Dec. 4, 2020
Greg Zlap interview
Greg Zlap hails from Poland, where he played along with black market blues records on his one harmonica.
He moved to Paris in his late teens where he discovered the great French harmonica player, JJ Milteau. Greg started up a harmonica school in the city and has released a number of stellar harmonica albums. Always driven to push the harmonica forward, he has added harmonica to genres ranging from jazz, to electro music, to pop, house music and rock, while remaining true to the foundations of the instrument.
He toured with legendary French musician Johnny Halladav for ten years, playing a harmonica solo in front of the Eiffel Tower in front of 1 million people.
Greg plans to start touring again in early 2021 to promote his new album, Rock It.
Select the Chapter Markers tab above to select different sections of the podcast (website version only).
Links:
Greg's website:
http://www.gregzlap.com
Rock It Album:
https://smarturl.it/GregZlap_RockIt
Rock It Tour Dates:
https://bnds.us/uaf0hr
YouTube:
Solo piece with Johnny Hallyday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQiV4Yh6V2o
Klingande: Ready For Love song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b-sOuO-a4U
Le Blues du Penitencier song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6azkHB7uVQ
Free Soul song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLaI19erdis
NHL Festival 2013:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCrXy0Tmmhk
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
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 at SEYDEL HARMONICAS
and Blows Me Away Productions: http://www.blowsmeaway.com/
01:09 - Greg’s Polish origins and challenges in learning the harmonica there
01:44 - Greg started learning piano age 4, but only played it for two years
02:18 - Greg’s uncle brought him a harmonica from the US at age 14
02:45 - First heard Little Walter to inspire him on what the harmonica could sound like
03:21 - Bought blues harmonica CDs on black market by selling Star Wars toys
03:40 - Greg was self-taught on harmonica with not much of a music scene in Warsaw
04:33 - Only had one harmonica at this stage
04:41 - Uncle bought Greg Don Baker’s harmonica tuition book
05:43 - Different people want different things from learning the harmonica
06:29 - Most important in learning music is to listen and internalise what you hear
07:39 - Greg moved to France in the late 1980s and harmonicas and records were freely available
08:52 - Discovered JJ Milteau’s albums
09:49 - Greg saw harmonica for first time in a music venue in Paris
10:23 - The varied harmonica scene in France and influence of JJ Milteau on Greg’s career
11:17 - How to overcome the fact that no-one needs a harmonica player
11:48 - First recording session was playing a jingle with just five notes
13:06 - Greg places the harmonica as the lead instrument in the band by composing the music
14:17 - First album in 1997: Ternary Madness
15:31 - Experimental sounds on the harmonica
16:03 - Ran a harmonica school in Paris
17:24 - Greg still runs workshops once a year at an event in Roses, northern Spain
18:11 - Notable former students of Greg’s harmonica school
19:00 - Gregtime live album from a concert with harmonica school
21:33 - La part du diable album, influenced by electro music
24:39 - Little Walter was modern for his time and Greg tries to emulate that now
25:55 - Third album, Varsovie, and Greg’s journey to make this mainly jazz based album
29:03 - Road Movies album, where Greg worked to write an album like a film score
31:55 - How to make an appealing harmonica instrument album which appeals to non-harmonica fans
33:09 - Album Air, released in 2011, using “instruments that breathe”
35:07 - Released two EPs in 2015 and 2017 for radio exposure purposes
36:08 - Touring with huge French star Johnny Halladay
37:08 - Playing extended solo on stage with Johnny Halladay’s rock band
37:45 - How to make a good musical show
38:40 - Most powerful aspect of diatonic harmonica is in playing the chords
41:50 - Collaborations with House Music star Klingande
44:33 - Greg has had a comic strip written about his career
45:08 - Has four tuition books to his name
45:24 - 10 minute question
47:18 - Harmonica of choice
48:19 - Favourite key of diatonic
48:29 - Greg uses low tuned harps for recording, but not live playing
49:05 - How Marine Band and Golden Melody harmonicas are tuned makes them suitable for different purposes
52:05 - Different tunings
52:44 - Embouchre
53:00 - Amps and mics
53:18 - Effects pedals
55:15 - Tour planned in early 2021 to promote new album, Rock It
WEBVTT
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Greg Slap joins me on episode 29.
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Greg hails from Poland where he played along with Black Market Blues records on his one harmonica.
