To receive the occassional email,
notifying you of things such as
interviews or specials, please
click below and sign up!
Randy Weinstein
The Harmonica Interviews Presents...
R A N D Y W E I N S T E I N
PROLOGUE: I first saw Randy Weinstein perform in 2009 at the Garden
by Jeff Silverman State
Randy…who has jammed with Billy Branch (and countless
others), shared the stage with Will Galison, has trained with Howard Levy and spent years hanging out and learning with late, iconic Charlie Leighton…a few times online. After seeing him perform in Brooklyn (see the interview for details on that) and having had several interesting conversations VIA IM and on the phone, I realized very quickly that Randy is more than a remarkable harp player (diatonic and chromatic) - he is deeply philosophical about his playing, constantly exploring ways the body interacts with the harmonica as he attempts to explore & exploit the subtleties of that relationship. He is a scientist/poet of the harmonica, who is as satisfied staying in the pocket and exploring the rhythmic possibilities of a groove as he is putting together a floating soaring jazz line. Amazingly so, despite his obvious intellect and virtuosity, as I found when speaking with Randy, he is also achingly humble…not shy per se …but hesitant to shout to the world regarding his skills in any other way than through his playing. Even then he seems to do it with a quiet confidence, not a loud bark. Hence, when his new recording came out - “Sessions 09’ “ availble at cdbaby http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/randyweinstein, I felt the timing was exceedingly right for him and I to have…in the words of Tony Soprano…a “sit down”.
So here we are, Randy Weinstein and me, chatting at about 10:30 p.m. on 2/23….
H411.com Good Evening Randy, thank for being up so late and spending time with me.
RW My pleasure.
H411.com I was speaking to Jason Ricci a few moments ago and he sends a message: “Randy Weinstein’s harmonica playing keeps it’s melodies dancing in Kether and it’s Rhythm’s pocketed deep within Malkuth”- Frater Feliformia lunae Pectus Serpente , AKA Jason Ricci.
RW hah! That’s the circuit you wanna’ hook up with!
He’s referring to the everflow of cosmic energy, or the Divine if you will. Kabbalistic Tree of Life.
H411.com: He’s a really good guy!
RW Good guy, great player!
H411.com: Yep, I am a student of Jewish Mysticism on a very cursory level.
RW I’m with you... especially on the cursory tip. The class I was taking was taught by my brother, an Orthodox Rabbi and Kabbalistic scholar: Teachings of the Maharal of Prague - those dudes were SMART. Very close reading of Biblical and Talmudic texts, very literal, very granular…
H411.com: Astonishingly smart.
RW …and through that micro-precision the most amazing understandings emerge, not unlike music to me - going not just word-to-word but letter-to-letter just like we go note-to-note to say something....
H411.com Frankly, I am constantly surprised by just how bright yeshiva students are at such a young age....divinity students in general.
RW it’s an amazing discipline regardless of your beliefs or faith: sort of speaks for itself.
H411.com Its interesting you bring that up, as it really goes to the heart, I believe, of teaching.
RW Do tell....
H411.com I was taking a Kenpo class many years ago and I had two instructors, who I will call Mr. easy and Mr. hard. Mr. Easy would teach moves in just enough detail to get you prepared for you next belt-qualification class, just specific enough. Mr. hard would work you out until you were ready to throw up and then he would teach you the same things Mr. easy taught, but in inch by inch detail. He would show how a tiny difference in how you position your chin or head or shoulder can make the difference between getting pummeled and escaping to fight….a single inch or even less.
RW Wow. Phrasing and placement is key.
H411.com Elaborate…
RW No matter what the situation - I’m just saying expression is so dependent on timing and emphasis within the time flow. Music pares that down to its essential, but once you focus on that in music you perceive it everywhere else.
H411.com That assumes some of the basics are well understood yes? Clean notes, breath control…
RW Probably works that way from any discipline. Yes tone, phrasing
breathing....more about that later. Some lessons I’m putting online when you’re ready to discuss.
H411.com We can discuss now. Youtube lessons? Written form?
RW Yeah...I’m presenting a pretty basic blues in C with a very specific kind of phrasing and accent pattern: it’s a warm-up exercise. The execution depends on a specific set of breathing patterns that I introduce phrase-by-phrase. I have uploaded the full etude; a melody - a blowing chorus - and an embellished melody out and one of three preliminary breathing exercises.
