Yes, and there’s nothing worse than a guy who is just sitting there on stage waiting for his part and doing nothing. Do a lot of modern players both within and outside blues not latch onto the importance of rhythmic chops? A lot of people are just novelty players. That’s why you can hear 100 harmonica players and there is only one good one.
A harmonica player needs to use their ears before anything. He wanted me to use my ears, and it helped unbelievably – the difference was astronomical. He wanted you to listen, for the most part. Did he teach you specifically about the importance of rhythmic playing or was it just hearing how he presented ideas?
I was indirectly able to play through some of the biggest sound systems in the world and work on capturing that sound. He’d hear me playing and go: ‘Deeper, deeper’, and I tried to get that sound. I started doing soundchecks for him at shows, and he’d be in the booth which was right in the middle of the audience. He would pull chords in and make things sound big. At the time I was still puckering, and I couldn’t get He would sit right beside me and say, ‘Alright now, listen’. Did you have formal lessons with him, or did you just absorb his style being around him so much? I drove on and off for him for about eight years. He said he had a tour next week, and if I could get to Chicago, he’d get me working. He could be playing in Pittsburgh and I would go see him and he’d ask, ‘Why do you keep following me?’ He offered to hire me for a hundred bucks a day, and on off days he’d pay for my room. I got there early and met James, and we hit it off right away. I found out Cotton was playing in town at a place called the Stanhope House in New Jersey. I learned those for a little while before my brother hipped me to James Cotton. I think it might have been a Three Dog Night song and Black Sabbath’s The Wizard (with a harmonica intro from Ozzy Osbourne, who many years later visited Harp’s shop while filming a reality show). And there was no showing me – he actually said he wouldn’t show me shit (laughs). Norton harmonica and asked the person I heard playing if they could show me to play. with Deak Harp told her I needed to get a harmonica that I found what I wanted to do. Someone was playing part of it in the bathroom that day. RHYTHM How did you start playing harmonica? I was in sixth grade right around when Whammer Jammer (The J. He talked to us about what the master taught him and how players can beef up their rhythmic chops. Harp learned from one of the best ever: the late blues master James Cotton. He crafts revered custom harmonicas in his Mississippi shop and even offers to host guests in the Delta and teach them the intricacies of old school blues harmonica. He plays in a one-man band and has released the critically acclaimed album Clarksdale Breakdown. One informed (and anonymous) source said "his 45 rpm was his first and only album.Publicity Column Q&A: Deak Harp on Rhythm Harmonica and Learning From James Cottonĭeak Harp is a renaissance man of the harmonica. Songwriter Juke Joint Jimmy is a legendary figure with the Geils crew, having also written "Cruisin' For A Love" and "It Ain't What You Do (It's How You Do It"). Playing against Seth Justman's honky tonk piano, Peter and Jay stay back so that Dickie can do his thing. Where a Stevie Wonder will make the harp a sweet sounding instrument helping him rejoice sentiments like "I Was Made To Love Her", Magic Dick does the opposite, burning sounds into the consciousness as deftly as any great lead guitarist. Covered by harp player Mike Stevens on a 1992 release, this was the song that really put Magic Dick on the map as the quintessential rock & roll harmonica man. It's a short ( two minutes, twenty-one seconds) but lively cover of a Juke Joint Jimmy tune which allows Richard Salwitz, a.k.a. Geils Band's second disc, The Morning After, with a killer live take on their third lp and first stage recording Full House Live. The studio version of "Whammer Jammer" is on the J.
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