Favorite harmonica song...

yea, I know.

But MOST Stevie Wonder's songs where he plays is pure joy.

Eu0hO3BpFpg

2vs7MqriEAY

Eu0hO3BpFpg

beat me to it!

BcTZHbNd8Gk

Pretty much anything by this guy:
jsFFOAZICqk

Or this guy:
3Y7FWT5V4wM

Tough to beat Hekawi!




I like this one, simple and pretty


eY_6QdOJ9qQ

I second Toots Thielemans, but "Bluesette" is probably my favorite ...

The very best version isn't on YouTube, but there are enough to choose from.

This is musicianship on the highest level, on an instrument thats actually very limited ...

yKnG_9q4crA

As a chromatic bumbler, I can attest to the degree of difficulty. The fact that Toots can play bebop like he's playing a sax is pretty mind-boggling. Here's another version of Bluesette, this one featuring Stevie Wonder. Most people don't realize that he's a world-class chrom player himself.
RtSJH8iVdJg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a10EX5Q5iZw
Dont know how to download the sond on the site but check this out.
One more Heartache by Paul Butterfield.I started playing the harp after I heard this song in 67 at the tender age of 13. It's acoustic harp with no amp.

As a chromatic bumbler, I can attest to the degree of difficulty. The fact that Toots can play bebop like he's playing a sax is pretty mind-boggling.

A piano is of course a much more sophisticated instrument, and more "natural" to play. You can use both hands and get up to ten notes at the same time. But once you have hit the notes, there's actually not much more you can do with them.

A harmonica - while simple and limited - is more than almost any other instrument an extension of yourself. You have a possibility to shape the notes that you don't have on most other instruments.

To me Toots is one of the greatest musicians ever!

Roadhouse Blues is certainly one of my favorites, with very tasteful harmonica by John Sebastian.

"Please Please Me." I could do this. Life changing for me, and a whole lot of others, too.

Lots of favorites including Whammer Jammer by the J. Giles Band, Juke from Little Walter and i love how Jimmie Reed can say so much with just a few notes, like on Honest I Do. That Sonny Boy Williamson cut Bye Bye Bird reminds me of John Mayall's Another Man Done Gone from the Beano album-i'd bet money that John copped that style from him.

zLD_Lv98Yyc&feature=related

Lots of favorites including Whammer Jammer by the J. Giles Band, Juke from Little Walter and i love how Jimmie Reed can say so much with just a few notes, like on Honest I Do. That Sonny Boy Williamson cut Bye Bye Bird reminds me of John Mayall's Another Man Done Gone from the Beano album-i'd bet money that John copped that style from him.

Little Walter, Sonny Boy I & II, Jimmy Reed, Paul Butterfield, All the harp players that sat in with Muddy Waters, Charlie McCoy (Orange Blossom Special),
and many others in the older days.

Present day there are not better than Howard Levy, Carlos Del Junco, Sugar Blue, Jason Ricci, Mark Hummel, Dennis Gruenling, Charlie Musslewhite, and a dozen I forget.

Magic Dick of J. Geils did Whammer Jammer, a song that inspired many to play.

My personal favorite is Carlos del Junco doing 'Another Man Done Gone'. If you haven't heard it, you should. http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Another+Man+Done+Gone+On+Down+The+Track/4lIkOg?src=5

I always liked Muddy Waters Crosseyed Cat (James Cotton), I realize it's not the greatest example of harp playing, but I like it...

Bright Lights, Big City - Jimmy Reed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giGGK3Fk9co

I gotta say some of those bass harmonic parts in the BB's Pet Sounds and other records like S&G's "The Boxer" are truely riveting!

Room To Move - John Mayall

It's Bad You Know - R. L. Burnside

JM

Swamp Woman Blues by Smiley Burnette. It's a track off a hillbilly boogie compilation I have. Thanks to this thread I looked him up on Wiki. Pretty interesting guy that I'll have to look into more. Kinda liked the harmonica on Black Sabath's first album, which I believe was played by Ozzy.

I gotta say some of those bass harmonic parts in the BB's Pet Sounds and other records like S&G's "The Boxer" are truely riveting!