The objective of the breathing exercises is to enable the player to keep time with the lungs and abdominal muscles, favoring that over other body gestures.
I have discovered that when my breathing is entrained with the music (specifically bass and drums ) as harmonica players, the changes in breath direction can be daunting. If your abdominal muscles fatigue, your rhythm can get tentative. I used to avoid changes in breath direction…or I should say tried to execute lines that stayed in one breath direction for as long as possible.
H411.com Avoid in what context?
RW In the context of playing a long melodic line.
H411.com On chromatic, diatonic or both?
RW On diatonic, I work a lot these days on playing “train” pieces…
H411.com Yes…
RW …and those of course depend on refined bellows breathing to be able to get and sustain a groove.
H411.com But the train soundings…?
RW I’m now finding the same basic principles apply to playing longer melodic lines. The changes in breath direction provide opportunities for a kind of “punctuation” specific to the harmonica. Harmonica is the only western wind instrument that allows you to sound out the full breath cycle, and that’s a pretty amazing thing. I’ve been in the habit of focusing on what the harmonica couldn’t do relative, to say, a sax…now I’m starting to appreciate its advantages
I’ll send you a link to the lesson after the interview.
H411.com That would be great.
RW It’s only the first two installments and there will probably be about 12 by the time I’m done. I’m keeping them really short…
H411.com nahhhh….
RW …no more than 5 mins each. All the videos together - it will end up being near an hour of online instruction. So that’s it for the breathing....anything else you want to ask me?
H411.com Breath control is a topic touched on… it seems…in a cursory way, when learning the Harmonica. I lot is made of single notes, for good reason and good tone…
RW Definitely…
H411.com …but rarely does one hear or read anything intensive about breath control...why do you think?
RW: Good tone or really a good sound is predicated on good breathing.
H411.com Why has it been...good breathing control...so under represented?
RW It’s a very intuitive thing breathing is something you typically take for granted. It’s almost autonomic.
H411.com Which can be a liability as well, yes?
RW Yeah. Sure.
H411.com We assume we can breath, so we don’t need to be taught how to?
RW Right, but I’m sure you learned better from your martial arts classes
H411.com Martial arts and lamaze with my first child (laughing). This leads to you recording, 09’ Sessions: your album has a lot of the “train” sound, a lot of reels…
RW I sort of stumbled into diaphragmatic breathing but when I learned what it was - that there were formal techniques for cultivating it - I was able to apply that added awareness to the music. It is very much a work in progress.
I can cite any number of examples of my playing where things seem just a little bit off...and now I would attribute it to arhythmic breathing. I’m really practicing that now - coming up with etudes or ways of practicing heads that keep me focused on how to breathe it. When the lungs get in the groove, the music stands a better chance of taking care of itself. That’s the opinion du jour anyway. I’ve been on this jag for about a year now and i think it’s helping....
H411.com I have had extended conversation with my cousin, an old session harp player in Nashville
RW Who is he?
H411.com Ken Deifik - when/if you log onto my website, it’s his music on the home page.
RW Oh, that’s your cuz? Cool. What did he have to say?
H411.com My cousin also thinks breath control is vital, ESPECIALLY if one wants to play rhythm.
RW Yeah. I like to refer to it as breath choreography: you wanna’ your belly and lungs to dance!
H411.com It’s interesting you say that as when I saw you perform in Brooklyn at that little joint…what the heck was it called?
RW Pete’s Candy Store.
H411.com YES! Unlike a lot harp players I see, when they bend BACKWARD when jamming, like a rock guitarist - you would bend over…forward!
RW I’d like to internalize more of that motion.
H411.com Good set that night, by the way!RW Thanks. I like that band a lot.
H411.com You play with them often?
RW Not often enough, but I session with the guitar player on a weekly basis.
H411.com: Share the name of the crew.
RW That group was the Michael Gomez group: Michael is the guitar player
We have a lot of shared values in regards to rhythm which makes sessioning a lot of fun. A lot stuff that’s very musical, but you couldn’t get away with on a gig…like playing the melody to “Dexterity” at a slow-medium tempo over and over again for a half hour.
H411.com I have shared the story of the “Yes Sir” guy with many blues people...he makes his rounds all over the world (laughing).
RW Oh yeah! Fortunately he wasn’t heckling!
H411.com You’ve dealt with hecklers?
