When I teach blues autobiography at the University of Mississippi, one of my favorite concepts is what I call "moments of arrival." It seems to me--not just from my reading but from my personal experience as a musician--that all blues musicians experience variations on the same moment or moment: the moment when suddenly they were THERE. They were DOING IT. They had crossed some threshold; they were now REALLY playing the blues. They were now...doing it for real.
Most blues lives have a number of moments like this, not just one. One of Honeyboy Edwards's key moments is when he's left home as a teen to go on the road with Big Joe Williams. They travel to New Orleans, Joe shows him how to play the streets, they make a lot of money. Then Joe gets drunk and becomes impossible to stay with--he's fighting all the time--and Honeyboy leaves and heads north towards home. He plays solo for the first time, and he makes money by himself, playing the street. That shakes him. He finally arrives home and his sister and family just gaze at him, marvelling, "Honey can play now!" From that moment on, Honeyboy says, "I wasn't going to work in those fields no more, picking cotton. Big Joe showed me how to make those nickels and dimes playing guitar. I couldn't see working in no field under the hot sun all day for a dollar."
I've written about my own moments of arrival in MISTER SATAN'S APPRENTICE. I still remember opening for Buddy Guy in front of thousands of people in New York's Central Park Summerstage in the summer of 1990, after only playing the streets for four years. That was a moment of arrival. And I remember the following April when we flew down to New Orleans and played Jazz Fest, and had an air-conditioned trailer back behind the stage, and Harry Shearer knocked and come on board and said he'd been playing us on his radio show. That was a moment of arrival. (I never again had an air-conditioned trailer.)
Most people include moments like the following, in no particular order:
--the first time you're actually paid for playing the harmonica
--the first time you get up at a jam session
--the first BIG gig, opening for one of your heroes
Great topic Adam. I have a different view on this though. I remember playing the blues for the first time. I remember my first stand up jam, and I remember my first good size paying gig. I don't really consider any of those moments arriving though. Arriving to me means becoming complete with something. I don't ever want to feel complete with playing. I want to continue to push myself to improve because of my love of it. I know one day I will be sitting down as a very old man with my hands too arthritic to pick up the harp and my lungs too weak to blow. Then I will just turn on the radio and hear someone younger and probably much better playing. I will know they will love playing as much as I did and I will know one day they will arrive as I have.
This is a cool thread! This brings back some very good memories. I'm smilling just thinking abou it. In 87' I played my first gig for money. 4 1/2 hours for $50 and was happy to do it! I thought it was a killing! I never forget it there was this guy (Mark Scozzafva) that that grew up and lived his whole life three houses away from my parents house. He started playing the harp in 1969 and was great by the time I bought my first. He never really said much to me growing up (He is 12 years older than I am and we had no common friends). I knew he played the harp because I heard him playing thru his amp on his parents patio when I was a kid. So two weeks before our first gig we are going all over town putting up fliers that the "Hypnotix were playing at Illusions". A couple days go by and my mother yells to me "Kevin Mark Scozzafava is hear". I'm thinking thats wierd! i HAVE NEVER HAD A CONVERSATION WITH BEFORE. He said you play the harmonica right. I said Yes. Are in the band that is playing at Illusions. I said yeah. He asked are you serious about playing the harp and going to stick with it. I said yes I am. He OK I'll be back tommar with some albums. listen to them and record what you like. I'll give you a week. So the next day he shows up at the same exact time as the day before with a stack of blues albums. He again told me recrd what you like and I'll be back in week. Before that day I didn't know how Paul Butterfield was! So then he shows up a week latter to the minute. So then he started telling al this stuff about how to play and what to do and not to do. I honestly thought he was nuts! Now I know. He was addicted to the harmonica and wanted share with someone! This guy was GOOD! OK so about 2000 gigs latter I'm paying at an ampitheatre just south of Nashville in a blues Duo called Rollin & Tumblin. We were the opening act for Journey and Foreiner. So the last song we use to play at most gigs was this song called "The Holy Son". It was a remake of Hoochie Coochie Man. That was the only song we played were I would let it rip and do my thing and would just watch and I got done he could tell and we would go back into the song do one verse a chorus then finnish. Well you got one song with no restrictions or time limits in front of 15,000 people to do your thing. You better make it count! We got standing ovation as we left and Neal Shone of Journey came up to me, shake my hand and said; "that was some of the wildest harmonica I have ever heard. Great job guys". I just smiled and said thank you. That was FUN! Thats what its all about. Having fun and having people enjoy what you do!