Tommy Morgan played on Pet Sounds

aVIlp5_w4f8

eV-He1GHZK4

that's Charlie McCoy on The Boxer

AdKjEHfHINQ

Some ferocious guitar on this as well.
xO2JAA47Mgk

The classic -
uiGpv-UeiDI

Present day there are not better than Howard Levy, Carlos Del Junco, Sugar Blue, Jason Ricci, Mark Hummel, Dennis Gruenling, Charlie Musslewhite, and a dozen I forget.


Definitely think Otavio Castro, whom I posted above, belongs alongside those great overblow players. Castro plays everything, in all keys, on a C diatonic harp. Pretty impressive I think.

Oh yeah, can't believe I forgot this: 0YHCiC7IIg8

GID8SPUMDxQ

KhcuaF0T1KU&feature=related

yF2jfoAisRQ

Steve Hackett playing the misery whistle on this one.

8HFf3sxb-Cs

Yeah, it's hard to beat Little Walter or Sonny Boy Williamson (either 1 or 2, but I prefer the playing of #2, Rice Miller.)

Don Van Vliet (aka Capt. Beefheart) was also just a freakin' MONSTER on the harp. I have a number of Beefheart bootlegs where he just rips and wails and makes it all sound so effortless. Too bad he didn't play it/record with it more.

I really want to learn harmonica. I have a couple of nice ones but haven't really undertaken trying to pick up much yet.

zLD_Lv98Yyc&feature=related

Hey Scott, that's an old favorite ... In fact the whole album! :cool:

the great thing about learning to play the harmonica is you only suck half the time

the harp in this will be instantly recognizable to quite a few aussies....:cool:


N5QvVlvVYqI

I always liked Muddy Waters Crosseyed Cat (James Cotton), I realize it's not the greatest example of harp playing, but I like it...

Good one! Lotsa tension there. James was a student of Rice Miller i believe.

X-V4ytkl2p0

And i've always liked the back-and-forth of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee. They seemed to really enjoy playing together. I'll try to remember some of their more outrageous harmonica songs-seemed they dated from the late 1950's.

yZVysMLGDEw

Groovin with Mr Bloe

Spectrum, Australia, 70s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa4CWnaK4fg

woops Trev beat me to it

anything by the Backsliders.. Dom and Tim... Dom Turner and Tim Conway..

this is my old pub The Orient in Brisbane, my friends worked the bar, ran the door, and played the music... good times in a V shaped bar... the band at the pointy end...

we'd drink at the Breakfast Creek pub until 10... wander over to the roadside and catch the city bus for the short ride uptown,, the taxi queue was long,, I noticed there was an empty bus pull in and stop nearby around pub closing time,,..and started jumping on board...... I started calling to people at the taxi rank,,, Orient Express leaving now!.. it stopped right across the road from the Orient,,, some nights a bus full of party people would pile into the pub, it was a great time then... :twisted:

Aspro Clears were the drink of the moment.. Vodka and sodas.... I sure got some looks ordering those at the bar...:wink:

U3BEKchTsb0

fKStQlYKrzQ

0mgOEBS3fPk

Toots 'n Jaco...

Jason Ricci ...

VEvm3wMaT5c&feature

... well .. not a favorite song but a favorite player.

Whammer Jammer definitely!

Johnny Cash - Orange Blossom Special
San Quentin

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

the great thing about learning to play the harmonica is you only suck half the time

LOL! That one got me!

Dunno bout favorite, but the one that comes to mind is, "On the Road Again", Canned Heat.

I like Chicago style jump blues and the harp masters
associated with the genre, but as the thread is titled,
I'd have to say my favorite is 'Whammer Jammer' with
Magic Dick and the Geils band.

this is sublime:

bI6wZNBLOY0

Mark Feltham, from Nine Below Zero, with Rory Gallagher, Cork 1987.
I've always enjoyed this upbeat number, 'The Loop'
TJouD5h5yLs

the great thing about learning to play the harmonica is you only suck half the time

That's funny, but...actually you suck (draw) most of the time. Unless you are really good and can do overblows. I am a better harp player than I am guitar player, but I suck at both:lol:

In the case of Corky Siegel it's not so much the song as the performance. Of the white, (then) young blues/rock dudes of the 60's/70's probably only he could match Magic Dick.

jf5Mh7WYkpo&feature=related

Norway also has its own classical harmonica virtuoso: Sigmund Groven!

WmWcZWP3egQ&feature=related

Super Harp - James Cotton!!!