RW Oh sure. I got a lot of shit when I started sitting in, in Chicago
H411.com Why? What was the friction?
RW I was learning how to play and some people aren’t very generous about that, but invariably the people that are the least generous are usually the most insecure.
H411.com I would say, from what I have heard, that your use of the word “some” would be generous into itself.
RW A lot of people are. I gotta’ say though, Billy Branch let me sit in most times I showed up to a gig of his…
H411.com Another great guy, Billy Branch.
RW …I didn’t even have to ask, he knew I need to get up and he let me. I also think he’s the kind of guy who would welcome anybody up to play as long as they weren’t hogs…but I’ve certainly played my share of not-so-happening music in public as well.
H411.com We are privileged to have him as a headliner “faculty member” & performer at Hill Country Harmonica, the weekend event I am involved with in Mississippi
RW He’ll be perfect for that, he’s a real original.
H411.com We think so too. An original and still comes from a long long lineage of the great blues harpistst.
RW Absolutely! The first time I saw him was with Willie Dixon in the mid 70’s. He hung with all the cats. There were so many guys in Chicago who had, like, the essence of the Little Walter style. They pared it down and in some ways it was more instructive listening to them than Walter like Little Willie Anderson.
H411.com So why the harmonica Randy...why not the piano or the guitar or the flute or the accordion?
RW Good question! Part of it is the intimacy, part of it is the portability and most of it is the breathing. I really love the way you can breathe to make music with harmonica - The whole breath cycle.
H411.com Why is that so appealing to you?
RW Most things in living come in pairs of opposites. When you can get dialog between the oppositions you get a kind of finesse and flow that simply doesn’t happen when “yes isn’t loving no”. When “yes loves no”… life is sweet The fact of how we have to breathe-to-survive sort of brings that home. To have an instrument that demands that you explore (breathing) - that is very special.
You know wind-driven free reed instruments have been in the Far East for at least 3000 years. They are not considered toys. Part of the beauty of the harmonica is that it is the people’s instrument…
H411.com They are VERY serious about harmonica in the far east…Europe as well.
RW …but I think that it’s (the harmonica) modesty has led people to consider many of its essential features to be limitations rather than opportunities.
H411.com Explain what you mean?
RW Well, specifically in relation to jazz: having to change breath direction all the time is considered a negative. I think this is because there is a tendency for us harmonica players to sound choppy and clipped compared to a sax. I used to think that was a limitation of the instrument - you had to work around if you wanted to play jazz lines. I now think the choppiness is more a function of non-optimal breathing technique.
Hearing and watching Charlie Leighton week after week for 10 years also helped bring that home.
H411.com Charlie...what a legacy he left on our little instrument yes?
RW Half ain’t been told.
H411.com I can only imagine…
RW I still can’t believe the stuff I heard in his apartment playing along with Jamey Aebersold records! He really understood how to keep the air circulating and it informed his sound, his vibrato, and I would say the flow of his ideas as well.
H411.com I heard someone say at the Garden State Harmonica festival last year that it’s not what he played, but rather what he heard and conveyed that made him the demigod-like figure he was: he had EARS
RW Absolutely! But he was also the most astonishing technician I’ve ever witnessed. Nobody holds a candle to him that I know of. Some guys might be able to play a bit faster
H411.com On chromatic or in general?
RW He was a chromatic guy from start to finish. Even though he wasn’t a big fan of guys trying to bend notes on a chromatic, like a diatonic, he loved the harmonica community as a whole. He was a very nice guy and a real gentleman. Truly one of the most dignified human beings I ever met.
H411.com You and Will (Galison) studied under him yes?
RW We played with him...me, Will, Charles Spranklin - who is also a great player - and others...every week and learned a lot, but he rarely provided instruction. I don’t think he was hiding any trade secrets, he was simply more interested in having a session and exchanging ideas. He was really interested in what others had to say.
H411.com So he taught, but as a mentor, not as a teacher.
RW Right. He was very self-aware but very unassuming.
H411.com He simply loved the chromatic harmonica.
RW Yeah. His playing was informed by jazz, classical and harmonica band stuff... and I would hazard to say a little Jewish music too. Yiddish was actually his first language.
H411.com You play both Chromatic and Diatonic, but when did you focus in on the chromatic...and why?
RW That’s an interesting story...focused almost exclusively on post war Chicago
H411.com Ok…car wreck?
