Jan. 19, 2024

Christian Marsh interview

Christian Marsh joins me on episode 102. Christian is an Australian who plays both the diatonic and chromatic harmonica. Starting out playing diatonic, Christian drew inspiration from players such as Norton Buffalo and Charlie McCoy, absorbing as much harmonica as he could lay his hands on . He picked the chromatic up a few years later after hearing Toots Thielemans play, and even went on to maintain Larry Adler’s harmonicas while he was touring Australia. Christian is a mainstay on the...

Christian Marsh joins me on episode 102.

Christian is an Australian who plays both the diatonic and chromatic harmonica. Starting out playing diatonic, Christian drew inspiration from players such as Norton Buffalo and Charlie McCoy, absorbing as much harmonica as he could lay his hands on . He picked the chromatic up a few years later after hearing Toots Thielemans play, and even went on to maintain Larry Adler’s harmonicas while he was touring Australia.

Christian is a mainstay on the Australian music scene, having 60 album credits sessions to his name, as well as a number of albums with Dr Goodvibe, and several under his own name, with a new release coming out in January 2024. Christian has also performed a concerto written for harmonica, as well as performing at the Sydney Opera House.

Links:

Christian Marsh website:
https://christianmarsh.com.au/

Recording credits:
https://christianmarsh.com.au/credits/

Online tracks:
https://www.reverbnation.com/christianmarsh/song/27991199-sven-libaeks-harmonica-concerto

Videos:
Nun In The Back Seat, with Dr Goodvibe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cov-WjwvCp4&t=200s

Roxanne, live with Dr Goodvibe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh136n8OQHY

Live with Paul Robert Burton trio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBMiFbRZYSk

Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB

or sign-up to a monthly subscription to the podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/995536/support

Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram

Support the show

01:33 - Christian is from Australia, just north of Sydney

01:45 - Plays diatonic and chromatic harmonica, starting diatonic first at age 14, inspired by rock records of his brother

02:05 - Initially liked the sound of the hammond organ but family couldn’t afford one of those so opted for the harmonica (which he also liked the sound of)

02:42 - Christian was a surfer and took the harmonica to the beach to play

03:43 - Self-taught on the harmonica, initially from playing along with records

04:18 - Norton Buffalo and Charlie McCoy were early inspirations

05:07 - Joined a high-school band where he learned the role of the harmonica in the band

05:45 - Perfectionist and always practising during these formulative years

06:17 - Lee Oskar in the band War was another inspiration and later Christian recorded Low Rider

07:28 - Started playing chromatic age 17, after first hearing Larry Adler on tv years earlier

07:48 - Record store owner played Toots Thielemans to Christian, which really turned him on to chromatic

08:36 - Learning scales was the first step on learning the chromatic

08:49 - Did the maintenance of Larry Adler’s harmonicas when he was touring Australia with the Glory of Gershwin album

09:52 - Story of how Christian acquired one of Larry’s silver slides from his Silver Concerto chromatic

11:10 - I have one of Toots Thielemans slides in one of my chromatics

11:29 - Started learning chromatic age 17, initially learning different scales

12:11 - Joined a group jazz class at the Sydney Conservatorium, to improve musical and jazz knowledge

13:04 - Worked equally on the diatonic and chromatic, and applied scale knowledge from chromatic practise to the diatonic practise. This helped in versatility and getting work

14:00 - Started learning overblows after discovering Howard Levy, who Christian do perform with at a workshop

15:14 - Did a jazz improvisation course following the foundation course at Sydney Conservatorium, playing with a range of different instruments

16:32 - This taught Christian the skills of how to navigate and learn jazz tunes and applied jazz learnings to pop and rock songs he was performing then

17:27 - Has recorded many sessions in Australia, appearing on over sixty albums, meeting several contacts at a Country music festival over there

18:41 - Developed the typical fast playing of the Country style, including performing Orange Blossom Special

19:17 - New album coming out in January 2024 (Christian Marsh and the Imagineers) uses Country musicians in a jazz genre, for a cross-over concept

21:14 - Being a multi-genre player of the harmonica gets Christian more work, and it’s all music to him

23:31 - First album release was in 1997, Planet Bound, where Christian experimented with different effects and sounds on the harmonica

25:13 - Second album, The Sketch, makes more use of the chromatic and has Frank Zappa’s drummer

26:10 - The Lilting is an album Christian released with a concert pianist and a didgeridoo player, following a tour of Asia

27:51 - Performed Sven Libaek’s Harmonica Concerto in 2007 & 2008 with the Newcastle Symphony orchestra

28:26 - Chromatic harmonica was used extensively on nature programmes in Australia through the composer, Sven Libaek

28:51 - How Christian got the gig playing the concerto

30:22 - How went about playing a concerto without being a highly proficient reader of music scores

31:34 - Played Henry Mancini’s Breakfast at Tiffanys with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House, which was terrifying

32:40 - Both Larry Adler and Toots Thielemans advised Christian to strive for his own sound

33:43 - Also developed tone by trying to emulate saxophone players, like Stan Getz, Pat Metheny’s guitar playing

34:34 - Chromatic playing reflects what he plays on diatonic, and vice versa

35:35 - Likes to play gently to get the best tone, and let the amplification cover the sound level

36:39 - Recorded bass harmonica with Ed Kuepper, a well known composer in Australia

37:25 - How got started on the bass harmonica, and playing it in a stage musical, Big River, which also included playing some harmonica on stage

39:23 - Has done lots of tv work in Australia

40:10 - Has won some awards, including the Hohner ‘Gold Harmonica Awards’ 3 times at Hohner’s National Harmonica Championship in Tamworth

41:06 - Competition was great for development as a player, and the prize money was good

42:05 - 10 minute question

42:57 - Works on getting the overblows and overdraws really clean

43:57 - Does own maintenance and set-up of harmonicas. Feels it needs to be done for his individual needs

45:13 - Larry Adler learnt to play his chromatics very hard (in order to be heard in large halls in the early days), so he wanted his reeds tuned to 445 as they would flatten to 442 as he played

46:44 - Reed gappings that Christian uses and solo from song ‘Hard To Understand’

48:17 - Tunes harmonicas to 442

48:27 - Doesn’t need to re-tune harmonicas much now as they stay in tune more than when younger

49:10 - Norton Buffalo gave advice to play gently and let the amp bring the volume

49:41 - Hohner endorser, playing Rocket diatonics (previously Meisterklasse and Special 20s)

51:01 - Started playing a Larry Adler chromatic, now plays the Super 64, only playing four octaves

52:18 - Owns a DM48 and has used it live for a hammond organ sound, using a Proteus 2000

52:49 - Doesn’t use the DM48 as a trumpet, etc. because feels he can’t play it to sound like a trumpet (or the other instruments it can emulate)

53:55 - Embouchre: mostly pucker

54:35 - Uses AER amp for chromatic and diatonic, with multi-effects processor for the sounds he wants

56:28 - Favourite mic is Beyer 88

56:44 - Future plans include plans to record an Americana album with Rory Ellis, as well as the new album coming out with The Imagineers

WEBVTT

00:00:00.066 --> 00:00:02.430
Christian Marsh joins me on episode 102.

