Samen met vriend John Pazdan ben ik bezig aan een track. John zit in Chicago, ik in Den Haag. Om alvast een sneak preview te geven, John’s muzikantenpraat via de Email:
That harp is in my secret stash..not by me..old..cut up..I can send you some sections..all in one key/bpm (Em/around 85-88bpm), but not as edited into the teaser track I sent you, as that part I made of you playing didn’t go to the “4” (A). anyway, you can cut them and edit them into where you need. I did that yesterday…when you play the “riff” as it is, in Em, then you sort of answer it and I go to the 4..I had the harp playing in the initial riff part..the way i was hearing it was you playing with a harp player, and you were sort of answering him, but you weren’t..I thought it was getting a little too busy though.
so fucking hard to do in email..
anyway..here’s 4 sections..”#4″ is really useful..if you cut it and edit it, repeating the part that comes in on the “1”, you can have about 10 riffs!. Actually you can do all of them like that. and remeber, in harp-land, Em is also good with G Maj, and sometimes D Maj, and the turnaround key of B7 usually, but not all the time, unless you are me and hear things in the “wrong” key ;)
Bad analog delay and spring reverb are good plugs, also putting through an amp sim..a fender Champ..is good too..but not until the mix..it’s strange working with blues harp..even though the “print” soloed sounds better and better the more crap you put on it (all the stuff I just mentioned..) when you mix it, because there’s no dynamics, IOW Marco, the guy “playing” the harp can’t adjust his phrasing or volume in response, you lose the juice..sometimes all that’s required is a little bit of echo..analog, with a little spring to it, know what I mean? Sometimes at Chess, when the guys had those big plates, they would put Little Walter through them, and it ALWAYS sounded like shit. You can hear them experimenting with them on the records they made in the 60’s..Chuck Berry ALWAYS wanted more reverb..
I see you were quoting Meestar Burnside today on Twitter..he’s playing here tomorrow..his son is anyway (so is Sugar Blue, a guy I once worked with, and probably the best harp player in the world)..and that Burmside stuff is a good example of what I am tryin to say: When all that Fat Possum stuff was done 10 years ago..the harp part was used ONLY as a “riff”, almost like a head in a jazz tune..no soloing, no comping..just a little snatch of melody. That’s about all you can really do with sampled harp..it’s effective, but it’s not the same as what you and I just did, IOW, one take, responding to the other guy.
Man..time to buy a ticket to Europe and get on with it..
John
Geloof me, het gaat een vette track worden :-)))
(Foto: John Pazdan)
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