I havent had moments of arrival anything like you guys. But I guess for me the first one was playing at a folk fest , I had played in the background w/ the other re-enactors,,, but people started listening to me ,, and I eventually got up on a stump to play for the folks gathering around. It was only straight harp,, old stuff Oh Suzannah, Camptown etc. But they liked it and clapped. , Ive played blues stuff for some strangers and they thought it was cool, little did they know, how green I am . Still the GP that doesnt know any harp are easily impressed. ---------- Various Musical ramblings http://www.youtube.com/user/sjeter61?feature=mhum
@RT123 I don't know. I think there are different stages of arrival. Because when you first start you don't know that much so maybe the first time you bent a note is a personnal accoplishment. Then you keep setting goals and aspirations of whatever. I don't know, but I remember the first time I bent a two draw on an "A" harp. At that time that was a big deal. The first time I made $50 was a big deal to me. In my mind I had arrived and really thats all that counts. You know what I mean? I think its different for everybody! I don't know. Something I've never thought about before.
@ chromaticblues - i agree with you, there are definately personal accomplishments and they should be celebrated. i have had many of those. i mean NO offense to anyone, but when i hear the term "arrived" it comes off as arrogant to me. if someone else uses it and it is the way they express themselves that is wonderful and i have no problem with it at all. its just my own opinion and feeling that arriving is something much much more than playing a packed house with someone you admire.
@RT123 Yeah I agree you there about the packed house thing. Thats a good point. I think its just human nature to have found memories of stuff like that. I also agree with a little humility goes a long way, but this a online forum and were just sharing. If I met you or anyone else on the street told them that same stuff, that would be out of line and arrogant! I wasn't trying to be arrogent. Just sharing some found memories! I do understand what you mean more than you know! I tried to be a pick up musician in Nashville for awhile. There were times when that wasn't much fun!
Because I'm a relatively new player, I can't talk about a moment of ''arrival''. It just doesn't apply to me, given the limits and relative definitions of this concept, as explained by the previous posts. That being said, when I look in kudzu's list, I do find elements that have been landmarks for me.
-At my first jam session ever: the band and I had such fun, that I was offered free studio time. That meant a lot to me because these guys are touring pros. They don't just offer their free time to anybody. So that felt good.
-Later on , this band introduced me to an all-star jam that is only on invitation. The owner of the bar (who's also the drummer and a seasoned veteran) was satisfied with my performance and gave his ok for me to come and jam anytime.
-While playing at this all star jam, I was noticed by Steve Marrinner (one of canada's most prominent blues musician and harmonica player...I'll post a video at the end of this message). Steve and I had a long chat afterwards. He had plans to promote me and help me record an album with his band, etc. Most importantly to me, though, he told me he would show me things on the harp.
Now I don't know where all of this is going to end up but some of these moments felt like being bumped up to the next level on this road of becoming a gigging and recording(though not pro.)harmonica player and singer.
here's a vid of Steve. Great Guy and amazing musician. His band is called Monkey Junk. Don't miss a chance to see them:
Not sure I have "arrived" yet, but a big moment for me was playing on a radio show back in the 1980's in a traditional blues duo. We had been doing small street fairs. It was a fund raiser and the MC said you all call into the radio station, we know you are out there, we did the surveys and know that about 20,000 people listen to this show. So then I start to get really nervous realizing that the studio audience of 15 is small potatoes. She was a quite nice looking woman, and then introduced me saying I had "the fastest tongue west of the Mississippi" and looked me right in the eye. I did get through the next song, but was blushing like the dickens, and thinking about 20,000 people just waiting to hear my mistakes.
@ chromaticblues - i apologize if you thought that was directed at you. i meant i would feel as though i was being arrogant if i said to someone i arrived. i guess its just different words we use. sometimes in sports there call disruptive players a "cancer in the locker room". i cringe whenever i hear that but i know what people mean by it. if you feel you have a moment of arrival, then you have. its very personal and we all have our own special moments. i guess a packed house can be a moment of arrival for some. i think i was just expressing my feelings. now you have me very confused and intrigued. maybe i have arrived. why did i ever reply to this posting? now i am rethinking what i said. LOL. the mind is a wonderful thing and mine is working overtime right now.
I thought I'd made it clear with the anecdotes I related from Honeyboy's autobiography and my own career that a moment of arrival can be many things, small and large. For B. B. King, for example, one moment of arrival was his first huge gig at the Fillmore West in 1968, when he played for a house full of what he called "flower children." They gave him a standing ovation before he'd played a note. He said "That might have been the greatest gig of my life"--a remarkable thing for a black bluesman to say about performing before an all-white audience. But for Honeyboy, a key moment of arrival was simply making it back home, by himself, with money in his pockets, after having taken a first big trip away from home with a master bluesman, and being greeted by his sisters and their astonishment at how well he was playing. He was a journeyman, suddenly, rather than an apprentice.