00:00:03.891 --> 00:00:07.557
Christian is an Australian who plays both the diatonic and chromatic harmonica.

00:00:08.077 --> 00:00:16.931
Starting out playing diatonic, Christian drew inspiration from players such as Norton Buffalo and Charlie McCoy, absorbing as much harmonica as he could lay his hands on.

00:00:16.951 --> 00:00:26.405
He picked up the chromatic a few years later after hearing Toots Thielman's play, and even went on to maintain Larry Adler's harmonicas while he was touring Australia.

00:00:26.914 --> 00:00:34.865
Christian is a mainstay on the Australian music scene, having 60 album credit sessions to his name, as well as a number of albums with Dr.

00:00:34.905 --> 00:00:39.871
Good Vibe and several under his own name, with a new release coming out in January 2024.

00:00:41.334 --> 00:00:47.241
Christian has also performed a concerto written for harmonica, as well as performing at the Sydney Opera House.

00:00:48.033 --> 00:00:50.560
This podcast is sponsored by Seidel Harmonicas.

00:00:51.021 --> 00:01:00.344
Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Seidel Harmonicas.

00:01:25.441 --> 00:01:27.343
Hello, Christian Marsh, and welcome to the podcast.

00:01:28.105 --> 00:01:28.724
Hello, Neil.

00:01:28.885 --> 00:01:30.427
Well, thank you for having me on.

00:01:30.447 --> 00:01:31.147
I really appreciate

00:01:31.868 --> 00:01:31.909
it.

00:01:31.929 --> 00:01:32.308
My pleasure.

00:01:32.368 --> 00:01:36.412
And you're speaking to us from the land down under, from Sydney, Australia, yep?

00:01:36.873 --> 00:01:44.762
Yeah, I just live just north of Sydney, a beautiful spot, which is between Sydney and Newcastle, but out in the country a little bit.

00:01:45.162 --> 00:01:47.545
You're a diatonic and a chromatic player, right?

00:01:47.584 --> 00:01:52.290
So which one did you start playing first, and what was the spark that got you playing?

00:01:52.802 --> 00:02:04.840
I started playing diatonic harmonica because I had an older brother who used to listen to Jimi Hendrix and Cream and Deep Purple.

00:02:05.099 --> 00:02:07.942
And when I heard Deep Purple, I really loved the sound of the Hammond organ.

00:02:08.263 --> 00:02:11.806
And I went to my mother and I said, I'd love to play Hammond organ.

00:02:12.165 --> 00:02:16.150
But unfortunately, we were kind of a poorer kind of family.

00:02:16.169 --> 00:02:21.213
And my mom said, there's no way we could afford to set you up with a Hammond organ.

00:02:21.334 --> 00:02:23.475
Is there anything else you like the sound of?

00:02:23.536 --> 00:02:25.098
And I said, well, I do like harmonica.

00:02:25.457 --> 00:02:31.030
And so she said, if I buy you a harmonica, will you promise me you'll learn it?

00:02:31.050 --> 00:02:35.084
So I went and bought a harmonica and I learned how to play it.

00:02:35.725 --> 00:02:36.830
What age were you?

00:02:37.026 --> 00:02:37.606
this stage?

00:02:37.967 --> 00:02:49.697
I was 14 when I first got a diatonic harmonica and I was a surfer and it was a very convenient instrument to take down the beach and have with you.

00:02:50.358 --> 00:02:59.885
And so we used to travel around surfing a bit and play on the beach and around the fire and stuff like that.

00:02:59.966 --> 00:03:02.747
So I kind of learned to play that way.

00:03:03.209 --> 00:03:05.531
I've got visions of you actually surfing and playing the harmonica.

00:03:05.550 --> 00:03:06.991
Have you ever done that?

00:03:06.991 --> 00:03:14.639
No, I have had one in the back of my board short pocket and I went out and it got soaking wet.

00:03:14.659 --> 00:03:17.682
But then when I did try playing it on the beach, it was loud.

00:03:17.824 --> 00:03:18.844
It sounded really good.

00:03:19.064 --> 00:03:22.328
So I thought, well, if you put them in water, they sound pretty good.

00:03:22.388 --> 00:03:25.010
That was back in the days of the old marine bands.

00:03:25.731 --> 00:03:26.193
So great.

00:03:26.252 --> 00:03:28.254
So you started playing at 14 then.

00:03:28.335 --> 00:03:35.282
So I'm putting a bit more emphasis now on the podcast around how people have achieved their mastery of the instrument.

00:03:35.322 --> 00:03:40.206
So at that stage, What did you do to really work up your chops?

00:03:40.508 --> 00:03:41.588
Did you start having lessons?

00:03:41.769 --> 00:03:42.469
What were you doing?

00:03:43.009 --> 00:03:45.633
No, I was pretty much self-taught.

00:03:45.652 --> 00:03:59.168
My father was into bebop jazz, and so he listened to Charlie Parker and he listened to Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington and that kind of stuff, that kind of jazz.

00:03:59.407 --> 00:04:07.257
And my brother, on the other hand, was listening to Hendrix and Cream and Deep Purple and Canned Heat and stuff like that.

00:04:07.919 --> 00:04:15.877
And I would hear a song that I liked and I'd find the key and try and play along with it.

00:04:16.199 --> 00:04:21.672
And when I started to hear players that really blew me away, like Norton Buffalo.

00:04:33.057 --> 00:04:35.221
I started trying to copy what they did.

00:04:35.262 --> 00:04:41.714
And so I kind of listened to lots of different kinds of players and copied what they were doing.

00:04:41.774 --> 00:04:46.564
And I always managed to find whatever key they were playing in fairly quickly.

00:04:46.665 --> 00:04:48.288
So I was lucky that way.

00:04:48.307 --> 00:04:50.913
And that was in the early days.

00:04:51.617 --> 00:04:57.463
There was lots of stuff like Charlie McCoy and, you know, there was masses of material out there that I was interested in.

00:04:57.822 --> 00:05:07.151
So, a lot of people, certainly that generation, myself included, learnt exactly that way and so, I mean, what do you think that did for your playing, you know, that ability to pick things up by ear?

00:05:07.612 --> 00:05:19.622
Well, I kind of got thrown in the deep end as much as when I was at school, there was a few guys that played instruments and I got drawn into a band.

00:05:19.742 --> 00:05:53.197
Like, we all went surfing together but then when at school because we all played instruments and I played a bit of harmonica and we put a band together and then we had to come up with all this material because they wanted us to play at the school and the school dance and so I kind of had to pull it together and find things to do in songs and I would research other players and to try to define what my role in the band would be and I was a bit of a perfectionist and I was always practicing and trying to get good sound, good tone.

00:05:53.478 --> 00:05:57.502
And so that was kind of the way I started to play live.

00:05:58.142 --> 00:05:59.343
You say always practicing though.

00:05:59.384 --> 00:06:09.055
So is that something, again, conscious of yourself, when you start playing and you really put some hours in to really get the fundamentals under your belt, is that something you felt you, you know, you spent a lot of time doing then?

