Video of the day 29 February 2012: Lonesome Dave Ferguson
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Blog, Meet the Pros, Recommended Artists & Recordings
Mike Stevens is Still Burning
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I dropped by Mike Stevens’s website today, and heard a cut from his new duet album with Matt Andersen, “Piggyback.” The cut is called “Devil’s Bride,” and to say that Stevens burns a hole through the CD on this cut is putting it mildly.
He’s apparently playing a Powerbender tuning (in second position on this cut, I think), and the sounds he gets out of the instrument, including huge bends with earth-shaking vibratos on single notes and chords all over the harp, are freaking killer. The video of Mike playing his looped piece “A Walk In My Dream” shows a very different side of him, the side that’s about extending the harmonica repertoire to include electronic textures and trance-y structures.
Mike Stevens
I last heard Mike play live at SPAH in 1997. I was sitting next to Rob Paparozzi one night at the blues jam. Mike played just before the circle came around to me and Rob, and both of us were not at all eager to follow him. Two days after SPAH, Peter Ruth sent me an email to say that he’d rarely heard anything so wild and free as Stevens.
Stevens is still one of the most powerfully emotional and virtuosic diatonic players on planet Earth, and I urge everybody to go to his site and check it out for themselves. You can thank me later.
Audio/Video, Blog, Recommended Artists & Recordings
Video of the Day 7 January 2012: Maria Joao Mendes with Wim Dijkgraaf
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Wim Dijkgraaf is the Dutch-born jazz chromatic harmonica virtuoso behind the Effortless Harmonica Blog. He’s also a key member of Portuguese jazz singer Mario Joao Mendes’s topnotch Brazilian jazz band. This video is a promo for Mendes’s new CD; Wim’s harmonica kicks in at about 1:26, and it’s beautiful, powerful stuff. Check out the rest of the videos on her channel as well.
Audio/Video, Blog, Recommended Artists & Recordings
Video of the Day 31 Dec 2011: Climb Jacob’s Ladder, “Do the Funky White Boy”
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This isn’t the first time I’ve featured a video from Climb Jacob’s Ladder, Paul Messinger’s killer band from North Carolina. This tune has a humorous lyric, but there’s nothing whimsical about the harp. Messinger uses at least three different sounds on this piece: he starts out running through his Crate VC508 tube amp, which is in turn output to the PA, then plays a pretty 1st position solo through the vocal mic, then adds a high octave doubler to the amped sound. Killer. This is one of the most exciting bands with harp in the world right now.
Happy New Year everybody!
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Video of the Day 8 December 2011: Climb Jacob’s Ladder
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Climb Jacob’s Ladder is a North Carolina band that does a hot mix of rock, reggae, and world music. Harp player Paul Messinger is up front and center, and he sounds killer with this crew on both acoustic and electric harp. You can hear his roots in traditional harp styles here, and he’s adapted those roots brilliantly to fit the band’s broad and electrified context. This song–”Peace, Love and Respect”–starts with a strong reggae vib, and then takes off for the heart of the universe.
If these guys come to your neighborhood, go see them. Period.
Audio/Video, Blog, Recommended Artists & Recordings
Videos of the Day 3 December 2011: Huey Lewis and the News
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I loved Huey Lewis and the News for their hard-rockin’ precision and their joy. Huey’s a great front man and solid harp player, and Johnny Cola knocks me out with this band each and every time he puts the sax to his lips–his ideas and sound are obviously rooted in R&B tradition, but his lines use a much wider range of melodic material than most in this genre. (The sax line in “I Want a New Drug” is a great example. The second half in particular doesn’t sound like anyone else, and it’s nevertheless clearly in the R&B tradition.)
This version of “Heart of Rock and Roll” was recorded live at a concert in San Francisco in 1985, with the Tower of Power horns putting some extra juice in. Huey solos on harmonica starting about a minute and a half from the end. Huey isn’t the most technically advanced player you’ll ever hear, but he sounds just fine here in the company of some of the heaviest horn players on planet Earth, and that ain’t bad. Cola puts in a great solo too, and the groove is strong.
And just because I’m really into Huey today, here’s a live version of “Workin’ for a Livin’” from 1982, also with the Tower of Power horns. Huey’s harmonica is carrying a heavier load on this one, and he’s rockin’ plenty hard with it.
Audio/Video, Blog, Meet the Pros, Recommended Artists & Recordings
Video of the Day 25 Novermber 2011: PT Gazell and Shine
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This is a recent performance by PT Gazell with Shine in Barcelona. PT starts by playing the melody in his easygoing style, then ramps up the heat as he goes along. PT’s smoothly swinging approach to jazz on the diatonic harp is unlike anyone else’s, and this piece shows it off in all its laidback goodness.