Added: 4 years ago
From: chrismichalek
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  • People who think that playing lot of notes don't play meaningful, know little about music and meaning.

    And are losing the oportunity of enjoy different expressions, only because prejudice.

    Levy is a great and meaningful musician and harp player. No need for comparing him with others, despite how many note any of them plays.

  • The only possible issue with Levy has nothing to do with him. The thing is, a lot of his followers praise him OVER other people's favorite artists. That can annoy those people and make them respond about Levy, when they in fact have an issue with how he's being presented by others. If he presents himself as "better" than Cotton, for instance (which I strongly doubt), only then is there an issue. It's art, so the question is moot.

  • He is a virtuoso but so what? Both the Walters and Sonny Boys played more meaningfull music this is the harp equivilent of sweep picking

  • Man this dude always breaks down the walls of limitations on the instrument!!

  • @lublingua I think Jason Ricci comes close but looks like he has issues that might take him down.

  • I love Howard but to me his style lends itself more to Jazz which is where he took his skills essentially. Didn't Les Paul say the right note played once sounds better than 20 notes played in the same amount of time or something like that. I agree let's push the envelope but also lets not forget the simplicity and simple things like the pause to enhance music too. In my opinion (which is what it is) the harmonica is to busy on this song sometimes.

  • People used a few overblows before Howard, but he was the first to play a full chromatic scale on a diatonic 10-hole harp. Once mastered, he showed famed chromatic player Larry Adler - he was stunned. Howard is a great "bluesman," but his prowess extends into genres many have never heard of; Classical to Baltic to Irish to Middle-Eastern and mored. He made me a tape of traditional fiddle tunes from when I took lessons from him in the `70's. He's a genius.

  • my harp is considering to leave me right now. thanks howard.

  • Apples and Oranges,if everybody liked the same thing it would be a real boring world.Even if you dont like Howard (which I do) you have to admit he's broken barrier,s for the Harmonica much like Larry Adler and Norton Buffallo.I,ve been playing for over 20 years and I can,t seem to get the overblows but Music is, is,nt a compition and it,s saved me a lot of money in Therapy.

  • RIP Norton Buffalo.........

  • Levy is the best... Never heard anyone that can do what he does.

  • Howard Levy is by far the best harmonica player I've seen. I don't think he has an affinity for blues though, this sounds more jazzy to me.

  • every harmonica has some affinity for the blues. Thats where he started, but he kept going and didn't limit himself as a musician. He looked at the harmonica like it was a genuine instrument, not a plaything of the blues. He is the best without a doubt.

  • The best

  • Why attempt to knock an innovator and his skills. It's senseless to question his gift and soul on the Harmonica. No one has deconstructed the instrument and has brought new diatonic expressions like Howard, Carlos and Jason. Looking forward to your release Chris.

  • Sometimes the very enthusiastic praise of Levy makes me want to take a contrary position, but he's a peerless innovator and more importantly plays great music.

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  • Yo, what position is he in? I'd say fourth, idk though crazy arabian shit

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  • the whole less is more is a bullshit argument in my book. You seriously need to get out of the harmonica box and listen to how all other instruments play blues, you'll hear it's not that far off from what howard does.

    Howard is one of the very few "real" musicians that play harmonica. Show me an average to above average harmonica player and I will show you a musician that can't hold his own vs high school musicians.

  • I'm with you on more is less argument. It has some validity, but it gets overstated usually by those who lack the technical ability demonstrated. I saw the same criticism of a very fast trombone player. It shouldn't be a senseless technical display, it needs to be musical, and it certainly is here. If one doesn't care for it, that is a matter of personal taste. Thanks for sharing this video.

  • dude howard is the god of harmonica there is no better

    howard is out of the competition not comparable

    listen to carnival of souls and you will see

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  • only when you are speaking of and comparing harmonica players. Howard transcends harmonica playing, is Alber Collins or Buddy Guy less blues when they play? They are masters of the blues but if you were to play note for note solos on the harmonica somehow it becomes complex and non-bluesy?

    Howard can be a blues man more than anyone knows. Don't make the mistake of comparing him to other harmonica players. He has no peer when it comes to the harmonica.

  • Great.

  • can you name them?