00:06:09.774 --> 00:06:13.959
I did, but it was more about being inspired by what I was hearing.

00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:17.002
I really wanted, I want to do that, you know.

00:06:17.463 --> 00:06:19.786
I heard Lee Oscar in War.

00:06:20.226 --> 00:06:26.112
He played some really beautiful things that were new to me and new to my ear for harmonica.

00:06:26.132 --> 00:06:28.755
And I just really wanted to emulate that.

00:06:28.815 --> 00:06:30.637
I wanted to capture that sound.

00:06:30.838 --> 00:06:32.158
I wanted to be that guy.

00:06:32.459 --> 00:06:36.084
But then I'd hear Charlie McCoy go, wow, I want to do that.

00:06:36.223 --> 00:06:39.146
And then I'd hear Norton Buffalo and, wow, I want to do that.

00:06:39.166 --> 00:06:45.072
So I just absorbed as much as I could from all the people that I had access to hearing.

00:06:45.312 --> 00:06:45.754
Yeah, sure.

00:06:45.814 --> 00:06:46.875
And you mentioned Walter.

00:06:46.915 --> 00:06:50.199
I know you did a version of Low Rider with Dr.

00:06:50.218 --> 00:06:50.899
Goodvibe, didn't

00:06:51.259 --> 00:06:51.319
you?

00:06:51.339 --> 00:06:51.439
Yeah.

00:06:51.439 --> 00:06:51.880
I did.

00:06:55.447 --> 00:07:11.661
You know, I was in a hardware store not long ago and I heard it come out over the PA system and I hadn't heard it for years.

00:07:12.322 --> 00:07:13.564
And Dr.

00:07:13.605 --> 00:07:15.468
Good Vibe has a certain style about it.

00:07:15.548 --> 00:07:16.490
And I thought, you know what?

00:07:16.692 --> 00:07:17.793
That is very Dr.

00:07:17.874 --> 00:07:18.314
Good Vibe.

00:07:18.596 --> 00:07:19.076
You know, Dr.

00:07:19.117 --> 00:07:20.420
Good Vibe could capture that.

00:07:20.500 --> 00:07:23.386
So I suggested it to Ed and we recorded it, yeah.

00:07:23.807 --> 00:07:24.809
Yeah, no, great track.

00:07:24.990 --> 00:07:28.437
Okay, so you got through playing with bands when you were younger.

00:07:28.456 --> 00:07:30.482
At what point did you start picking up the chromatic?

00:07:30.850 --> 00:07:38.757
When I was about seven years old, my mother called me into the lounge room to listen to Larry Adler.

00:07:39.137 --> 00:07:44.461
He was on television and I'd never actually seen any harmonica at that stage.

00:07:45.041 --> 00:07:47.584
I was kind of fascinated by it, but not.

00:07:48.225 --> 00:08:00.636
Then one day I walked into a record shop because there was a record shop down the road and the guy that ran the record shop used to collar you and say, this is something I know you'd like and he'd play things to me.

00:08:00.815 --> 00:08:05.781
And he played Toots Tillemans playing that Misty Red Beast.

00:08:08.004 --> 00:08:23.142
It sounded a bit classical to me at the time as Roger van Otterloo, who was a Dutch composer.

00:08:23.663 --> 00:08:25.625
And I was absolutely...

00:08:26.050 --> 00:08:49.350
blown away and once again I stood there and thought I want to do that and so I did have a chromatic but I never took it that seriously until then and then I started to learn scales because it was the only way I could give the chromatic a voice was to learn a scale so I could be in key with the rest of the band

00:08:49.730 --> 00:08:56.657
So just a slight aside so you mentioned Larry Adler there I understand that when Larry Adler was touring in Australia you were his technician when he was over there.

00:08:56.677 --> 00:08:57.157
Is that right?

00:08:57.798 --> 00:08:58.438
That's right.

00:08:58.639 --> 00:09:04.184
It was funny because little did I know when I was seven that I would be his technician one day.

00:09:04.345 --> 00:09:13.914
But when he was doing the Glory of Gershwin tour and when they came to Australia, he had two silver concerto harmonicas that needed work.

00:09:14.235 --> 00:09:23.806
And so he trusted me with them because at the time I was working as a repairer for Hohner Australia with KJ Music.

00:09:24.145 --> 00:09:47.094
So I got to work on Larry Adler's harmonicas it was interesting to be with someone that had such an incredible background playing with Django Reinhardt and George Gershwin and all the people that he played with to sit and listen to stories coming from the guy that was there doing that really was amazing time for me I learned a lot from him

00:09:47.490 --> 00:09:49.572
Yeah, I've read his book, Me, My Big Mouth.

00:09:50.932 --> 00:09:52.494
You have plenty of stories, that's for sure.

00:09:52.514 --> 00:09:53.534
So yeah, what was he like?

00:09:53.554 --> 00:09:53.575
I

00:09:54.515 --> 00:09:54.916
liked him.

00:09:55.017 --> 00:09:58.099
He was a really nice guy.

00:09:58.139 --> 00:09:59.220
He was down to earth.

00:10:00.041 --> 00:10:00.740
Really liked him.

00:10:00.761 --> 00:10:11.890
I had a funny story because he had a couple of minutes to go on stage and I had his harmonica apart and it was a silver concerto and it had a silver slide in it.

00:10:12.491 --> 00:11:08.510
And I dropped the slide down inside of this big lounge that was back stage it was a big old lounge and the more I tried to get hold of the slide the further down the lounge it went and then he said is my harmonica ready yet and I thought oh no and so in my panic I took my own harmonica apart which was a stainless steel harmonica and I put my stainless steel slide in his silver harmonica and screwed it together and just quickly played it and gave it to him and he went out and performed and I thought when he comes back off stage I'll get the harmonica back off him and I'll change the slide over back to his slide so while the show was on I took the lounge part found his silver slide and then he came off stage and I asked for the harmonica back and he said no no I'm not giving this back to you this is this is the best slide I've had for years don't touch it it's fine and so to this day I've got Larry Adler's silver slide in my stainless steel harmonica

00:11:08.990 --> 00:11:22.650
wow that's great that's great interestingly I've got one of two Steelman slides which I acquired via my teacher for a while was Julian Jackson and he got one of his harmonicas and I got that eventually because it was an old one and got his slide out there.

00:11:22.671 --> 00:11:24.073
So I've got one of Toots Thielman's slides.

00:11:24.434 --> 00:11:26.479
Well, there you go.

00:11:27.480 --> 00:11:29.445
So back to your learning of the chromatic then.

00:11:29.504 --> 00:11:31.389
What age did you start playing the chromatic?

00:11:31.874 --> 00:12:11.210
17 and I was a bit daunted by it because I had to learn music basically but I didn't really have anyone much to teach me and so I tried to learn scales and I tried to do a little bit by ear and I had friends that were moving into jazz at that time and I was interested in jazz because it was always on the background at home so and they would share things with me and say oh you really need to learn the minor scales and you really need to learn the harmonic minor and blah blah blah so I really tried learning scales but it was all kind of on my own.