Most blues lives have many moments of arrival. Sometimes the real-world correlates are massive and obvious: big money, big audience, a new (higher) level of fame. But sometimes they're small moments, in real-world terms, that simply FEEL huge and important. This thread is intended to spur sharing, not judgmentalism. Isaac Ullah shared a huge moment of arrival in a thread the other day: his debut as a profit-taking busker. One thing that marks a true moment of arrival, I've found, is that one is flooded with joy, a sense of satisfaction, a sense of having.....arrived. A sense of profound accomplishment. And it's connected, generally, with an audience of some sort, however small or large. But perhaps internal moments of arrival are possible, too: small but incredibly profound discoveries in the woodshed. You tell me.
A long journey passes through many stations and therefore contains many moments of arrival--and departure, of course.
Speaking personally, I think the "first gig for money" threshold is a crucial one. The moment people begin paying you for the music you've shared with them is a watershed.
But so is the first moment that you play a song, any song, or just a riff, on the harmonica, and somebody says, "Hey, that sounds GOOD! Play that again." When your playing draws that response, brothers and sisters, you have indeed arrived somewhere new. You're a musician, not somebody who always wished they could play the harmonica. I relish sharing those moments with my students.
Last Edited by on Nov 16, 2010 7:12 AM
Adam, I assume that was directed at my comments. I was not trying to be judgmental at all. I was trying to share what arriving means to me and that in my opinion I havent reached that yet. I respect all others opinions of arriving and enjoy reading theres. Chromaticblues had some good points to make me rethink my stance on it. But deep in my heart I dont feel I have arrived yet. I think it is very on topic for me to state what I consider arriving and what I expect it to be like when I do.
Last Edited by on Nov 16, 2010 7:17 AM
I forgot a really cool one. It was when the french CBC Radio station (Radio-Canada) broadcasted a few bars of my ''good morning little schoolgirl'' youtube video as an introduction for an interview we were doing with them (in order to promote a gig we had coming up). In that moment I thought it was just ridiculous how thousands of people across the country heard me singing and playing harp at the same time...that was a cool feeling. But the reason it felt cool was not only because I had been heard on the radio, but also because I had managed to get blues harp played on the radio.
here's the link if anybody speaks french and is interesting: http://www.radio-canada.ca/audio-video/pop.shtml#urlMedia%3Dhttp://www.radio-canada.ca/Medianet/2010/CBOF/000b96ef_20101102_103811.asx&promo%3DZAPmedia_Telejournal&duree%3Dcourt
That's an interesting concept. Strange enough, these "moments of arrivals", as described, are almost always first times or first steps, in others words, departures that make you feel you belong somewhere or that something start making sense.
Although I have no experience of that kind in the blues world, I can relate to the idea. I've never felt that playing for a public, being paid for it or opening for my "heroes" (sometimes playing with them) was big deal. 15 years ago, I started all over, seeking guidance for learning indian music, and my moment of arrival was again a beginning : when my master (one of the most respected musician in India) accepted me as a student, considering I was worth it. To be clear, there was no money involved (never has) all that was asked was dedication. Apart from that, my other "moments of arrival" would concern first times in studying or teaching more than performing.
I have always considered myself a student, not a performer (for a good reason these days ;-) ). That's why I enjoy learning blues harp, a new world for me.
That's where I want to go (sorry for hijacking) : I guess these moments that shape your musical personality do concern everyone on this forum, not only growing up as a performer, but also as a learner. I would be delighted to hear of those defining moments even from complete beginners.
@RT123 No problem! Man I was just share some of the good stuff. Micheal jordon had a nike spot on tv about 15 years ago where he said something about how many shots he had missed and how many of them were for the game. I was lucky when I was young! I had many opertuneties to play harp. I'm better now than I was ten years ago And couldn't get a paying gig if I tripped over one! I have had a real bad stretch trying to play music. So I blieve I have a very unique way of looking at playing music for money. Thats the reasoning behind some of my second post. We all have to cut ourselves a liitle slack and enjoy the journey! Enjoy the thinks that are important to you. There I think I said it better that time.
