Editors Welcome
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The online magazine dedicated to the blues and everything harmonica.... Inside this issue.... An introduction to the blues harp Meet the band... No Parkin’ Blues Band issue 1 Interview with Mark Cole £2.95 Sam Spranger $3.75 Why the blues ain’t dying €3.50 www.recklesstram.com Editors welcome Welcome to the first issue of ‘The Reckless Tram’. We’ve set out to provide Harmonica enthusiasts, beginners, intermediates and more advanced players with an informative online magazine that offers a diverse range of In interesting articles and reviews across every this musical genre. issue As I sit here typing the World around us is a very different place to that of a year ago, when we first The Blues Harp had the idea for the magazine. Page 4 The upside to the Global ‘Lockdown’ is that many of No Parkin’ us have a little more time on our hands….so there’s Blues Band never been a better time to pick up your harp and Page 10 learn something new. An interview In this issue we’ve included a chat with with Mark Cole Playharmonica’s Ben Hewlett. Ben is the Chairman Page 16 of Harmonica UK but also the head tutor at Playharmonica and is presently running FREE real Gloucester Rhythm time Zoom seminars online. I’ve attended several of and Blues Festiva these and the guest list is second to none. It’s not Page 26l often to get the opportunity to talk to the World’s greatest harmonica players and benefit from their Album Review experiences, teaching and advice. Terraplanes page 33 Find us on facebook at fb.me/recklesstram ‘Photography in this issue supplied by or accredited to; Ben Hewlett, Geoff Osbourne, Sam Spranger, Shaun Freke Osbourne, Sam Spranger, to; Ben Hewlett, Geoff ‘Photography in this issue supplied by or accredited 2 Editors welcome ‘Photography in this issue supplied by or accredited to; Ben Hewlett, Geoff Osbourne, Sam Spranger, Shaun Freke 3 The Blues Harp.... Alongside the six string guitar, which had it’s origins in the single string Diddly bow that came across to America from Africa with the slave trade, the harmonica is possibly the most recognised instrument used in early Blues. It was cheap, easy to get hold of and to carry around. Over the next forthcoming issues we will be looking at the origins of the harmonica, its birth in the Far East, the journey it took in changing into the instrument we recognise today. We’ll reflect on the Blues harmonica players of the early Delta and Chicago Blues, take a look at the modern Blues Harmonica players of today and how they are leading the renaissance of the instrument. Who would have thought that a blade of grass in Asia ten thousand years ago would be “ “ so significant in the collision of AfroEuropean music we know as the Blues today? Picture credit:Gordon Maxwell credit:Gordon Picture 4 It’s believed that the origins of the harmonica came from the development of a simple free reed wind instrument used in China that used a bamboo reed inserted into resonating pipes. Early examples of wood pipe instruments dating back to 1100 BC have been found. Introduced into Europe by the French Jesuit Jean Amoit and by early travellers who brought these instruments, or similar variants, back along the Silk Road to Europe in the late 18C. The harmonica as we know it was developed in Europe in the early part of the 19th century with Christian Buschmann often cited as the inventor of the modern harmonica in 1821, but other inventors developed similar instruments at the same time. Whilst we recognise the Harmonica as a Blues instrument it was originally played as a classical instrument and was often used in Austrian and Germany as a seminal folk instrument. Redesigned by German engineers Hohner and Seydel, both of who continue in business today, this became the instrument that Muddy Waters once described as the ‘Mother of the band’. I assume he was being complimentary. The banjo, the forerunner of the guitar as the Blues instrument of choice, originally came into America with the slaves from West African, although there is still much debate over the exact origin. What we do know is that the Banjo as we know it today and the modern Harmonica came together in the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta at the end of the 20thC to form the tools that created the genesis of a musical genre we now call the Blues. Picture credit:Gordon Maxwell credit:Gordon Picture 5 There are many great early exponents of the Blues harp that deserve mention. In future issues we’ll take a look at these further. But it’s difficult to point out one that might be titled ‘The Father of the Blues harp’. When you think of early harp players might include amongst others Henry Whitter, Palmer Mcabee and Deford Bailey, although the list is nearly endless. There are many great recordings from the 1920’s that feature these early masters. The one commonality that appears to be a constant in their playing is the rhythm of ‘The Train’. Possibly the sound of the train running on the track, the howling of the whistle or the dream and romanticism of a better life further up the Mississippi to Chicago. Later on it was this sound that was to form the rhythm and beat for the more driven form of music that became Rock and Roll. Within this melting pot of musical creativity players like Sonny Terry, who came from the Carolinas and was to become an eminent blues harp player in his own right, was listening to Deford Bailey performing in the Grand Old Opry and aspiring to musical and financial success. It’s interesting to note that Delford Bailey is believed to be the first AfroAmerican to play at the traditional white Grand Old Opry that and was to have an extended residency there, such was his draw. Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee who were to play together for years, had a massive global influence on blues and folk music, along harmonica players such as Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. It’s interesting to note that Skiffle and later Rock borrowed a lot from those early folksters. 6 By the early thirties the southern states of America had become a breeding ground for Blues harp players spawning famous players like Little Walter and Sonnyboy Williamson. Such was the influence of this new breed of musician that there is a famous interview in which Little Richard’s drummer tells the story of how Blues turned into rock for his band. The story goes that Little Richard asked his drummer to come down to the train station and had him listen to the rhythm of the trains. He asks what that rhythm is called and could the drummer recreate it in the studio. This straight eight rhythm with none of the swing associated with blues was used on Richards next hit, and so ‘Lucille’ was born. The drummer recounted that the beat ‘Sounded like a damn earthquake’. They found kids could dance to it better than the swing feel of the Blues. There must have been other countless stories like this as rock started to emerge from the Blues. You can imagine Chuck Berry would have sensed the same as he left Little Walter out in the cold sensing a change in mood. It’s extraordinary to think that Little Walter whose instrumental ‘Juke’ was in the charts for thirteen weeks was at his commercial peak for less than ten 7 years in the 1950s, only getting the limelight again in the UK tours in the 60s as the great British Blues revival rekindled the fires. Pretty much every pop band had a harmonica player or at least the singer who could play a little harp to give their feel a distinctly ‘Blues flavour’ such was the growing influence of Blues in the sixties and early 70’s. With the birth of electro pop in the eighties and British Indie music in the nineties, the harmonica took a massive downturn in fortune. In some way this mirrored the downturn in interest in Blues. But there’s good news…. Blues has started to stir again and is becoming something of interest amongst a new trendy audience. We live in exciting times. If you want to know more about the rhythmic train sound of the early twenties blues or you’ve always wanted to have a go at playing the harmonica but don’t know where to start, have a look at www.playharmonica.co.uk and Ben’s Harp Club. We’ll also be running a competition in the next issue to win a FREE harmonica and membership to Playharmonica…There’s never been a better time to get ‘Blowing’ 8 9 No Parkin’ Blues Band Whilst Monmouth is hardly viewed as a mecca for Blues it’s seen a number of enterprising and interesting acts emerge from its sleepy rural county pubs and clubs over the years. Formed in 2011 the ‘No Parkin’ Blues Band’ is a four piece rhythm and blues band born out of the influences of Clarksdale, Mississippi, so it’s hardly surprising that the band has a strong flavor of the deep south that runs deep within their veins. Following on from many of their contemporaries, they play an eclectic mix of blues tracks based firmly around the style of the old blues masters. But the addition of both saxophone and harmonica, ably played by lead vocalist Dave Walker, there sound has a uniqueness that lifts them out of the mundane and onto singularly different plain.