00:12:11.629 --> 00:12:23.123
It wasn't until there was an outreach program at the Sydney Conservatorium that was just a day a night a week which was designed for anyone to come to.

00:12:23.143 --> 00:12:54.056
I had a teacher called Julie Spithill who taught the class the fundamentals of music and that's when I started to get a much better handle on music and and how to play different kinds of jazz structures also learning to read a little bit my reading's not great but it's i get away with it and so i i got really into learning scales and and applying them and all that sort of stuff and i i still do work every day just do a little bit just to get a little bit better each time

00:12:54.596 --> 00:13:04.496
the chromatic as you say you need to learn scales more obviously you can play different scales different keys on the diatonic but do you did you apply that to the diatonic that sort of learning or was it more separate on the chromatic?

00:13:05.080 --> 00:13:18.240
I worked equally on diatonic and chromatic harmonica because I used them both in live situations and the reason I did that is because it gave me a broader palette.

00:13:19.020 --> 00:13:34.695
I played with musicians that played all sorts of different stuff and to fit in with them I needed to be able to draw on things that would fit in with what they were playing and so I just got into playing chromatic and diatonic.

00:13:34.774 --> 00:13:43.345
Sometimes I'd have one in one hand and one in the other and switch them over and all sorts of stuff like that and so I've always use both of them in equal measure.

00:13:43.586 --> 00:13:54.590
Anything that I learn on chromatic, I try and relate back to diatonic and vice versa.

00:14:01.313 --> 00:14:09.105
I didn't come across overblowing pretty

00:14:11.789 --> 00:14:19.802
much until Howard Levy was using the technique.

00:14:20.163 --> 00:14:28.245
Although I had discovered it by accident some years before, I didn't really know what it was, but I didn't really use it.

00:14:28.784 --> 00:14:41.576
But then once Howard Levy came along and started using the technique, then I learned how to blow and overdraw notes to give more chromaticism to the diatonic.

00:14:41.856 --> 00:14:42.976
That's been another journey.

00:14:42.998 --> 00:14:50.484
So now I do try and apply scales that I learned on chromatic to the diatonic and vice versa.

00:14:50.783 --> 00:14:53.025
Howard Levy, you played with him in Australia.

00:14:53.166 --> 00:14:54.047
I did, yeah.

00:14:54.366 --> 00:14:55.087
There was a workshop

00:14:55.087 --> 00:15:01.100
and Howard was doing diatonic harmonica and I was doing chromatic harmonica.

00:15:01.480 --> 00:15:02.462
It was run by Hona.

00:15:03.104 --> 00:15:14.225
There was a little show put on pretty much for the people that were attending the workshops and so we played together in that and Howard played diatonic and I played chromatic.

00:15:14.594 --> 00:15:15.095
So great.

00:15:15.134 --> 00:15:20.022
So you mentioned, obviously, that you did this jazz course and that led you on to obviously playing jazz.

00:15:20.042 --> 00:15:22.446
And then, you know, jazz requires serious studio, right?

00:15:22.466 --> 00:15:26.152
We've got complex chord sequences, the scales that go over them.

00:15:26.231 --> 00:15:30.258
At that stage, you know, did you really dive into, you know, seriously working on your jazz chops?

00:15:30.719 --> 00:15:31.099
Yeah.

00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:42.636
Once I'd started on doing the outreach program and I did the fundamental of music at the con, the conservatorium offered an outreach jazz improv course.

00:15:43.649 --> 00:15:51.576
And I applied and they auditioned me and they put me in at a level that they thought I was at with everyone else.

00:15:51.677 --> 00:16:00.264
And so you get put into more or less an ensemble and it was like horn players and guitar players and flute players and just different musicians.

00:16:00.303 --> 00:16:02.206
So there'd be ensembles of about eight people.

00:16:02.767 --> 00:16:12.075
Every lesson they'd come in with a tune, explain the structure of the chords and what kinds of things to play over the top of them and then get you to have a go at it.

00:16:12.294 --> 00:16:50.596
And then you'd play as an ensemble and I did that every day a week, every three years or something because it was fun and I met a lot of jazz players and I met a lot of great people, some of which I still play with now and again and that was a great learning curve for me and that freed me to be able to, say, choose tunes that I like, like a jazz tune, get the chart, listen to how it sounds from the original recordings look at the chart, learn the head on chromatic, learn how to play it, learn how to solo over it.

00:16:51.355 --> 00:17:01.086
And I used a little bit of the Jamie Abbasol recordings to play over to get myself comfortable with playing that stuff.

00:17:02.008 --> 00:17:25.317
Whilst I never got out and played that much jazz, I did apply a lot of the ideas that I was getting into kind of the music that I was out playing because I was playing in bars and pubs and all sorts of things but they were more rock bands but I was applying jazz ideas into the rock music that I was playing and that sort of shows in some of the good Dr.

00:17:25.337 --> 00:17:26.240
Goodfire material.

00:17:26.625 --> 00:17:32.510
And then, so you play, you know, you say different genres and some jazz and classical and blues and country.

00:17:32.530 --> 00:17:36.134
So yeah, lots of, and this has led you on to getting lots of session work.

00:17:36.173 --> 00:17:38.757
You play with all sorts of people over there in Australia, haven't you?

00:17:38.777 --> 00:17:39.856
And got lots of work.

00:17:40.397 --> 00:17:41.118
Yeah.

00:17:41.638 --> 00:17:49.065
Well, I played a little bit in the Tamworth Country Music Festival because I knew some country players.

00:17:49.645 --> 00:17:52.008
I did quite a few country sessions.

00:17:52.788 --> 00:17:56.592
I was fairly well grounded in country music because I'd listened a lot.

00:17:56.592 --> 00:18:15.357
to charlie mccoy and to norton buffalo and i loved all that stuff and and country players can be a bit like jazz players you know when you're playing bluegrass or some of that crossover country into jazz stuff

00:18:20.097 --> 00:18:24.000
It

00:18:25.423 --> 00:18:27.564
can be quite difficult and challenging stuff.

00:18:27.724 --> 00:18:30.326
So, yeah, I ended up doing quite a few sessions.

00:18:30.406 --> 00:18:33.589
I think I've done 60-odd albums, I think, to date.

00:18:34.029 --> 00:18:36.711
And the sessions could be either chromatic or diatonic.

00:18:37.133 --> 00:18:41.316
Yeah, I feel very privileged that I've had a lot of that kind of work.

00:18:41.717 --> 00:18:47.000
So the country harmonica, quite often very fast licks, running up high and across the harmonica.

00:18:47.040 --> 00:18:50.064
Is that the sort of licks you developed on the countryside playing?