Hmmm - I will never arrive. I already have. I "get" both views. I have certainly had my moments, although I am so focused on the here and now that I don't think about them much. Certainly my first live performance, getting paid the first time, opening for guys like Rod Piazza, Tab Benoit. Getting a chance to play with some of the local heros who influenced me long before I was god enough to be on stage with them and then GETTING on stage with them - Daniel Castro, Chris Cain, Lloyd Jones..... all great "arrival" moments. ---------- /Greg
Moments of arrival I call Musical Moments ... And there is alot of them ..First one is me Jumping off stage in 1986 at CBGB's Front man Harp player Punkster .. and they caught me ... and i would up in the mosh pit .. that faze dident last long ..it wasent too much longer and i met James Cotton for the first time ...He love the way i had my harps lined up in a breif case .. and told his MGR tomorow you are going to buy me a case and harps and set it up just like Deak's case ... That floored me .......Next moment was when i opend for James in Asbury Park with AJ James & spare Change.. the next one was when i started the Deak Harp Band .. and opend for James again ....in 94 ..then there is the Dark yrs .. and i come out in 2002 with my release of Gateway To The Blues ...all the time Woodshedding ... there was the East Coast Deak harp Band .. and now the Mid West band ...all good players ...I got a big break to play for the Illinois Blues Fest .With my band .. and we tore it up ....10.000 fans .. Then i joined Kilborn Alley for a year and a half ... And played some good fests and toured London ...that was another moment ... And i was a teacher at HCH .. That to me is a relization that I've made it to yet another milestone in my life .. As a player and Teacher ...Every day there is somthing good happening .. As i been writing this RJ Mischo called me .. I let him hear my new single .. Its going to be on the Big City Blues Sampler ...That will be my next Moment ...It would be nice to see RJ at HCH ... Adam ...But all in all its been a 36 yr experince since i started playing in 74' ..Wonder whats next .. Deak ---------- Have Harp Will Travel
www.deakharp.com
Last Edited by on Nov 16, 2010 8:39 AM
After playing for 5-years I've had a couple of small ah-ha moments of arrival, but the biggest one came just a few weeks ago.
Playing in my weekend warrior band at a local pub - we were playing Hound Dog and during my solo (I play Low F, then switch to regular F for my solo) I hit on some 'accidental' groove and noticed that as I was swaying back & forth, the entire audience (ok only like 30-40 people but still) were swaying back n forth right with me! I kept the groove going for about 48 bars! Hard to decribe but for a few moments I was in a 'perfect storm' of harp heaven and felt like I was a REAL blues harp player - did wonders for my self confidence, which often lacks! ---------- ~Banned in Boston!
every time I play in the underpass at night... And generally whenever I play and don't give a damn if anyone likes it or not - just play what I like and how I like. Coincidentally, this is when other people dig it :) ---------- www.truechromatic.com
"So, one night at Kivi, they had an open jam session - I had some harps with me and I finally dared to ask and play with the house band, the Wang Dang Dudes. I remember grabbing the vintage Green Bullet mic, feeling how heavy and warm and electrified it felt… I was really nervous. And since I didn't have any blues band experience, it didn't go too well. But the most important thing was that I got on that stage, gave it my best shot and got to know the people. In general, Down Home Kivi has played a big role in my development as a blues player and a listener. So I'm very grateful to Jukka Mäkinen and all the players - Kivi was the first place where I could breathe, in many ways..."
Also those street playing sessions when money and praise just started to pour in were fantastic. All this would shape my future stage persona, musical style, vision. Ataturk Band won the national championship of streetplaying in 2007, I got the bronze award at World Harmonica Festival in Germany 2009. Both of these moments made me feel I'm dining with the gods. Moments of arrival indeed.
Lots of moments. Having the first tour abroad. Being invited to Baltic-Nordic Harmonica Festival to play solo and with one of the bands I really admire, Bullfrog Brown. Having my music played by DJ's in Finland, the Baltics, South-Africa...
I believe new moments of arrival are still to come: Ataturk Band is invited to play at a 6-day blues festival in France. Although I have played abroad, this venue is way bigger than almost any of those.
I also feel that every gig is a new opportunity. Anything can happen, a new kind of revolution can flame up the room and reconstruct your inner reality.
Spending 45 minutes with Jason 6 weeks after I started playing. Getting up for the first time and playing Red Rooster. Jamming with Terry Beane at Red's in Clarksdale. Playing in front of my peers at Roosters Blues House in Oxford. Just a few weeks ago getting paid for the first time.
@ GREGG "long before i was [god] enough to be on stage with them".
sorry, couldn't resist. i can see the graffiti at the BART station in SF....HEUMANNN IS GOD! :)
i had a little awakening in 1979. i used to sit-in with this solo guitar player every weekend at a steak/seafood house. didn't know him from adam, but he saw i had a harp and asked me to jam. i gladly did this, because not only did i like the guys music(his name is JW),i liked to play and drink.
one night the manager came over and he asked," MP, you wanna job here playing?" and i said sure!
after i had filled out the W-2 form ;couldn't believe i was going to get payed to play,-and signed it, i looked up at JW. he was pretty chagrined that i didn't consult him and was wearing a very wry smile. so i said,"oh, JW, can i play with you?"