RW Actually I got hit by a car. It wasn’t going too fast but it threw me for like 20 feet. Luckily no fractures…but it was really hard to breathe from the diaphragm for months –painful -so it discouraged me from playing diatonic.
While I was convalescing, as a way to amuse myself, I learned all 12 major scales on a chromatic I had. I was working at this place called the Jazz Record Mart and I started hearing what I later understood to be rhythm changes in my head…all the time. I started figuring out some rhythm heads on the chromatic and learning how to weave the “extra” notes into what i was playing. That led to an interest in learning how to play lines that embraced key modulations. It’s been a slow and tedious process, but i also started studying with people at that point. I studied with this guitar player in Chicago
H411.com You had a musical background before the harp, yes?
RW Nope, as I got more into it, I realized that my ears were just not good enough to articulately hear what it was I was responding to. I moved back to KC in ‘83 and was able to sit in a lot and people were impressed … not because I played so great … but because I could more or less get through a tune that wasn’t a blues.
Some new friends down there recommended I study with this piano player named John Elliot, a Bill Evans disciple and a really gifted teacher. For two years or so, I spent 2 hours a day doing theory lessons on piano in addition to (wood) shedding harp a couple hours a day. So that gave me a way of dealing with stuff I wasn’t entirely able to hear. If i had it to do all over again, I would have done it a bit differently, but what I learned from him was invaluable.
H411.com What would you have changed?
RW More focus on ear training and rhythm. Alongside the theory - it’s good to intellectually understand it - but i think it’s better to hear it. I think if you just have one or the other you’re unnecessarily limited. But then, you do hear stories of people like Wes Montgomery and Django Reinhardt who couldn’t read music, couldn’t spell the stuff they were playing, couldn’t identify the chords. You don’t hear about guys with big brains who couldn’t hear shit, big ears has it over big brains but it’s good to have both.
H411.com Oh, you mean given the choice, big ears has it over big formal training right? I have yet to meet a great musician who doesn’t have a great intellect as well.
RW Don’t get me a wrong, I really like theory and it can be extremely helpful but it’s a finger pointing at the moon…if you know what i mean…really just a guideline that the ear confirms or completes.
H411.com Seydel tunes by ear, with a tuner as a fall back, so I hear what you are saying.
RW Good analogy! The ear deals with what is/ theory deals with what should. I am no anti-intellectual and music theory as a formalism is a beautiful thing in and of itself.
H411.com So about the CD, lots of different things going on yet I detect a similar feel....a common musicality to it even though the songs in some cases are very different. I assume that was intentional as it flows.
RW Yeah I don’t get into “character” for different songs I allowed myself to play what I heard in each of those songs. Same bass player throughout, same drummer on the tunes where there was a drummer: Rich Huntley on drums
Cassidy Holden is on bass. Michael Gomez is the guitar player on Armageddon, Sweet and Lovely, Ceora, Jackieing, Come Sunday, and The Snake…
H411.com I really like “The Snake”…
RW …Tuey Connell plays guitar on night has a thousand eyes, you stepped out of a dream, and prince of darkness. Tuey plays banjo on jackie-ing and come Sunday. Glad you like it!
H411.com Did I hear a tuba on there as well?
RW Oh jeez, yes of course! The amazing Joe Daley on tuba on Come Sunday and Jackie-ing those recordings relate three distinct but related sensibilities.
H411.com Go on...
RW All having to do with tight ensemble playing, rhythmic drive, and a sing-able lyricism.
H411.com …and if you were explaining that to someone without the musical descriptiveness you are blessed with or...in other words...repeat in layman’s language?
RW I want to go further in the direction of blurring the distinction between soloist and accompanist. I wanted to make quiet music that grooves hard…
H411.com Excellent. Now THAT is a quote for the ages; “Quiet music that grooves hard”.
RW …and that you could hum along while some pretty crazy shit was happening.
H411.com You wanted something subtly sensual for the ears…I understand.
RW I don’t shy away from being cerebral but there is this notion of intelligence of the heart. My theory is that we “think” with all our organs—the ear thinks, the liver thinks, the heart thinks.
H411.com There are a lot of “tasty bits” in there...things that made me go “what the hell was that?” and listen again and then the timing that MADE me listen even AGAIN. I really liked it...I am a big fan of unexpected moments, feeling my foot tap and wanting to grab my harp and try to play along.