00:18:50.064 --> 00:19:53.635
yeah it was because it was I heard it in Charlie McCoy's playing and also not in Buffalo's and lots of other harmonica players that I used to listen to and of course you know I really wanted to do that yeah I'd play Orange Blossom Special and things like that and it was always a showstopper I used to play Orange Blossom Special with a guitar player that I used to tour with and it was just him and I and it was always something that everyone loved the latest album that I've done I used kind to play jazz a lot of the time as a harmonica player they ask you to play in their bands doing the things that they want you to do and I thought well I'm going to do a jazz album and I'm going to get the country guys in and I'm going to ask them to play jazz and so it's been an interesting little journey I've developed material with a pedal steel player called Michelle Rose and we're doing horn lines but it's harmonica and pedal steel and I'm quite excited That album's being released next week, actually.

00:19:53.916 --> 00:19:56.241
It's called Christian Marshall and the Imagineers.

00:19:57.063 --> 00:19:57.604
Great, yeah.

00:19:57.664 --> 00:19:59.407
And so these are jazz tracks on here.

00:19:59.448 --> 00:20:08.748
You've got you doing Sidewinder, for example.

00:20:09.269 --> 00:20:09.470
SIDEWINDER

00:20:17.986 --> 00:20:29.529
And the thing was is that I, I kind of wanted to get a different flavor in jazz tracks than you get from guys that are into jazz, that play jazz.

00:20:29.971 --> 00:20:31.090
I wanted something else.

00:20:31.291 --> 00:20:33.513
And so that's why I did it the way I did.

00:20:33.534 --> 00:20:35.816
And I wanted, it's just a creative project.

00:20:36.096 --> 00:20:37.336
I'm quite happy with it, actually.

00:20:37.497 --> 00:20:39.338
I think it sounds pretty good.

00:20:40.700 --> 00:20:44.063
This crossing over of genres is a thing these days.

00:20:44.103 --> 00:20:46.805
And it's a good idea, yeah, to get that different sort of vibe.

00:20:47.065 --> 00:20:50.127
So yeah, as you say, this is out 22nd, 24th of January.

00:20:50.127 --> 00:20:52.210
Is that going to be available via your website?

00:20:52.471 --> 00:20:54.011
Put a link on the podcast page.

00:20:54.031 --> 00:20:59.999
Well, physical copies will be available on the website, but it's being released to digital platforms.

00:21:00.519 --> 00:21:07.326
So it'll be on Amazon and it'll be on Apple Music and it'll be on Deezer and all those digital platforms.

00:21:07.967 --> 00:21:09.067
Did I say Spotify?

00:21:09.208 --> 00:21:11.411
And that'll be fairly soon.

00:21:11.651 --> 00:21:13.593
It'll be available on those platforms.

00:21:13.913 --> 00:21:32.013
Touching on then, again, this idea of playing different genres, as you say, you played some country there, obviously jazz and, you know, blues and classical and so you know what's your thoughts on the benefits because I'm often torn myself around if you want to be a jazz player, for example, you kind of really got to dedicate yourself to that genre.

00:21:32.954 --> 00:21:38.400
What do you feel about the benefits of playing different genres and also the diatonic and chromatic?

00:21:38.460 --> 00:21:42.282
Obviously, it brings you a broader range of skills, but what do you think?

00:21:42.782 --> 00:21:43.844
You're absolutely right.

00:21:43.943 --> 00:21:48.848
If you wanted to be a great jazz player, then yeah, you do need to concentrate on jazz.

00:21:49.469 --> 00:21:51.191
Same with country harmonica.

00:21:51.211 --> 00:21:54.733
If you want to be a great country player, you should concentrate on a lot of classical.

00:21:55.734 --> 00:21:57.916
Because I live in the end activities.

00:21:58.786 --> 00:22:05.192
I have to be flexible with the kind of offers that I get from different people.

00:22:05.571 --> 00:22:13.759
And at the end of the day, I don't classify myself as a jazz player and I don't classify myself in any genre at all.

00:22:14.058 --> 00:22:18.542
There's blues players that play better blues than I do because I don't play in that genre.

00:22:19.064 --> 00:22:22.606
Well, I do, but I don't specialize in that genre.

00:22:23.247 --> 00:22:26.049
But I play what I really like.

00:22:26.410 --> 00:22:28.332
And so if I like something...

00:22:28.751 --> 00:22:29.972
I learn how to play it.

00:22:30.373 --> 00:22:34.777
And so I've become a bit of a diversified player because of that.

00:22:35.097 --> 00:22:37.378
But at the end of the day, it's all music to me.

00:22:37.799 --> 00:22:53.594
Whatever strikes my heart, I kind of want to do.

00:22:53.614 --> 00:22:58.357
Sometimes bringing something different into a genre pays off.

00:22:58.849 --> 00:23:04.001
I do play with jazz players now, and they tell me I'm a jazz player, and I say, well, I'm not.

00:23:04.222 --> 00:23:12.261
But they like what I do, and they like that it's the unusual animal that it is, and so go along with

00:23:12.342 --> 00:23:12.382
it.

00:23:12.481 --> 00:23:16.005
like you say, it's great to be versatile and to be able to get lots of work, right?

00:23:16.045 --> 00:23:18.807
So which is, which is where, yes, it's definitely got those advantages.

00:23:19.367 --> 00:23:23.090
It helps if you can kind of put on different hats, you know, you get more work.

00:23:23.351 --> 00:23:23.932
Yeah.

00:23:25.153 --> 00:23:25.393
Great.

00:23:25.452 --> 00:23:27.535
So let's get into some more into your recording career.

00:23:27.555 --> 00:23:29.297
Obviously you talked about your new album coming out.

00:23:29.356 --> 00:23:33.820
So I don't know if it's your first album, but the first album I've got you down is, is Planetbound.

00:23:33.901 --> 00:23:35.362
Is that one of your first ones?

00:23:35.461 --> 00:23:35.781
Yeah.

00:23:36.021 --> 00:23:36.563
Yeah.

00:23:36.583 --> 00:23:43.970
Planetbound, I played with Guy Dickerson for many years and we were developing original material.

00:23:44.289 --> 00:23:51.837
Eventually we put it together on an album called Planet Bound and it was released through Festival Records in Australia anyway.

00:23:52.198 --> 00:23:55.561
It's a quirky album, I guess, for its time.

00:23:55.582 --> 00:23:57.124
It was in the late 90s we did that.

00:23:57.523 --> 00:24:00.267
It kind of predated world music in some ways.

00:24:01.067 --> 00:24:04.151
They didn't know where to put it in the record shops.

00:24:04.632 --> 00:24:07.193
Yeah, and as you say, it's quirky in a way.

00:24:07.394 --> 00:24:11.078
You're getting some unusual sounds on the harmonica using some effects on there.

00:24:11.098 --> 00:24:13.321
You get almost something like an accordion accordion at times

00:24:24.683 --> 00:24:43.930
yeah that album we had access to one of sydney's best studios for as much time as we wanted We were experimenting using harmonica through different effects units and putting it through different amplifiers and all that sort of stuff and doubling harmonica up.

00:24:44.349 --> 00:24:47.913
So I'd play the same thing doubling up what I'd just played.

00:24:48.534 --> 00:24:51.297
That's why it sounds piano accordion-y.

00:24:51.497 --> 00:24:53.880
We were just experimenting with things, you know.

00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:56.821
We were just kids having fun in the sandpit.