the answer was yes, and we did duo and trio gigs for over a decade. ---------- MP hibachi cook for the yakuza doctor of semiotics superhero emeritus
Last Edited by on Nov 16, 2010 9:35 AM
I've had a couple. One of the qualities of such an arrival is psychological for me: It is a moving in from the periphery to the center: Being in the club! Years ago Dave Barrett was having one of his original Harmonica Masterclass events in San Jose. I was coincidently visiting the West Coast and in the area. All (well: many anyway) the icons were there: They had a contest over a couple of days with many competitors. Lee Oscar's roommate/friend was kind of disinhibited, i.e., drunk and insisted on my competing since I came all the way out from NYC. I tried to negate the invitation more than once and finally acquiesced- when he later attempted to meet a woman I crossed my name off- when he caught me I put my name back- when I came in second place he beamed. Don't misunderstand: there were many competitors- and many were technically superior- but my phrasing can be a little different so I stood out to the judges (Lee Oscar, Winslow, etc). The second was this year: Nick Ashford of Ashford & Simpson heard me playing with my band at his club: the Sugar Bar 3/4s of a year ago and was earnestly complimentary: He splintered me off my band to be part of his all star "Nuttin but the Blues" night each week at a respectful wage. The problem was he didn't tell any of the other studio guys or the featured singer he hired me. So I show up that first night 7 months ago with my Premier amp and myriad harps and feel sort of betrayed. I think about quietly slipping out. Nevertheless the joint was packed: media, talent, friends, names, etc, so I plugged in rather than walked. My girlfriend said she saw the confusion within the traffic jam of activity and had tears in her eyes that first night when the house exploded during one of my crescendos. Last week Quincy Jones was one of the people clapping earnestly.I'm glad i had the balls to arrive that night. My best. d ---------- myspacefacebook
I can see how this relates to blues pedigree but I don't think a true artist will ever arrive. Miles Davis I think was the epitome of never arriving and always reinventing and starting new. Art is all about the journey and if you admit or seek to ultimately arrive at the destination then true growth stops. That's my philosophy anyway.
Thanks MichaelAndrewLo, I feel the same way. I tried to make that point above but I think you may have said it better and in much less words than it was taking me.
I used to think I had a minor moment of arrival when I started blowing out reeds..............then I was happily and quickly informed by the community it just meant that I had bad technique.
So I got that goin' for me.........which is nice.
Last Edited by on Nov 16, 2010 11:43 AM
As a harp player I've only had one "moment". This summer I was visiting my home town in Muscle Shoals Alabama for the annual WC Handy Music Festival. Me and my buddy sat down to catch up after my drive and I mentioned I took up the harp after I got one for xmas. After we jammed a little he insisted I sit in with his band all week. One gig we played Memphis Women and Fried Chicken with songwriter Donnie Fritz! At another gig the drummer he hired was Mike Dillon from the local band "The Decoys". They are an all star line up including Scott Boyer, Kelvin Holly, N.C Thurman, and "Swamper" David Hood. These dudes are on a ba-zillion records! Mike must have liked how I played because he recognized me at a Decoys gig later that week and got me on stage with them. I played well and felt good about it. I sat in for 6 gigs that week!
My biggest "moment" was when my original band headlined a stage at the American Music Festival in Harrisburg, PA on the 4th of July. We played right before the fireworks and there was a sea of people. We are an 8 piece and I negotiated 4 hotel rooms plus pay. We were put up in the Hilton 1 bed per person in the nicest rooms I've ever stayed in. I felt like a rock star!
Last Edited by on Nov 16, 2010 2:26 PM
@MichaelAndrewLo: I don't know what a true artist is. I'm just talking about blues musicians here, and I'm taking some of what I say from the autobiographies of B. B. King, Honeyboy Edwards, Willie Dixon, Mance Lipscomb, and the biography of Little Walter. Most musicians keep on questing--certainly Honeyboy and B. B. talk about that--but they also have moments in their quest where they pause and savor their accomplishments, feeling as though the world has finally begun to give them their due, or as though they've finally achieved a sound that they were striving for.
It's nice to hear that so many forum members have achieved, and savored, such moments! I can't tell you how happy I was to hear of Isaac's busking breakthrough. Keep the stories coming, folks.
A moment of arrival isn't an endpoint. It doesn't mean that you may now stop where you are and allow the creative fires that got you there to go out! That's a mistaken understanding. A moment of arrival is what comes just after what Victor Turner would call the liminal moment--the liminal moment being the moment when you've cast off an old identity but haven't yet come into a new one. A moment of arrival is in some sense the moment when that new identity, or that new sound, solidifies enough that you're able to pause, inhale, and say "Yes!!!" It's about wandering in the wilderness and then falling through a doorway and suddenly recognizing that things fit; that there's a place for you, AS A MUSICIAN, in the world. It's about recognizing that you have, in some crucial way, helped shape your own fate in the direction you sorta hoped it would go but couldn't be sure it would go.