RW Going off on a tangent; if you read the liner notes I wrote, they actually do a pretty good job of describing what i was up to.
In my ear—bebop and Appalachian string band music have some commonalities among other things. In some ways the perfect gig for me would be one where you could play a bebop head repeatedly for a long time…like they do tunes in an old-timey session…and people could dance to it and improvisations would flow out of the recurrent repetition of the melody. That’s the fantasy anyway.
The improvisations would pop out from all directions—the drums, the horns, the bass etc. You wouldn’t have to have solos, the momentum of the tune and the synergy of the ensemble would call the shots.
The other hip things about old timey sessions is that the line between “artist” and “audience” is totally blurred—everyone is a participant in a very casual way. I’ll admit, I was definitely featuring myself on that collection of recordings
but I’m learning...
H411.com you’re allowed to (feature yourself), your name is on the cover…
RW It’s a first step
H411.com …and ego is a bigger driver in the arts and, frankly, in the sciences as well.
RW Sure, you just don’t want it to get in the way.
H411.com Ok, here is the “Inquiring minds want to know” question..
RW Alright...
H411.com How did you get involved with the “Idiots guide to Playing Harmonica” (Randy is co-author along with William Melton).
RW My wife is a writer. She has a writer friend who has a husband who plays accordion, among several other instruments, and is a gifted writer himself. He was driving his wife and an agent friend, back form the airport while paying harmonica. He was a bit insecure about his harmonica playing and contracted me to do the more advanced chapters in the book and write the original tunes and exercises. It went really smoothly. He did most the work on the first edition, I did most the work on the 2nd as I had to perform and produce the CD and I had to come up with 10 more “advanced” tunes. His name is William Melton….very gifted guy. A former champion classical accordion player. His wife’s name is Victoria Moran. She is a very successful self-help writer.
H411.com Her name is also familiar. Have you had you CD release party yet?
RW Not yet, I need to get some gigs. It was important for me to try my hand at publishing something on my own.
H411.com Do you have a band you can put together quickly?
RW No problem with that! I can rehearse them too. I’ve got access to killer players but no connections with venues…working on that but promotions is new territory for me.
H411.com OK, for the gear heads. What are you playing these days...diatonic, chromatic, amp, mic?
RW Chromatic— Hohner 280 : 16 hole chromatic, diatonic: I like the new marine band deluxe but will play a Big River in a pinch. Amp: mid-70’s Princeton. Microphone - Shure sm-57. I also like using a bluetube tube pre-amp. I try to keep it simple. Also, I’m moving away from the amplified sound altogether
H411.com Anything you want to share with beginning players, any “lesson in 20 words or less?
RW It’s gotta’ be solid before it can be fancy. And if it’s solid it probably doesn’t need to be fancy. 20 words on the money!
H411.com Randy, this has been fantastic and so much more! I really appreciate this...a lot.
RW My pleasure. Thanks so much! Can I plug a couple of things coming up?
H411.com YES. Give us anything you want to share.
RW I just wrapped up a duet recording with the amazing Bill Barrett for his upcoming CD of harmonica duets. I’m featured on one song, as are several other harmonica players, on other songs—Damien Masterson, Chris Michalek, among others.... You can contact Bill for the details (www.billbarrett.net).
I will be performing on a live radio show called out of Kansas City called “12 O’clock Jump” on April 24th—paying tribute to Toots Thielemans.
My lessons on www.youtube.com, only 2 segments so far.
H411.com OK cool and I Hope to see you at the Will Galison’s gig in Brooklyn on March 28th.
RW I will be at Galison’s thing for sure!
H411.com Good!
RW I think a lot of people will show up
H411.com Alright Randy...this was top shelf, good night bro’
R A N D Y W E I N S T E I N
PROLOGUE: I first saw Randy Weinstein perform in 2009 at the
by Jeff Silverman State
Randy…who has jammed with Billy Branch (and countless
others), shared the stage with Will Galison, has trained with Howard Levy and spent years hanging out and learning with late, iconic Charlie Leighton…a few times online. After seeing him perform in Brooklyn (see the interview for details on that) and having had several interesting conversations VIA IM and on the phone, I realized very quickly that Randy is more than a remarkable harp player (diatonic and chromatic) - he is deeply philosophical about his playing, constantly exploring ways the body interacts with the harmonica as he attempts to explore & exploit the subtleties of that relationship. He is a scientist/poet of the harmonica, who is as satisfied staying in the pocket and exploring the rhythmic possibilities of a groove as he is putting together a floating soaring jazz line. Amazingly so, despite his obvious intellect and virtuosity, as I found when speaking with Randy, he is also achingly humble…not shy per se …but hesitant to shout to the world regarding his skills in any other way than through his playing. Even then he seems to do it with a quiet confidence, not a loud bark. Hence, when his new recording came out - “Sessions 09’ “ availble at cdbaby http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/randyweinstein, I felt the timing was exceedingly right for him and I to have…in the words of Tony Soprano…a “sit down”.