00:25:00.346 --> 00:25:00.445
MUSIC

00:25:08.642 --> 00:25:12.305
And then you play quite a lot of diatonic on here and some chromatic.

00:25:12.424 --> 00:25:20.813
But on the next album I've got you down, at least, which is the sketch from 2000, am I detecting quite a lot more chromatic on this album?

00:25:21.173 --> 00:25:24.435
Yeah, the sketch was more chromatic.

00:25:24.496 --> 00:25:32.041
The sketch was kind of, I was playing with people that I'd met at the conservatorium, basically, you know, when I did the outreach program.

00:25:32.061 --> 00:25:33.884
And it was the same studio.

00:25:33.903 --> 00:25:35.484
I had access to the same studio.

00:25:35.505 --> 00:25:44.096
And I was very honored to have Chad Wacken and join in on the recording because, I mean, he was Frank Zappa's drummer.

00:25:44.635 --> 00:25:48.842
So I was very blessed that he agreed to come in.

00:25:49.202 --> 00:25:57.575
The sketch was a whole bunch of tunes that I just really liked and I kind of just wanted to make versions of.

00:25:59.798 --> 00:26:02.781
MUSIC

00:26:10.786 --> 00:26:13.523
And then another one under your name was The Lil' Tink.

00:26:13.704 --> 00:26:14.913
When did this one come out?

00:26:15.682 --> 00:26:19.664
The Lil Team was in 2014 or 2015.

00:26:19.806 --> 00:26:25.069
I was playing at the time with a concert pianist.

00:26:25.510 --> 00:26:34.097
We toured Asia and I played with a didgeridoo player, a guy called Mark Atkins, and a concert pianist and harmonica.

00:26:34.178 --> 00:26:41.364
And we were playing things like Rachmaninoff and Debussy, but also funky versions of our own stuff.

00:26:41.724 --> 00:26:54.589
The tour was fun and it gathered a lot of interest around the didgeridoo, basically.

00:27:03.329 --> 00:27:35.239
when we came back to Australia we did an album which was called The Reason to Breathe which is a kind of a classical album and then there's an offshoot to that at the same studio Paris McLeod who was one of the keyboard players said why don't you do an album so I sat down and wrote some material with Paris and so quite a few of the tracks on that album the original material that we came up with and recorded it became the animal that it was as a result of a touring with the people that I had.

00:27:35.480 --> 00:27:43.914
And so I was just lucky that once again, there was a studio available and people willing to back me up, go along with my crazy ideas.

00:27:43.934 --> 00:27:47.981
So you mentioned, obviously, you're playing with a classical pianist on that album.

00:27:49.243 --> 00:27:56.958
So this led to, again, a great achievement that you got, which is you played a concerto with the Symphony Orchestra there in Sydney, yeah?

00:27:57.089 --> 00:28:02.807
Yeah, I did a concerto that was written by an Australian composer.

00:28:02.887 --> 00:28:05.896
Well, he's originally from Denmark, I think.

00:28:05.936 --> 00:28:07.582
His name is Sten Liebeck.

00:28:26.306 --> 00:28:40.170
And Sven Liebeck used to write a lot of film scores for Australian movies and I used to hear his scores on nature programs and it always featured harmonica.

00:28:40.609 --> 00:29:05.992
The chromatic harmonica through Sven Liebeck almost became, in Australia anyway, the sound of the outback because it was used on nature programs and Sven wrote a symphony for chromatic harmonica for the original harmonica player that he used to use on those those recordings but unfortunately he became ill and couldn't perform it.

00:29:06.574 --> 00:30:06.144
Then the concerto was going begging and I'd heard about it and even though I wasn't a classical player as such I rang Sven because he was going to send it overseas to be done and the concerto was about the Australian outback and I'd been in the outback prior to that and I'd spent some time out there with the Aboriginal community and I felt like well maybe I could play it because I come in know what it's about and so I rang him up and he didn't know me but he said oh well if you have a go and I've had all the score and everything and I was at a party and someone at the party said you've got the score for a concerto don't you and I said yeah and he said well there's a guy standing over there that's a conductor for the Newcastle Symphony and do you want to meet him and I said yeah and so I was introduced to him and within five minutes of conversation I had a orchestra and so I thought okay well I'm going to give this a go.

00:30:06.304 --> 00:30:12.499
So I got it together and professed with the orchestra and we ended up performing it and eventually recording it.

00:30:22.594 --> 00:30:28.818
So you said yourself you weren't the strongest reader so how did you go about learning and performing a concerto?

00:30:29.099 --> 00:31:04.071
Well charts for me I do need them because I learned all of the melodic lines and everything but having the chart there reminds me of them and reminds me where they are so in some ways I'm kind of speed reading the chart rather than looking at every note because I already know the melodic structure I've learnt it and so the score is a cue for me and I just I kind of just scan it and know where I am because you can get lost in concertos quite easily if you're not careful and so it just reminds me of where I am

00:31:04.112 --> 00:31:07.915
You're playing it from memory mainly and as you say using the score as a cue

00:31:08.356 --> 00:31:33.743
Yeah, yeah because I want to learn the thing and learn the nuances that I can use to give it melodic lines some meaning and some feeling and all that kind of stuff so I like to know it now that I've worked with a few classical musicians they do the same thing a lot of them know exactly what it is they're playing and they just scan the chart you know

00:31:34.325 --> 00:31:42.272
so you also played Henry Mancini's Breakfast at Tiffany's with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as well so you got some more so you must have done well

00:31:42.532 --> 00:32:28.186
yeah look you know that came my way because they needed a chromatic harmonic player because the you know the classic symphonies song in Breakfast at Tiffany's I learned that song and played it with the Sydney Symphony and I was terrified I managed to pull that off and the Sydney Symphony were great they were really supportive and they were all saying yeah we can hear we're behind you because they knew I was nervous but we ended up pulling it off because every night there was three and a half thousand people in the audience it was at the Opera House in the concert hall and one night we played it really well and got a standing ovation and And I was really honoured in as much as the conductor made me stand up and everyone clapped.

00:32:28.708 --> 00:32:29.990
So it was kind of nice.

00:32:30.791 --> 00:32:35.881
I can't think of a more daunting gig to play in a symphony orchestra, in a venue like that.

00:32:35.921 --> 00:32:36.883
So well done, Chris.

00:32:36.962 --> 00:32:38.605
I'm not surprised you were terrified so well.

00:32:38.625 --> 00:32:39.027
Yeah,

00:32:39.367 --> 00:32:39.607
yeah.

00:32:40.148 --> 00:32:43.635
A characteristic of your playing is your sweet tone.

00:32:44.877 --> 00:32:44.958
Yeah.

00:32:58.882 --> 00:33:02.949
How have you developed your tone and particularly producing that kind of nice tone?

00:33:03.470 --> 00:33:04.611
What have you worked on for that?

00:33:05.292 --> 00:33:16.711
When I worked with Adler, he said to me, you know what, you've got to sound like you do, don't imitate anybody else, just be yourself, sound like yourself.