Honeyboy's moment of arrival back in Shaw, a small Delta town, after his sojourn with Big Joe was definitely this sort of moment. He said, "I wasn't gonna go out in those cottonfields no more." For some blues players, it's the moment that they decide to make a full-time living at it--or the moment somewhat further down the line, having made that decision, that the world decisively rewards that choice.
Moments of arrival, as I've come to understand them, are always sensed as provisional resting places. You've been trying to climb a ladder, try to create a new life (or a new sound) for yourself, and suddenly a rung has appeared beneath your foot. It's stable, solid, and it lets you take a firm step up to the next level, however you describe that level. From that new level, you can see new vistas, new life possibilities. Most importantly, you're suddenly able to judge your own (recent) life choices retrospectively as having been wise or fortuitous choices. You always WANTED to play the harmonica, but you finally made a decision--as MAL did some months ago--to actually make the journey. Now, suddenly, the world has acknowledged the rightness of your journey. And you suddenly begin to see how the process works. It's about risking, working, struggling, reassessing, self-questioning, working some more....and then, with luck, it's about a solid rung appearing beneath your foot. You've made it! Well, you've had a solid success. Something crucial has changed. You've never be THAT person again; you're now THIS person, and you've got fresh horizons.
The moment of arrival is about savoring not just the triumph, but the earlier part of the journey (in retrospect) and the adventure still to come.
Last Edited by on Nov 16, 2010 12:17 PM
I cant speak for MichaelAndrewLo but for me it is the use of the word arrived. that is a very powerful word and for myself it is reaching the top, reaching your goal, and that is why I defined it as I did above. In your last post you used the words "keep on questing", "accomplishments", and "moments". I am much more comfortable with that. They are great storys everyone has shared and every accomplishment they should all be very proud of. I am proud of the small steps I have taken as well.
I don't remember using the word "arrived." I used the word "arrival" many times in my opening post.
Truth is, you were the first person in the thread to use the word "arrived," and after having drawn it into the thread, you then turned around and said that it sounded arrogant to you. In a weird way, you were criticizing your own small but crucial misunderstanding of the issue. I agree with you: When someone yells "I have arrived!", that does indeed sound a little arrogant. But when a developing musician has a moment in which they savor a personal triumph--the drunk in the bar handing them a $20 after a jam session solo and saying "You can play, kid"--and a voice inside their head says "Yessss, goddammit! I'm finally doing it!," that is a moment of arrival. And I don't find that self-cheering arrogant. I think it's an essential part of the creative process: the savoring of a hard-earned triumph when it finally arrives.
Arrival is a dynamic process; it recognizes that there's always another mountain to be scaled, off in the distance.
Last Edited by on Nov 16, 2010 12:32 PM
got a call from a promoter after my band broke up.
he said," got two gigs if you want 'em, and it's a package deal. open for the moody blues at the arena and at the sheraton for jimmy buffet. you still got a band?"
i lied,"i sure do!". got on the phone real quick to assemble a band. the acts were not exactly blues fare but damn! those were fun gigs. you've got thousands of people, camera men, sound guys, lighting guys, sound system galore,girls, free good liquor,food, etc. arena rock was a freaking party!
at the buffet gig, buffet and 'fingers taylor' were all sunburned and drunk. no surprises there. fingers played a hohner bluesblaster through a mesa boogie markI and buffet had a fender super reverb for reasons only he could answer. the crowd went nuts for 'em.
was it art? had i arrived? i dunno. i'm just glad to hell i showed up. ---------- MP hibachi cook for the yakuza doctor of semiotics superhero emeritus
Last Edited by on Nov 16, 2010 12:21 PM
"One thing that marks a true moment of arrival, I've found, is that one is flooded with joy, a sense of satisfaction, a sense of having.....[arrived]. A sense of profound accomplishment. And it's connected, generally, with an audience of some sort, however small or large."
I am not trying to nit-pick. I just believe my time of arrival will be when I have reached my ceiling of playing and I am unable to go any further with it. merriam-webster offers a definition of " the attainment of an end or state". Then I will have arrived and will pass the torch to a younger generation. The storys of accomplishments are great to hear though. I try to learn something new every day and this forum is of great help. I get the sense you are angry with me for having a different opinion than yours. I love hearing others opinions about this and I enjoy reading yours as well. My statement of arrogance if you read above was followed with a clarification of me saying I would feel arrogant saying I had arrived, not others. I have no problem with others saying and or feeling that way. I thought this was a forum of help and opinion and I dont know why my opinion would offend you or anyone else. I just chose to call it something else.
Last Edited by on Nov 16, 2010 1:02 PM
the only one I've had was the first time I recorded an original song. It was terrible, but I thought it was really cool to hear my voice and my guitar coming back at me, and that, maybe, just maybe, I might be able to do something genuinely good with this.
My moment of arrival as a blues harp player occurred at a charity jam that a personal trainer was throwing in Lafayette, IN.
