"Mercy Mercy Mercy" -- piano and blues harp

Joe Zawinul's "Mercy Mercy Mercy," performed on piano & harmonica by Todd Allen Gates.

This video was inspired by (1) Adam Gussow's video review of blues harpist Paul Harrington's performance of this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvSSG3eyhDc), and (2) Adam Gussow's review of my own playing on his Modern Blues Harmonica forum in which he slammed me for only *impersonating* a good blues harp player! (See http://www.modernbluesharmonica.com/board/board_topic/5560960/448957.htm.)
Ha-ha, I'm exaggerating---he was actually quite generous (overly generous even) in his compliments, and he just pointed out many areas that my playing could use improvement: better control of the third-hole draw, tongue blocking, vibrato, etc.

It was in fact a great honor to be singled out for a critique by Adam, as he's one of my favorite harp players. Check out his amazing playing on his video called 'Satan and Adam, "Crossroad Blues" Philadelphia, 2009'---his harmonica sounds like alternates between the sounds of a hard rock guitar + a country fiddle + a jazz clarinetist. Adam also has some of the best blues harp instruction videos on YouTube (his channel name: KudzuRunner; his website: www.modernbluesharmonica.com).

Anyway, his criticism inspired me to actually learn something new on the harp for the first time in probably 12 years---in particular, trying to bend the third-hole draw down to a second and hit it (more or less) cleanly, and trying more advanced tongue blocking than I've ever done before.

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My three YouTube channels:

- http://youtube.com/user/ToddGates - my musician channel

- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates - where I discuss the ideas in my book "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer" (http://www.amazon.com/review/product/1601450893/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?_encod­ing=UTF8&showViewpoints=1)

- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates2 - where I discuss the ideas in my book "Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames" (such as "Why do we have to work?" and "Why do we have to use money?" and "How should we define 'success'?") -- http://www.amazon.com/Hunting-Gathering-Videogames-Allen-Gates/dp/1601450443/...

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Mercy
• Cannonball
• Adderley
• Quintet
• Joe
• Zawinul
• Birdland
• Big
• Band
• soul
• music
• blues
• harp
• harmonica
• piano
• duet
• ToddGates
• Todd
• Allen
• Gates
• ToddAllenGates
• ToddAllenGates2
• Adam
• Gussow

[MOBILEMAYHAM]

Hey man, I love it! what key of harp did you use? compliments to you on that soul brotha!

[ToddGates]

@MOBILEMAYHAM

> what key of harp did you use?

I'm using a "C" harmonica (playing cross-harp, so I'm in the key of G).

> compliments to you on that soul brotha!

Thanks--much appreciated!

[andreeaweed]

you are grate

[ToddGates]

@andreeaweed

> you are great

Thanks Andreea!

[GMSamuelRhine]

love how the harp echoes in that tile room

[ToddGates]

@GMSamuelRhine

> love how the harp echoes in that tile room

The tile room is courtesy of a NYC subway station!

[KudzuRunner]

Five stars! Very soulful, and the warbles capture the soul of blues harmonica. Excellent job. I hear the nod to Paul Harrington, too.

[ToddGates]

@destihado1

> Great work man!

Thanks!

> I'm only starting to play the harp

Because it's so small, you can practice in all sorts of places that you never could with larger instruments . . . just about all my practicing was done on the street while walking back & forth from my job to my NYC subway stop.

[GMSamuelRhine]

@ToddGates very nice

[ToddGates]

@MsGREGORIAN

> superbe playing...powerfull sound yeahhhhh I LOVESOOOOO MUCH......RAFFI

Merci Raffi!

[MsGREGORIAN]

superbe playing...powerfull sound yeahhhhh I LOVESOOOOO MUCH......RAFFI