone (and I DO NOT mean from the gear), leaving space, phrasing, how it works WITH the groove and the one thing you never want to be caught dead doing is playing AT the audience rather than TO and FOR the audience and when you get to the point that all you're doing is expressing technique, that's when it becomes musician music, not people music, and so unless you're playing to an audience that's comprised of 98% harmonica players (which is gonna be EXTREMELY are), guys like that aren't gonna come across very well to the vast majority of audiences and those guys complain about everyone else not sounding as good as them and they get BS for someone less technically adept who comes across better to an audience and guys who tend to be more technique oriented never get it all. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Tin, Yeah, his CD features his harp playing. How about the guitar Franck was playing? That guy turns his amp allllllll the way up too. Stan Street put on a good show. Pluto