So here we are, Randy Weinstein and me, chatting at about 10:30 p.m. on 2/23….
H411.com: He’s a really good guy!
RW Good guy, great player!
H411.com: Yep, I am a student of Jewish Mysticism on a very cursory level.
RW I’m with you... especially on the cursory tip. The class I was taking was taught by my brother, an Orthodox Rabbi and Kabbalistic scholar: Teachings of the Maharal of Prague - those dudes were SMART. Very close reading of Biblical and Talmudic texts, very literal, very granular…
RW …and through that micro-precision the most amazing understandings emerge, not unlike music to me - going not just word-to-word but letter-to-letter just like we go note-to-note to say something....
H411.com Frankly, I am constantly surprised by just how bright yeshiva students are at such a young age....divinity students in general.
RW it’s an amazing discipline regardless of your beliefs or faith: sort of speaks for itself.
H411.com Its interesting you bring that up, as it really goes to the heart, I believe, of teaching.
RW Do tell....
H411.com I was taking a Kenpo class many years ago and I had two instructors, who I will call Mr. easy and Mr. hard. Mr. Easy would teach moves in just enough detail to get you prepared for you next belt-qualification class, just specific enough. Mr. hard would work you out until you were ready to throw up and then he would teach you the same things Mr. easy taught, but in inch by inch detail. He would show how a tiny difference in how you position your chin or head or shoulder can make the difference between getting pummeled and escaping to fight….a single inch or even less.
RW Wow. Phrasing and placement is key.
H411.com Elaborate…
RW Probably works that way from any discipline. Yes tone, phrasing
H411.com We can discuss now. Youtube lessons? Written form?
H411.com Avoid in what context?
RW In the context of playing a long melodic line.
H411.com On chromatic, diatonic or both?
RW On diatonic, I work a lot these days on playing “train” pieces…
H411.com Yes…
RW …and those of course depend on refined bellows breathing to be able to get and sustain a groove.
H411.com But the train soundings…?
RW I’m now finding the same basic principles apply to playing longer melodic lines. The changes in breath direction provide opportunities for a kind of “punctuation” specific to the harmonica. Harmonica is the only western wind instrument that allows you to sound out the full breath cycle, and that’s a pretty amazing thing. I’ve been in the habit of focusing on what the harmonica couldn’t do relative, to say, a sax…now I’m starting to appreciate its advantages
H411.com That would be great.
RW It’s only the first two installments and there will probably be about 12 by the time I’m done. I’m keeping them really short…
H411.com nahhhh….
RW …no more than 5 mins each. All the videos together - it will end up being near an hour of online instruction. So that’s it for the breathing....anything else you want to ask me?
RW Definitely…
H411.com Why has it been...good breathing control...so under represented?
RW It’s a very intuitive thing breathing is something you typically take for granted. It’s almost autonomic.
H411.com Which can be a liability as well, yes?
RW Yeah. Sure.
H411.com We assume we can breath, so we don’t need to be taught how to?
H411.com Martial arts and lamaze with my first child (laughing). This leads to you recording, 09’ Sessions: your album has a lot of the “train” sound, a lot of reels…
H411.com I have had extended conversation with my cousin, an old session harp player in
RW Who is he?
H411.com Ken Deifik - when/if you log onto my website, it’s his music on the home page.
RW Yeah. I like to refer to it as breath choreography: you wanna’ your belly and lungs to dance!
H411.com It’s interesting you say that as when I saw you perform in
RW Pete’s Candy Store.
H411.com YES! Unlike a lot harp players I see, when they bend BACKWARD when jamming, like a rock guitarist - you would bend over…forward!
RW I’d like to internalize more of that motion.