00:33:17.152 --> 00:33:28.119
Toots Tillemans wrote to me because he heard a copy of the sketch and I spoke to him on the phone and he said, You've got to just find yourself in this.

00:33:28.279 --> 00:33:30.142
Don't emulate anybody else.

00:33:30.501 --> 00:33:33.204
So there's no point in sounding like anybody else.

00:33:33.585 --> 00:33:34.465
Sound like yourself.

00:33:34.705 --> 00:33:36.027
And I was always conscious of that.

00:33:36.426 --> 00:33:38.588
And I liked Toots's tone.

00:33:38.909 --> 00:33:40.171
I liked everybody else's tone.

00:33:40.211 --> 00:33:40.990
I never liked mine.

00:33:41.491 --> 00:33:43.472
I just never liked my own tone for some reason.

00:33:43.733 --> 00:33:55.223
But my tone, I think, and my way of playing was developed as a result of listening to saxophone players like Stan Getz and Pat Matheny's guitar playing.

00:33:55.663 --> 00:34:01.269
And things that really inspired me, there's lots of really sweet horn players that I really love.

00:34:01.609 --> 00:34:02.932
Paul Desmond's another one.

00:34:03.231 --> 00:34:13.463
And so I listened to the way they pull their tones, and I just tried to copy that on harmonica because I was really into the Stan Getz sound.

00:34:13.503 --> 00:34:15.905
And Dave Sanborn was another one.

00:34:15.945 --> 00:34:19.309
He was more of a modern saxophone player, but I just loved his tone.

00:34:19.630 --> 00:34:29.239
And so I copied saxophone tonality, I think, is that's why– It just became ingrained in my melodic sensibility.

00:34:29.400 --> 00:34:31.342
And so I think that's why.

00:34:31.762 --> 00:34:34.826
Was this mainly on chromatic that you were copying the saxophones?

00:34:35.005 --> 00:34:38.730
Everything I do on chromatic relates back to diatonic.

00:34:38.750 --> 00:34:42.753
I mean, people often say to me when I'm playing diatonic, they didn't realize it was diatonic.

00:34:42.773 --> 00:34:43.755
They thought it was chromatic.

00:34:44.056 --> 00:34:49.041
So in some ways, you end up approaching the two instruments in the same way.

00:34:49.081 --> 00:34:51.643
What you learn on one, you apply to the other and vice versa.

00:34:51.884 --> 00:34:55.568
And so the tonality I can get from a diatonic...

00:34:55.568 --> 00:35:03.255
is a byproduct in some ways of the tonality I've got from chromatic by listening to horn players if you get that.

00:35:03.836 --> 00:35:11.724
And so to, you know, the tone of the saxophone players, is this something that you play along with, you know, with the records and then try and emulate the tone in that way?

00:35:11.764 --> 00:35:21.356
Yeah, I try and learn their lines and try and play along with them and imagine that I'm Stan Getz and I'm doing this, you know.

00:35:21.856 --> 00:35:21.996
Yeah.

00:35:22.356 --> 00:35:57.054
Hopefully it kind of, you absorb a little bit of it then one day you're playing and it starts coming out and you think oh okay and I think that's my approach to tone I don't play hugely loud either like I'm amped up to the hilt I play right on the mic I'm loud but I don't play hard I play softly and that was something I learned from Toots because Toots plays softly and I loved the sweetness and how he could get he could whisper things to and it was beautiful.

00:35:57.255 --> 00:35:58.559
I was really inspired by that.

00:35:58.599 --> 00:36:04.911
And so I tend to play quietly into the mic, but I'm quite amped up as well.

00:36:05.414 --> 00:36:10.505
And I noticed on one of your recordings, I think with Ed Cooper, that you're playing some bass harmonica.

00:36:10.545 --> 00:36:11.967
That's you on bass, is it?

00:36:14.733 --> 00:36:14.813
Yeah.

00:36:23.297 --> 00:36:23.978
Yeah, it is.

00:36:24.599 --> 00:36:33.367
The Ed Cooper recording, Ed Cooper was or is a great composer in Australia in rock music.

00:36:34.268 --> 00:36:49.940
They called me to the studio because they wanted chromatic harmonica and so they put on a track and said can you just give us a demo of the chromatic and a bit of a demo of diatonic and a bit of a demo of bass harmonica because they knew I had one.

00:36:50.300 --> 00:37:24.538
They pressed play and so I played it a bit of chromatic and then I played a bit of titanic and at the end I played bass harmonica and then when the track was finished I kind of said okay what do you want me to do and they said thanks we've got it and they just recorded it all in one go and kept it all and that was how that track came about and it was like I was kind of trying to say well I was only experimenting I wasn't you know and they said no it sat perfectly we really like it we're going to keep it and so that's how that came about so that was a funny one

00:37:24.898 --> 00:37:39.478
so i mean probably like some people i own a bass harmonica and you know i played it a little bit i've never really mastered it but you know is it something you've worked on any of you sort of works on bass lines or you know you're sort of using your your kind of understanding of um chord triads and things to play any any deeper than that

00:37:40.239 --> 00:37:52.157
i had a bass harmonica because i played in in a band they wanted bass harmonica that the guy playing guitar knew about bass harmonica he said you need to play bass harmonica

00:37:52.358 --> 00:37:52.478
and so

00:37:52.641 --> 00:38:29.896
twisted my arm to go and buy one and play a couple of lines in some songs that we used to do we used to play bars and pubs and stuff and then I did a stage musical called Big River which was about Huckleberry Finn and it had a couple of tunes that had bass harmonica in them and I had to play in the pit orchestra for this musical Big River which was at Her Majesty's Theatre in Sydney and also Melbourne and I had to learn the bass line And so I learned the bass line and I got over being nervous on bass harmonica because I had to play to big audiences every night.

00:38:30.195 --> 00:38:32.117
And I really loved the sound of it.

00:38:32.358 --> 00:38:39.706
And so I've used it in quite a few different recordings now, but I wouldn't call myself a bass harmonica player.

00:38:39.746 --> 00:38:45.632
And I always stress that to people, like I can play a few things, but I'm no bass harmonica player.

00:38:45.693 --> 00:38:48.255
But I used it in Planetbound as well.

00:38:48.635 --> 00:38:51.619
So great, yes, you did the theatre there, as you say.

00:38:51.659 --> 00:38:52.440
You even acted in...

00:38:52.559 --> 00:38:53.221
Big River, didn't you?

00:38:53.860 --> 00:38:54.262
I did.

00:38:54.342 --> 00:38:56.903
I was a character in Tom Sawyer's gang.

00:38:57.264 --> 00:38:59.347
There was a character in the gang that played harmonica.

00:38:59.547 --> 00:39:07.635
And so we'd be on stage and I'd start the song and then Huck Finn would start singing and then we'd roll about stage.

00:39:07.675 --> 00:39:10.518
And I had to roll about stage playing harmonica and stuff like that.

00:39:10.978 --> 00:39:11.438
It was fun.

00:39:11.559 --> 00:39:12.659
It was a lot of fun, that show.

00:39:13.481 --> 00:39:16.103
I did that tour with that for over a year.