  • Blues Birdhead holds the first recorded overblow in 1927 or 1929 (depending on the source), but Howard, as far as I know, is really the first person to flesh out the technique and popularize it in a diatonic harp player's standard arsenal. Until Howard

  • @chrismichalek Sonny boy Williamson, Jimmy Reed

  • this performance encapsulates more complex emotions than any blue piece from the 40's or 50's. Maybe if Howard Levy had been an oppressed and impoverished African American born in in the first half of the 20th century he would express himself more so in the manner of Little Walter and Slim Harpo. Instead of trying to feign faux-inspiration from a lifestyle he never experienced he expresses himself in a way more reflective of the life he lives. Being yourself, now thats how you play the blues!

  • I was there that night. Howard was great. But, as some others have said, his playing doesn't do it for me. I'm not a fan of a lot of advanced jazz. I like the simple stuff. No denying the man's talent, though. And he does play with feeling.

  • Three full octaves is 36 notes (12 per octave), isn't it?

  • ABSOLUTLEY SICK....SICK...SICK !!!! this guy BLOWES MY MIND.

  • There's something to be said for saying more with less. No one has ever surpassed Little Walter or Sonny Boy II, and they didn't really play very many notes. And it's not like they didn't have technique. It's like the difference between a good soul singer (like Sam Cooke, a minimalist by today's standard) and someone on 'American Idol' throwing every pyrotechnic, gymnastic move into every phrase. Howard has incredible technique. What he chooses to do with it is something that doesn't move me.

  • Howard invented the overblow!! Even if he played like shit, he would still be fantastic! But he dose'nt play like shit. He plays stunning! and Little Walter and Sonny did'nt have the techique to do something anywere near this, simply because overblow was'nt invented in there time! I think Howard is light years ahead of Walter and Sonny!

  • It's significant that your yardstick is technique. What made Little Walter & Sonny Boy endure for 50 years are qualities like expression, tone, emotion, TASTE. Musicality. Alas, I won't be around in 50 years to see if HL is considered the gold standard that they've been for the past 50. Or if he'll just forever be remembered as "Inventor Of The Overblow." (BTW, Levy did not invent the overblow; tho was probably the first to incorporate it to any significant extent. For what it's worth.)

  • I have'nt heard anybody use overblow before Howard first came op with it. But if you would name a cd or something, before howard, were there is a harpplayer that uses it i would be happy to hear it. I think that Howard masters both all those qualities to perfection! Little Walter and Sonny Boy were great pioneers of the harmonica, and they should be remembered for that, but playingwise they were not even close to Howard Leavy, Carlos Del Junco, Little John Chrisley, that's my opinion.

  • Never heard of Little John Chrisley. I checked him out. He's ok. Nothing new with his playing and not a player I would consider as an OB guy.

    Check out Blues Birdhead Johnson circa 1927 for the first recorded OB.

  • No, Little John Chrisley is not an overblower, but i think he's insanly funky! :D

  • Good blues harp player. I wouldn't call him funky.

  • just because his band can get a little funky it doesn't mean that he's funky. Bluesy...ABSOLUTELY

  • I think he's really funky on the tune "born in rochester", i am very inspired by him in my playing.. but he's not really funky on the other tracks, so i guess he's not really funky in generel :D

  • He didn't invent them. The first overblow was done in 1927.

  • Nobody invented Overblows. They were always there.

    I actually heard my first OB on a mike Turk Album that was recorded before Howard started playing harmonica.

    Howard is the man that coined the term Overblow and he's one of the guys in harmonica history that changed the way people play harmonica. I'm a product of that even though I never took lessons from Howard.

  • blues is a feeling, so if you want to play blues you must have that feeling. evryone can play blues but only few can feel!

  • oh knock it off.... seriously, Howard plays with feeling in a way that most people can't.

  • Geat harmonica player. Fantastic music

  • Howard is in best harmonica player I have ever heard. In my opinion this playing is very soulful...maybe his soul is just moving a little faster than most! I have heard Howard play many different styles of music...it is mind blowing to me what he can pull off with a 10 hole diatonic harmonica...it is the equivalent of playing a guitar with only 20 notes. I heard him on a segment of Prairie Home Companion on NPR that showcased him play like 10 different styles in 2 minutes...amazing!!!

  • People posting comments about the blues should read some books about the subject, I reckon.

    What do you want to listen to...1920's and 30's harp from the States, the 1960's White Boy Blues Revival in the UK, Harmonica jazz, they are all different types of music coming out of altogether different social backgrounds. It's mostly about feeling, not flash. But it's always a balance, who's going to listen to you if not?

  • "blues" Never trust a guy playing "blues" that keeps his eyes that wide open during a set. Way too militant for blues. He's more concerned about the crowd reaction to his perfect playing than he is to what he is playing. God complex?