I had never played out before, but figured this would be a good chance to do it away from home. I showed up and a guitar duo was playing with my friend for an audience of about 5 people. I soon joined in, and we rocked through a few songs. I led them through Juke and a few other songs ending with superstition (luckily I had seen Adam's version on the web, and copied it unknowingly - I thought I was brilliant at the time).
After an hour and a half or so, with an audience of no more than 5 to 8 people, the duo has to split for another gig. My friend and I are left. One fairly new harp player, and another that plays mostly chromatic, and knows no whole songs. We goof around for a little bit in front of the crowd of 5 people playing a version of got my mojo working (my friend brought a cajon too) and a few others.
Next, in walks about 35 people and now the room was stuffed. All of them are African American and all really want to hear some music. I'm freaking out a little, because now I feel like a fraud with borrowed music. My friend decides it is time for him to leave, so he starts packing.
So now it is just me. Feeling nervous at my first jam, which has now turned into a solo act. It was for charity too, so I felt guilty about leaving AND I'm no wuss. I figured I'd give it my best, and if I went down, it would be in a burning ball of flames.
I went with Hoochie Coochie Man. I started belting it out and singing with all of my heart. What happened next was everything I could have dreamed. As I was singing the lines and answering with the harp, the women were starting to hoot and holler. "That's right baby!", "oooh honey!" "go on baby!" It was like I was dreaming now. The more I laid into the lyrics the better it got.
I could not have asked for a better moment of arrival. I had lived my dream, and done it solo. Holy crap! Anyway, I answered a bunch of questions and played a few more songs for them. I had a ball. Then I find out that half of them are a gospel choir from a nearby church. They got up and sang with my encouragement and blew me away.
I've moved on to do a few bigger and better things. I don't know if I will ever come across that particular situation again, but it is a golden memory.
I'm not a real exitable person, and others around often tell me what a big deal something I'm involved in is or was, but I don't usually realize it as such until later. I've had several things that could be considered 'arrival' moments, I guess.
The most recent:
I played on the radio twice in a one-month period-once with our harmonica club and accompanied by local legend J Monque'D, and the other with my r&b band, Eudora and Deep Soul. I was told I have an open invite to go back anytime and play live. Very cool.
Our guitar player(for Eudora and Deep Soul)had posted a video of us playing Use Me by Bill Withers on Youtube. He got an email from Benorce Blackmon, the guitarist on Bill Wither's recording of that song. He said he really enjoyed our version of it.
Now that you've jogged my memory, there are many such events, compliments, etc. in my singing/playing experience over the last 21 years that I should realize as 'arrival moments'.
I love to experience the elation of new musicians first starting out after they've had a 'real gig'-especially when they play to a big and appreciative crowd. That feeling is what makes putting in the practice time and spending money on gear all worth it. I look forward to checking back to this thread and reading all the great stories!
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Todd L. Greene, Codger-in-training
Last Edited by on Nov 16, 2010 1:32 PM
Going to play SXSW with my band in college back in '91. Recording in Austin with my band, only to have the sessions snatched away and shelved "because we were difficult" :^(
Making enough money playing last year to make my singing and harp playing hobby pay for itself and then some. It's nice knowing your hobby actually contributes to the bottom line. :^)
Being on TV recently and doing an original tune I wrote. Here's a link: http://www.abc3340.com/global/category.asp?c=189742&clipId=5173699&topVideoCatNo=192263&autoStart=true
And just last weekend my band was invited to play at Gip's Place. We had a fantastic time, "blew the roof off" according to the folks who run it. And I'm told that our impromptu version of Amazing Grace early Sunday morning brought Mr. Gip to tears. THAT was a very cool moment.
I'm looking forward to more! And I know I have a long road to go before I'm too satisfied with where I am as a player. -Bob
After walking away from harp for 17 years, the past 4 years has been full of little steps, not MOA's LOL. I am however in 2 bands that play locally. One is folk/rock (N. Young / B.Dylan), and the other is a Blues band. I will be paying for my HCH II trip totally with the proceeds of my playing music. Now for me.... looking at where I was four years ago...that is huge. I have also been able to sit in with, and be accepted by, some of my local music Idols. The sky is the limit...I'll let you all know when I get there! ----------
My moment of arrival occured with the band. I had left harp alone for many years but I always had one with me. The band started to play Folson Prison Blues as a request. As three guitar players are too many for anything other then Skynyrd or Alman Bros stuff I just grabbed the harp and started into a train chugg that I used to do. A couple of verses and two harp leads later I got a standing ovation from the audience. I guess at that time I was convinced by the crowds reaction to start playing harp seriously again. Right now I've put it down to work on some guitar fingerpicking techniques but hey, there's my moment of arrival.