00:39:16.123 --> 00:39:17.204
It was good fun.

00:39:17.445 --> 00:39:20.188
I love it when the actors play instruments on stage.

00:39:20.208 --> 00:39:21.608
I always think that works really well.

00:39:22.242 --> 00:39:23.389
Okay, and...

00:39:23.521 --> 00:39:27.324
So you've also done lots of TV work, lots of TV appearances in Australia.

00:39:27.726 --> 00:39:28.126
Yeah.

00:39:28.585 --> 00:39:35.452
I've been invited to do TV appearances with different bands, some of whom I've done sessions for.

00:39:36.954 --> 00:39:52.666
The track that I was on was a track that they were playing on the radio or whatever it was and then they'd go on a midday show or whatever show it was and they'd say, can you come on the show, come on the TV with us because, you know, we need you to do the solo that you did on the record.

00:39:53.027 --> 00:39:59.202
Pretty much Most of the performances that I've done on TV have been as a result of that.

00:39:59.222 --> 00:40:05.516
I did play in the band, the backing band for a television show for a little while.

00:40:06.242 --> 00:40:09.764
yeah these opportunities came up and they were always fun

00:40:10.204 --> 00:40:19.914
yeah no great stuff and you've won some awards over there in australia the uh the hona gold harmonica award three times at hona's uh harmonica championship over in australia

00:40:20.193 --> 00:40:55.548
well the harmonica championship was one of those things where you know a whole bunch of people would get up and perform and then you'd be judged on your performance and you know you'd win the gold harmonica award if you were the best one on the night, and so I always used to say, you know, I used to say you're the Australian harmonica champion, but it was to me, it was like, well, no, I was probably the guy on the night that played the most confidently, you know, because if we did it on another night, someone else probably would have got it, you know what I mean?

00:40:55.768 --> 00:41:06.019
But they were always fun, and you always had to come up with some novel thing that the audience would like to try and establish a place in the competition, so...

00:41:06.159 --> 00:41:13.527
Is that something that you'd work up a piece for, that you prepare for, something that was good for your development, do you think?

00:41:13.967 --> 00:41:20.594
It was great for my development because there was a lot of pressure and a lot of nerves around it.

00:41:20.996 --> 00:41:30.485
You'd work up some material, get up and perform it and hope that everyone liked it and that the judges would say, yeah, okay, that was the best performance of the night.

00:41:31.286 --> 00:42:05.282
In the days when those competitions were on, lots of good players would come and perform because the money was good you know you got a gold harmonica and I think a thousand dollars for being the best performer at the time and so that was good money that was at the time that was like you had to do you know maybe six or eight shows to make the same sort of money and you could do it in one go and so it used to attract some pretty good players and so it was always fairly competitive and as a result quite nerve-wracking

00:42:06.023 --> 00:42:08.893
so So we're getting on to a question I ask each time.

00:42:09.094 --> 00:42:12.789
Kristen, if you had 10 minutes to practice, what would you spend those 10 minutes doing?

00:42:13.378 --> 00:42:22.885
I tend to sit down and play a classical piece because with classical pieces you need to keep working on them, otherwise you lose them.

00:42:23.547 --> 00:42:28.190
And so I tend to sit down and just play one of the classical pieces that I've got up my sleeve.

00:42:28.630 --> 00:42:35.416
I would play usually a jazz tune, something that I'm aiming for.

00:42:35.476 --> 00:42:40.882
I spend time getting jazz tunes together and trying to get them working for myself.

00:42:41.262 --> 00:42:52.527
So I might spend a bit of time on working through a jazz tune, it's sounding good.

00:42:58.882 --> 00:43:02.965
And then I try and do some diatonic harmonica as well.

00:43:03.585 --> 00:43:13.273
My diatonic harmonica practice revolves around a bit of scale work these days and getting the overblows really clean, getting the overdraws really clean.

00:43:13.514 --> 00:43:21.001
Because I find that if you don't play really clean overblows to the audience, it can sound like a bad note.

00:43:21.641 --> 00:43:23.342
So you've got to get them clean.

00:43:23.402 --> 00:43:28.106
And the other thing that you have to do with overblows is that you have to get them into the...

00:43:28.847 --> 00:43:35.635
melodic structure of whatever it is you're doing so that the overblow is a stepping tone to the next one.

00:43:36.175 --> 00:43:46.106
Just playing overblows and overdraws because you can for me doesn't work they've got to be part of the melodic scale or the melodic idea that you're expressing.

00:43:46.447 --> 00:43:55.597
When you use them as a stepping stone in the melodic idea they give you a much broader palette on the diatonic harmonica and so I work on that stuff.

00:43:55.916 --> 00:44:02.043
Yeah and so obviously you were Larry Adler's technician so I take it you set up your own harps for overblows as well

00:44:02.563 --> 00:44:33.601
I do yeah I learned that early because you can be anywhere and have a harmonica as you know mess up on you so you've got to open it up and get it sounding good right from the word go I was pulling harmonicas apart when I was about you know when I was 18 because I was always curious about how does this thing work and the first dramatic I ever got I had it for about a day and the next day I'm unscrewing it, I'm pulling it apart just to have a look.

00:44:34.744 --> 00:44:35.885
I'm just curious.

00:44:36.005 --> 00:44:44.181
And then I learned very quickly about read angles and then tuning, how to tune reads and all that sort of stuff.

00:44:44.402 --> 00:44:45.684
And I got very interested in it.

00:44:45.925 --> 00:45:01.715
And my chromatics that I've had for years For me, because I've set them up for me and my playing and everything, it sounds so much better than anything else I could ever pick up because they're so personalised and I've spent so much time messing around with them.

00:45:02.076 --> 00:45:03.456
And the same with the diatonics.

00:45:04.538 --> 00:45:09.563
If I gave my diatonic to another player, they'd probably find that it didn't work for them.

00:45:09.722 --> 00:45:14.027
But it works for me and their harmonica works for them.

00:45:14.067 --> 00:45:52.626
And this is a difficulty I have with Larry Adler because Larry Adler plays really loud and he learnt to play really loud because when he was young he used to play in big halls without amplification so he had the audience to sit there and you'd have to be heard standing up on a stage without any amplification so he played really hard and what that did was that flattened the reeds so he used to want his harmonicas tuned up to 445 because when he hit them hard the strength of the way he was playing would flatten and the reed down to about 442.

00:45:52.927 --> 00:45:56.811
And so a box, down at the box, I might have tuned it at A440.

00:45:56.831 --> 00:45:58.672
It was no good for Larry Adler.

00:45:58.873 --> 00:46:01.576
He needed them all tuned up to 445.

00:46:01.896 --> 00:46:06.981
And so when I was tuning his hummelingers, he would play and go, no, no, this is not right.

00:46:07.603 --> 00:46:15.751
Because even though I tuned it to 445, the reed angle might have been a little bit low and so the reed was blocking for him.

00:46:15.771 --> 00:46:19.534
Whereas if I played it, it sounded great for me, but it didn't work for him.

00:46:19.574 --> 00:46:19.916

Christian Marsh interview

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