Blues Harp Meltdown, Vol. 2: East Meets West Live at Moe's Alley [Import, Compilation, Live]

If you love the sound of big, heavy, honking, amplified blues harp, like me, you will appreciate this recording. It's really great to listen to so many good harp players on one set of (two) disks.

I have played harp myself for many years, but only as an amateur. I play along to recordings and try to learn new things. The first person to really turn me on to blues harp was Paul Butterfield, and from him I went back to Little Walter, the amplified originator of most of the riffs that ALL electric players learn to play sooner or later. Little Walter was the true genius and innovator of the instrument; without Walter and his influence, nobody would be playing in quite the same way they do today. He casts his shadow over the entire spectrum of Chicago blues. So, in a sense, everyone after him is somewhat of an imitator. He has hugely important contemporaries, like James Cotton and Big Walter, and to a lesser extent George Smith, but for my money, Little Walter Jacobs with his three-piece band, his endless experimentation with different instruments such chromatics and big bass harps, his virtuoso technical expertise, and his phenomenal creativity, was the greatest blues harp player of all-time.

One other thing that should be said is that, compared to most instruments, the blues harp is a very, very easy instrument to learn to play in a basic manner. Let me clarify: you can practice for a couple days and if by that time you have learned to (1) blow single notes and (2) bend, you can sound decent, especially if you amplify. (That explains why there are so many guys like Dan Ackroyd and Bruce Willis who play and even lead bands. Not to knock them at all; it's just that music is not their main gig; it's a hobby. But they liked the music and picked up the harp and in no time at all they thought they were good enough to play in front of people. Try that with slide guitar!).

But to really master the instrument you have to play for years, and you have to constantly push yourself, like attempting to play ALL the holes, not just the easy ones like #3 and #4. And you can spend years copying guys like Little Walter and never be as good as he was because you are only copying, not creating.

That said, it's nice that there are a lot of real good players, and a few greats, to keep this music vital, and I try to grab a listen to whoever comes along. We are right now in the midst of maybe the third or fourth generation to follow Little Walter. I've enjoyed Charlie Musselwhite's playing for over forty years, since I first heard him on the landmark Chicago: the Blues Today! sets from the mid-sixties. Other great blues/rock harpists I like are Magic Dick (one of the true innovators and creative forces), Rod Piazza (probably the most technically advanced and creative player around today), and James Cotton. Sugar Blue is amazingly fluent; Billy Branch is an outstanding player. There are just so many really good ones that it blows your mind. I'm forgetting a bunch, no doubt.

On this set, the people who stand out to me are Gary Primich, Mark Hummel and Gary Smith. You may not like Primich's singing, but I do. It's rough, it's growly, it definitely ain't pretty. A really big plus is that he sounds like he's not taking himself too seriously. I like what he does with the tune about the gal with the drinking problem (...."the guy who owns the liquor store, over on the avenue, he bought himself a sailboat, named it after you..."), and his playing is really powerful. It sounds like he might blow out a couple dozen harps each night! Gary even does a wonderful Sonny Boy II-style acoustic blues as his last number.

Mark Hummel is a fabulous harp player, a true vet of the scene and is credited with putting the whole show together. His band backs up all the harpists and the group does a really nice job. Mark's playing on this disk is solid, but he seems to modestly take a back seat to the others; I think he didn't want to seem pushy and desired to shine the spotlight on some of the lesser known players. Pick up any one of his own disks and you will hear what he can do.

Gary Smith is a powerful and innovative player and is does some top-notch work here.

RJ Mischo is a pretty good player but does not get much of a chance to shine on his two numbers. He doesn't seem to play anything too challenging or different here, but he may on some of his own disks. Paris Slim plays a competent acoustic harp on his number, but Sonny Terry (R.I.P.) need not worry. The best woman harpist I've ever heard, Annie Raines, does a decent job, but nothing special. The best thing about her set was her sexy line, "...the smaller the cracker jack box, the bigger the surprise...(!!)", which got a few appreciative howls from some of the guys in the crowd. Johnny Dyer is a nice singer and competent harp player who has been around for many years.

All in all, this is a good set of disks at a good price for those interested in hearing basic amplified harp. Not a lot of creativity or innovation, but, hey, that's tough to do. If you want that, get Little Walter's double disk set, which is where the whole thing started.

I OWN ALL 3 VOLUMES. This one is the worst. Volume One is 5 stars and my favorite album. Volume 3 is 4 stars and very good with Lazy Lester and Cephas and Wiggins. Unfortunately this one has some incredibly bad tracks, starting with the first one which is truly awful. Combine that with Annie Raines' vocals which are utterly horrendous and you have about one album of decent blues harp but certainly not two. Buy volume 1, it's fantastic.

› Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews  2.5 out of 5 stars