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He moved to Paris in his late teens and discovered the great French harmonica player, J.J.
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Milton.
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Greg started up a harmonica school in the city and has released a number of stellar harmonica albums, always driven to push the harmonica forward.
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He has added harmonica to genres ranging from jazz to electro music to pop, house music and rock, while remaining true to the foundations of the instrument.
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He's played a harmonica solo in front of the Eiffel Tower to one million people and plans to start touring again in early 2021.
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A word to my sponsor again, thanks to the Lone Wolf Blues Company, makers of effects pedals, microphones and more, designed for harmonica.
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Remember, when you want control over your tone, you want Lone Wolf.
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So hello, Greg Slapinski, and welcome to the podcast.
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Hello, Neil.
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Thank you for receiving me.
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And I know that Slapinski is very hard to say.
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It's a name from Polish.
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But that's why I'm called Greg Slap.
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It's much easier.
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Yeah, a great stage name.
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So you're Polish, you were born in Warsaw.
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What was it like growing up learning the harmonica in Poland?
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It's kind of funny when I look back these years because it was a time where the Berlin Wall was still up and we were in a communist country with not much freedom.
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For example, you couldn't go to a shop and buy music you wanted to buy.
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Obviously, no harmonicas in the shops.
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So actually, my first encounter with music was in Warsaw when I was about 14.
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four years old and it was in kindergarten.
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A guy and a lady from the music school came to audition all the little kids.
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They were playing something on the piano and we had to sing.
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And my parents received a letter saying that I would become a pianist.
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So I started to learn piano and I was not really interested.
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So after one or two years, I was begging my parents to stop.
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So my adventure with music ended at the age of six.
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And the second important moment was when my uncle came from a visit to the States and he brought me a present, which was a little harmonica.
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It was a marine band.
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And so I took the harmonica out of the box.
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I remember it was in the key of G, so quite low.
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And I started to blow in it.
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Well, it was funny for five minutes, but then I put it in the corner until the day when my uncle said, you have to listen to what the American bluesmen do with this instrument.
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And then I found a record.
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I think it was Little Walter's blues with a feeling.
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And so I heard this incredible sound.
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So when I heard the sound, I thought, is this the harmonica?
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I don't believe it.
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Whatever I do, I cannot get this kind of sound.
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So it was a fascination.
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And I started listening to whatever records I could find with harmonica.
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And I just wanted to get this tone, this sound.
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So did you manage to get hold of some recordings and have some blues artists?
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Yeah, actually, there was the black market, which was quite useful.
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So I remember exchanging or selling my Star Wars toys on the black market and buying some records.
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So great.
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So you're around 14, I think, when you...
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You got your first harmonica.
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You were self-taught then, playing with records.
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Was there much of a music scene, much of a blues scene for you to play with and to develop yourself in Poland?
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No, at that time, actually, I mean, I had no musicians in my family.
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So this world of music was completely unknown for me.
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Maybe there was one jazz club in Warsaw.
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I don't have the memory of going out to a club or to listen to music.
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Later, yes, I went to some rock concerts.
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The thing that is very important for all the musicians who start entering the world of music to go and to jam and to play with some public in small places.
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There was nothing of this.
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For me, the harmonica was really something secret.
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I wouldn't play for other people.
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It was something I was doing in my room.
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Did you manage to get a hold of a few more different keys of harmonicas?
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No, I
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had just one harmonica.
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I mean, I had the harmonica in G.
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The same uncle, actually, he offered me a harmonica book, Don Baker's I learned the blues harmonica, something like this, with a cassette there.
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So I started working on this book.
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I could really go more into the technical details of how to bend, and there were really exciting demo versions of the songs that you would learn after following this book.
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So my goal was to get to play it exactly like it was in the book.
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Yeah, I'm always fascinated about how you feel now where you were in quite a, you know, restricted way of learning.
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You know, you only had one harmonica.
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You only had a few records, one book compared to what's available now on the Internet.
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So what do you think about the differences?
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Is there something better about the way you did it or is it just different?
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You think, you know, having so many resources on the Internet these days and teachers, of course.
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I think that there are no wrong ways of learning.
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What is important now that anyone can get resources on the internet.
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So it's really accessible to everybody.
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I love teaching.
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So I have this experience that I love with teaching harmonica.
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I realized that there are people actually who learn harmonica, have very different goals.
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For some of them, the goal is to eventually play music with harmonica.