H411.com Good set that night, by the way!RW Thanks. I like that band a lot.
H411.com You play with them often?
RW Not often enough, but I session with the guitar player on a weekly basis.
H411.com: Share the name of the crew.
RW That group was the Michael Gomez group: Michael is the guitar player
H411.com I have shared the story of the “Yes Sir” guy with many blues people...he makes his rounds all over the world (laughing).
RW Oh yeah! Fortunately he wasn’t heckling!
H411.com Why? What was the friction?
RW I was learning how to play and some people aren’t very generous about that, but invariably the people that are the least generous are usually the most insecure.
H411.com I would say, from what I have heard, that your use of the word “some” would be generous into itself.
RW A lot of people are. I gotta’ say though, Billy Branch let me sit in most times I showed up to a gig of his…
H411.com Another great guy, Billy Branch.
RW …I didn’t even have to ask, he knew I need to get up and he let me. I also think he’s the kind of guy who would welcome anybody up to play as long as they weren’t hogs…but I’ve certainly played my share of not-so-happening music in public as well.
H411.com We are privileged to have him as a headliner “faculty member” & performer at Hill Country Harmonica, the weekend event I am involved with in
RW He’ll be perfect for that, he’s a real original.
H411.com We think so too. An original and still comes from a long long lineage of the great blues harpistst.
RW Absolutely! The first time I saw him was with Willie Dixon in the mid 70’s. He hung with all the cats. There were so many guys in Chicago who had, like, the essence of the Little Walter style. They pared it down and in some ways it was more instructive listening to them than Walter like Little Willie Anderson.
H411.com So why the harmonica Randy...why not the piano or the guitar or the flute or the accordion?
RW Most things in living come in pairs of opposites. When you can get dialog between the oppositions you get a kind of finesse and flow that simply doesn’t happen when “yes isn’t loving no”. When “yes loves no”… life is sweet The fact of how we have to breathe-to-survive sort of brings that home. To have an instrument that demands that you explore (breathing) - that is very special.
H411.com They are VERY serious about harmonica in the far east…
RW …but I think that it’s (the harmonica) modesty has led people to consider many of its essential features to be limitations rather than opportunities.
RW Well, specifically in relation to jazz: having to change breath direction all the time is considered a negative. I think this is because there is a tendency for us harmonica players to sound choppy and clipped compared to a sax. I used to think that was a limitation of the instrument - you had to work around if you wanted to play jazz lines. I now think the choppiness is more a function of non-optimal breathing technique.
H411.com Charlie...what a legacy he left on our little instrument yes?
RW Half ain’t been told.
H411.com I can only imagine…
RW I still can’t believe the stuff I heard in his apartment playing along with Jamey Aebersold records! He really understood how to keep the air circulating and it informed his sound, his vibrato, and I would say the flow of his ideas as well.
RW Absolutely! But he was also the most astonishing technician I’ve ever witnessed. Nobody holds a candle to him that I know of. Some guys might be able to play a bit faster
RW He was a chromatic guy from start to finish. Even though he wasn’t a big fan of guys trying to bend notes on a chromatic, like a diatonic, he loved the harmonica community as a whole. He was a very nice guy and a real gentleman. Truly one of the most dignified human beings I ever met.
H411.com You and Will (Galison) studied under him yes?
RW We played with him...me, Will, Charles Spranklin - who is also a great player - and others...every week and learned a lot, but he rarely provided instruction. I don’t think he was hiding any trade secrets, he was simply more interested in having a session and exchanging ideas. He was really interested in what others had to say.
H411.com So he taught, but as a mentor, not as a teacher.
RW Right. He was very self-aware but very unassuming.
H411.com He simply loved the chromatic harmonica.
RW Yeah. His playing was informed by jazz, classical and harmonica band stuff... and I would hazard to say a little Jewish music too. Yiddish was actually his first language.
H411.com You play both Chromatic and Diatonic, but when did you focus in on the chromatic...and why?
H411.com Ok…car wreck?
RW Actually I got hit by a car. It wasn’t going too fast but it threw me for like 20 feet. Luckily no fractures…but it was really hard to breathe from the diaphragm for months –painful -so it discouraged me from playing diatonic.
RW Nope, as I got more into it, I realized that my ears were just not good enough to articulately hear what it was I was responding to. I moved back to KC in ‘83 and was able to sit in a lot and people were impressed … not because I played so great … but because I could more or less get through a tune that wasn’t a blues.