Now, If I can only find a way to get paid for it...
Well I suppose Adam has already mentioned my major Moment of arrival above (Thanks Adam! It made me feel good to hear that!), but I really want to go on record in this thread since it's so great! Yes, putting out that tips hat for the first time, was something else, but the real moment for me was getting that first bit of change dropped in in it! Man I can still heat that jingle now!! I was like "MAN! That person just dug me!". It felt awesome.
Here's to many more moments like that for all of us here at MBH! ---------- -------------------------------------- View my videos on YouTube!"
Last Edited by on Nov 16, 2010 8:59 PM
We all define "moments of arrival" differently. I'll confine mine to "eureka" learning moments. My first eureka moment-- finding out, by trial and error, that a diatonic harmonica could be used to play stuff other than "Oh Susannah" and "Moon River".
It was 1967. I played the track "Poor Boy", by Howling Wolf, over and over on my Seabreeze record player, trying to figure out how to play the melody on the harmonica. It was the third track on the album "The Real Folk Blues". Suddenly the melody was there-- all the notes could be found by playing the harp in third position. I didn't know it was third position, only that I was doing a more sucking, and less blowing, than I did for my non-blues folk songs. Later on I found out I had skipped a position. Sort of like learning to ride a bike before training on the tricycle.
About the same time, who knows how, I learned to bend the notes, both blow and draw, whilst playing Poor Boy. I finally sounded bluesy, and I could hear it. That was a eureka moment.
My second eureka moment-- learning how to generate a real diaphragm vibrato. It was 1975. Before that, whatever vibrato I produced came from organs above the collarbone.
So, not sure these are moments of arrival, but they are memorable moments to me.
Now, some shameless name dropping. I won't do this often.
Digging Albert Collins in 1969 as a fan, and then talking my way onto his stage at a gig in 1973 to jam with him. I had never played in public before. He let me stay for the set.
Getting paid to back up Albert around 1977 for a two week gig. He rarely played with harmonica players; I felt blessed.
Having my first paid gig, backing up strippers for a month, in 1974. It wasn't exactly stardom, but some of the customers did peer through or around the strippers' legs to watch the band. This was the gig where a stripper pointed to my microphone during a break and said, "I just love how you play that thing, what do you do, squeeze it?" I explained about this mysterious 4 inch piece of metal hidden in my hands, and suppressed the urge to fall down laughing.
Having our band, Thunderbird, warm up for James Cotton in 1975 in the municipal arena in Vernon, B.C. Afterwards James told my band members, about me, "He could be the next Paul Butterfield!" (I wasn't; nor did I think I would be).
Warming up for James four more times at the 1000 seat Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver during the 70s. It was famous for its sprung dance floor, and boy, did they dance when James was in his prime! This was back in the days of Matt Murphy, Charles Calmese on bass and Kennard "Kenny" Johnson on drums.
Backing up John Lee Hooker at a "Rock Festival" (anybody remember those?) in 1977 in front of 14,000 people. Canned Heat and Downchild Blues Band were on the bill as well. It was old home week for Canned Heat/John Lee Hooker (They all loved "Hooker 'n' Heat", the last album Al Wilson played on). At some point, half the band from Canned Heat got on stage with us. We did some endless boogies. I got to play the harp since I was the only harp player on stage. That was definitely a highlight. My old Fender Concert never sounded better.
Warming up for Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee in 1978, and having Sonny Terry ask me, in the dressing room between sets, if I was the harmonica player. When I said yes, he said simply, "You play good". I took his remark, held it to my chest, and never let go.
Warming up for Bo Diddley in 1979 at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver. During the break, he came up to me and said, "You got Little Walter down". (I didn't, but I played a lot of Little walter back in the day. Like many, I memorized Juke, Off the Wall, Back Track, etc.) These days we're not to admit to being imitators, but I got a lot of my early technique by imitating.
Having a gig at Rohan's in Vancouver in 1976 as headliners, but being bumped to warm-up status when The Buddy Miles Band took the headliner spot. They were playing in a bigger club, but got fired for not drawing enough customers. They scrambled for a job. As a result, I played a week with Buddy and his band, hung out with him. I remember him looking at my two tone snakeskin shoes and saying "Nice strides". "What? I asked. "You know, strides", he replied. Eventually I learned it was blackspeak for shoes. It was an experience.
1980, I got married, went back to university, had a kid, etc. Moved from a town of 3/4 million to 16,000. The fun ride was over, but I'm still playing. Won't be looking for any more "arrival" moments!
My moment of arrival for blues harp occurred when I was busking on the portland waterfront and a hot blonde picked me up because she wanted to learn "blues harp". I arrived at the right place on that one. Except the moment of arrival wasn't exactly the perfect moment due to her boyfriend coming home early from work.