  • I actually agree with both sides. It takes Howard about two minutes to get rolling. Until that point, technique predominates over feeling and melodic imagination. Then he does get rolling, creating, and he's outstanding. I happen to love jazz and experimentation and of course I know--as we hopefully all know--that Howard is one of those once-every-few-generations talents on this particular instrument.

  • i'm with chris on this one guys. just because a guitarist is not copping stevie licks and a harp player isn't copping sony boy licks doesn't mean they're not playing the blues and there's no feeling in their playing. in fact i think they'd more so be feeling someone else's feeling more than their own in that situation. i've got one thing to say to you all. you're mind's like a parachute, it only works when it's open

  • do you all know Howard personally? I do. I'll tell you this, he exudes emotion on every level and in fact is one of the more emotive persons I've ever met.

    Just because he plays a lot of notes doesn't mean he doesn't have soul. Jason Ricci plays a lot of note do y'all this he doesn't have soul? What about Sugar Blue?

    Don't make the mistake of thinking fewer notes = soul. Soul, feeling, and emotion exist with or without instrument.

    Howard is a perfect example of an elite musician.

  • Howard Levy plays soulfoul here and with emotions - I don't deny this fact. But I know that this is not the deep Blues where skills is just a means to convey feelings and a message. I'm just talking about this special video. This is Jazz, maybe Jazz Blues showing "intervallic designs", jazz runs, played by a Jazz Master and Harmonica Master but not deep blues.

  • I think Howard is a perfect example of complete knowledge of music theory in use when improvising as shown on this vid. Here, due to his outstanding reputation for being a technique and Jazz master, I think he finds himself in the need of showing everybody his Jazz and technique skills rather than playing a simple but real Blues from the heart.

  • But, I do have to say that it just goes to show that all the techniques in the world won't make you PLAY THE BLUES! Howard may have technique, but he doesn't have a licks worth of emotion when you compare him to James Cotton or Sonny Boy Williamson.

  • why is it that a guitarist can play exactly what Howard played in this vid and it's considered blues?

    Howard is easily one of the top musicians on the planet in any genre.

  • If a guitarist played exactly what Howard played in this session then it would not be blues because it didn't come from the soul, it's just notes memorized. That's why I hate listening to so many musicians try to play the blues. You should never need to TRY to play the blues you PLAY the blues. You bring out what you feel. The reason Howard isn't PLAYING the blues right now is because he's more worried about showing off his techniques then putting emotion into his music.

  • just note memorized? Are you a harp player? Are your head shakes and wah wahs original or did you listen and memorize those sounds? Most harp players memorize sound. Howard understands music and everything that goes into it. He is making music and not reproducing sounds like every other harmonica player on the planet.

  • I think trying to explain this to you is becoming a lost cause. Let me try it from this angel. If Howard Levy were in front of all this discussion and put input in he might say something like, "I am still pushing the limits of the Harmonica. In this session I wanted to show how much flavor the harp could put into a blues jam." He's a great player great music. But look into his eyes while he plays. You'll notice that Levy's techniques are blocking the emotion from really coming into the music.

  • wow dude. You don't understand huh?

  • I have just discovered Howard Levy today and as an aspiring harpist myself I have to say that the stuff Howard Levy does on the Harmonica almost made me want to throw my Harmonicas away. But then after some thought, it just made me want to practice more and learn all these techniques that Howard Levy has mastered. Howard Levy is, skill wise, the best harpist I have ever heard.

  • Howard is the best diatonic player since Paul Butterfield.Brilliant.

  • Howard is talented but should stay away from Blues with which he has no affinity.This sounds like a tortured cat to me.The favorable comments are made purely from deference (I hope!).

  • He has quite an affinity for blues. Just because he doesn't sound like little walter et al doesn't mean he has no affinity for the blues. Howard is one of the few true original artists in these modern times.

  • Weird. I love Howard's playing, but it's almost too beautiful to be run through distortion like this. He starts rough but definitely starts to swing after a minute or so.

  • The "H" in "Jesus H Christ" stands for Howard.

  • wow, i love this guy

  • cool thans chris!!!

  • OH FUCK! Thanks for uploading man!

  • In 2000, Howard and I were out doing various musical shows to promote the Global Harmonica Summit 2000. As you can see Howard really tore it up!!!

    I didn't do the camera work on this.

  • never mind the camera work - I just listened.... in awe :-)

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