H411.com What would you have changed?
RW Don’t get me a wrong, I really like theory and it can be extremely helpful but it’s a finger pointing at the moon…if you know what i mean…really just a guideline that the ear confirms or completes.
H411.com Seydel tunes by ear, with a tuner as a fall back, so I hear what you are saying.
H411.com So about the CD, lots of different things going on yet I detect a similar feel....a common musicality to it even though the songs in some cases are very different. I assume that was intentional as it flows.
RW Yeah I don’t get into “character” for different songs I allowed myself to play what I heard in each of those songs. Same bass player throughout, same drummer on the tunes where there was a drummer: Rich Huntley on drums
H411.com I really like “The Snake”…
RW …Tuey Connell plays guitar on night has a thousand eyes, you stepped out of a dream, and prince of darkness. Tuey plays banjo on jackie-ing and come Sunday. Glad you like it!
H411.com Did I hear a tuba on there as well?
H411.com Go on...
RW All having to do with tight ensemble playing, rhythmic drive, and a sing-able lyricism.
H411.com …and if you were explaining that to someone without the musical descriptiveness you are blessed with or...in other words...repeat in layman’s language?
RW I want to go further in the direction of blurring the distinction between soloist and accompanist. I wanted to make quiet music that grooves hard…
H411.com You wanted something subtly sensual for the ears…I understand.
RW I don’t shy away from being cerebral but there is this notion of intelligence of the heart. My theory is that we “think” with all our organs—the ear thinks, the liver thinks, the heart thinks.
H411.com There are a lot of “tasty bits” in there...things that made me go “what the hell was that?” and listen again and then the timing that MADE me listen even AGAIN. I really liked it...I am a big fan of unexpected moments, feeling my foot tap and wanting to grab my harp and try to play along.
In my ear—bebop and Appalachian string band music have some commonalities among other things. In some ways the perfect gig for me would be one where you could play a bebop head repeatedly for a long time…like they do tunes in an old-timey session…and people could dance to it and improvisations would flow out of the recurrent repetition of the melody. That’s the fantasy anyway.
The improvisations would pop out from all directions—the drums, the horns, the bass etc. You wouldn’t have to have solos, the momentum of the tune and the synergy of the ensemble would call the shots.
H411.com you’re allowed to (feature yourself), your name is on the cover…
RW It’s a first step
H411.com …and ego is a bigger driver in the arts and, frankly, in the sciences as well.
RW Sure, you just don’t want it to get in the way.
H411.com Ok, here is the “Inquiring minds want to know” question..
RW Alright...
H411.com How did you get involved with the “Idiots guide to Playing Harmonica” (Randy is co-author along with William Melton).
RW My wife is a writer. She has a writer friend who has a husband who plays accordion, among several other instruments, and is a gifted writer himself. He was driving his wife and an agent friend, back form the airport while paying harmonica. He was a bit insecure about his harmonica playing and contracted me to do the more advanced chapters in the book and write the original tunes and exercises. It went really smoothly. He did most the work on the first edition, I did most the work on the 2nd as I had to perform and produce the CD and I had to come up with 10 more “advanced” tunes. His name is William Melton….very gifted guy. A former champion classical accordion player. His wife’s name is Victoria Moran. She is a very successful self-help writer.
RW Not yet, I need to get some gigs. It was important for me to try my hand at publishing something on my own.
H411.com OK, for the gear heads. What are you playing these days...diatonic, chromatic, amp, mic?
RW Chromatic— Hohner 280 : 16 hole chromatic, diatonic: I like the new marine band deluxe but will play a Big River in a pinch. Amp: mid-70’s Princeton. Microphone - Shure sm-57. I also like using a bluetube tube pre-amp. I try to keep it simple. Also, I’m moving away from the amplified sound altogether
RW It’s gotta’ be solid before it can be fancy. And if it’s solid it probably doesn’t need to be fancy. 20 words on the money!
H411.com Randy, this has been fantastic and so much more! I really appreciate this...a lot.
H411.com OK cool and I Hope to see you at the Will Galison’s gig in Brooklyn on March 28th.
RW I will be at Galison’s thing for sure!
H411.com Good!
RW I think a lot of people will show up
H411.com Alright Randy...this was top shelf, good night bro’
