Nature Boy

[streetlegal]

I've always had a thing about this tune - possibly because I always find it hard to get my head around it. Anyway I love this version by a French harmonica player. He has a very direct approach, playing straight from sheet music, but there's some very nice technique in his playing too - great tone from that Chrometta.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEIn8YYD9jw

[smojoe]

So, I was listening to my main man Ted Snyder (aka Alliax), and I was about on the third song when the wife (the ever suffering Mama Cass) came by and noticed the screen. Ted was wearing a stuffed toy rat on his head. She stopped dead i her tracks and was intrigued. I punched up several other of his videos showing him wearing various pieces of clothing on his head. She said: "He's a nice looking guy, and a decent player, why the weird head gear"? I said: "That's his schtick..I love this guy". She finished off with a giggle and said "Kid has brain damage"................ But she didn't mean it in a bad way.

smo-joe

[streetlegal]

If it would help me achieve a sound as good as that, I wouldn't mind giving the eccentric headgear a try

[pmelissakis]

He's a Slidemeister, but I don't remember his handle.

Been putting stuff on Youtube for years using that same harmonica.
Wonder if he has got more than one.

99% of his comments are positive . The 1% or less negative ones don't
seem to bother him in the slightest. Seems to be improving. Lots
to like about the guy.

Never could figure out why he waves the air coming out of the harmonica.

Pete

[Ray J]

Sorry to have to say, it goes on a bit.

I have a problem with tunes that are repetitive.

There are many many great songs that are only a few bars long, repeated. The lyric caries the the melody. But musically solo, boring.

That's probably how 'POP' became so successful. Was it 3.5 min's limit for the single record. Just enough for the girls to remember without getting bored.

I've tried a number of songs but get fed up with the repartition.

I play solo. I have to be able to play around with it. Louder softer stretch it shorten it. To keep my little audience happy. But not repeated more than twice.

Has anyone tried playing El Paso? A unique pop song that has no repeated line or chorus. But musically solo, your audience would walk out of the room. It's so long.

A lot of You Tube guys try to play the lyrics not the music. If they listened to the music they are playing by someone else. They'd turn it off.

Like I did

Am I making sense. I've been on the beer

Ray 


 

 

[Mueleski]

I commented on one of his videos once and asked why he was wearing a laundry basket or something on his head when he played. I think he basically told me not to worry about it, so I didn't and I slept well that night.

-Mueleski

[Grizzly]

Sometimes beer acts like a truth serum.

At least he took it up an octave for the middle part. A little more than just slavishly repeating every chorus would have been welcome.

The hand flapping seems to emulate what Larry Adler used to do. Maybe he's a fan.

His playing is solid, and he does get a nice tone from his Chrometta 14.

What puzzles me is why he went through the bother of putting the notation on the screen, then ignores it. His version is fine, but it doesn't match. Some of it may be artistic "license," whatever that is; but he consistently reverses the sixteenth-dotted eighth figure, which makes me wonder whether he was just misreading it. Sorry, folks, that sort of thing is what bothers me the most.

Tom

[Mueleski]

A sixteenth dotted whatsit?

[A.J.Fedor]

"El Paso" is a great example of a number to avoid unless you are reeeeely good at improvization.  The melody (while great for storytelling) is too monotonous; heard one verse - ya heard'em all, even the bridge ain't all that hot.

Still miss Marty Robins though 

[Grizzly]

A sixteenth dotted whatsit?

"In layman's terms," in this case it's a quick two-note passage that's written as a "short-long" rhythm, and he plays it "long-short." It happens so often that I think he's misreading the rhythm rather than reinterpreting it.

Tom

[jazmaan]

I appreciate his postings and he does seem to be improving. The hand waving doesn't bother me, but that gargle effect has got to go!  I find it grossly annoying!

[Grizzly]

Maybe he's a fan of Eartha Kitt, too!

Tom

[jazmaan]

Jamie Cullum gets GUSSED by a harp player on "Nature Boy"!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7mig0c2HZI

[Gnarly He Man]

Who is this!!?
Sounds like a tongue blocker on a 64, any gusses?
Gary

[pmelissakis]

Sorry to have to say, it goes on a bit.

I have a problem with tunes that are repetitive.

There are many many great songs that are only a few bars long, repeated. The lyric caries the the melody. But musically solo, boring.

That's probably how 'POP' became so successful. Was it 3.5 min's limit for the single record. Just enough for the girls to remember without getting bored.

I've tried a number of songs but get fed up with the repartition.

I play solo. I have to be able to play around with it. Louder softer stretch it shorten it. To keep my little audience happy. But not repeated more than twice.

Has anyone tried playing El Paso? A unique pop song that has no repeated line or chorus. But musically solo, your audience would walk out of the room. It's so long.

A lot of You Tube guys try to play the lyrics not the music. If they listened to the music they are playing by someone else. They'd turn it off.

Like I did

Am I making sense. I've been on the beer

Ray 

I mentioned this exact thing to him some time ago and he is in complete agreement.

By the way, that is the reason I like classical music.

Pete

[Grizzly]

there's the story of a fella who was asked to play some ballad on, say, fiddle or banjo, and he went on and on and on and on. Turns out he was playing all 17 verses!

Tom

[smojoe]

That was me. I was playing the 'Cantilever Tales' (by Geofrey Chaucer).
from Haiti with love

[streetlegal]

I feel that how we rate music - essentially whether we like it or not - is a highly subjective response. So I reckon that with Alliax , as with others, the listener either gets it or he doesn't. I get - it and I like it - all critical appraisal notwithstanding

[winter]

I think we waves his hand to produce a bit of vibratto.  This sounds crazy, but when he does that hand motion, his body seem to shake just enough to produce that effect.  I tried it.  It worked.

Surely not the same thing as developing a good throat based vibratto, but I guess it's his thang.

All the best,

Winter.