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But for others, it might be mastering the technique.
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They would never like...
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to go on stage.
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So there are very different approaches.
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For some people, it's more understandable if you teach them in a traditional way, for example, with reading music, and they will like this approach for the harmonica too.
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So now, for example, yes, you can get everything.
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But in my opinion, the best way to learn if you want to perform and if you want to become a musician, which is not the case of a lot of people, actually is the most important thing is to listen.
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There is no better way than to listen to a record and to try to understand what's going on and to try to make mistakes by yourself and interiorize what you are hearing.
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Because now you have the possibility of taking a very fast song.
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For example, you can take a Blues Travelers song.
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I have a songbook of blues travelers songs with John Popper's solos.
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They are all written down.
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I don't read music, so it doesn't help me.
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But also you can stretch the music and to listen to each of the solo in slow motion.
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So you can actually learn all these incredible solos step by step, but maybe without re-understanding.
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I don't know if there is a point in doing it, really.
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I mean, there's always a point of getting more technique and of mastering something.
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But the best school is to listen and to practice with other
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people.
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So you then moved to France in the late 1980s.
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Did you move straight to Paris then?
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And what prompted your move to France?
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When I followed my mother, who
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had a
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contract in UNESCO, it was quite a surprise.
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It was the first time I left Poland, actually.
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So it was my first time in the West, like we called it.
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There was the East and West, so I entered the Western world.
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I had this incredible feeling of freedom, actually.
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Speaking about harmonica, I remember seeing a music shop in front.
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I was standing in front of the shop and I saw harmonicas, but just one harmonica.
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You had a lot of harmonicas.
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The idea that you can actually enter a shop and buy harmonica, it was something crazy for me.
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This was a blast for me.
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And the other thing was the record shops.
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So I spent a lot of time in record shops.
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And actually, I was looking at the CDs and cassettes, looking at the covers.
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Whenever I saw a harmonica or a harmonica playing on the cover, I would be interested in this record.
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So I started buying records and everything was accessible.
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I remember once I went to the record shop and I asked, do you have CDs with harmonica players?
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And the guy says, yes, there is one that has just come out.
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The harmonica player is Jean-Jacques Pilteau.
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So I bought this CD and it was explored by
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Jean-Jacques
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Pilteau.
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It was a very important record for me because it was a new way of approaching the harmonica with very modern techniques and especially a modern way of incorporating harmonica in the music.
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The songs in this record were really arranged in a very popular and modern way and with harmonica as a leading instrument.
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Later, I met Jean-Jacques Milteau, so the two things, liberty, being able to buy records and harmonicas, And the third thing, which was one of the most important, was that there were blues clubs, jazz clubs, and could go out each night and watch a concert.
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In Paris, it was the first time I saw a concert with a harmonica player.
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It was Jean-Jacques Pilteau.
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I wonder if I stayed in Poland, if I had the same opportunity to stick to the harmonica, to make a living out of it.
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I don't know.
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But, well, for me, it was a wonderful thing to come to France and to see this freedom of music.
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So John Jack Milton, he sort of called you his spiritual son, hasn't he?
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So obviously he took you under his wing a little bit.
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The harmonica scene in France is quite strong, yeah?
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So you're able to tap into that and, as you say, start developing your playing that way.
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In France, there is a great variety of different styles, as we are talking about harmonica playing.
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So there are great players in very different styles.
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For me, Jean-Jacques Militeau is a very important figure, because when I met him, I still wouldn't imagine that I would become a musician later.
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I was playing the harp, but how to do, how do you make a profession out of it?
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I could not imagine.
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And Jean-Jacques Militeau showed me that not only it was possible, because he showed it by his example, but he showed that harmonica could be a leading instrument this is what changes everything because actually later on I realized and this is what I say now with my experience the basic thing about the harmonica is that no one really needs a harmonica player in a band so why would anyone call you for recordings because people do not imagine what you can do with this instrument most of the recording sessions I did for years I heard again and again And again, the same thing.
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I was asked to play like Bob Dylan, for example, because this is a popular way people understand the harmonica.
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So when you do commercials or something, could you play something like Bob Dylan?
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Yes, of course I can.
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My first professional experience, I will tell you this anecdote because it was really fun.
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I was called to record a commercial and the guy who calls me says, we need a harmonica.
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It's very simple.
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There are five notes to play.
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Just to play the jingle of the company.
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I was very happy.
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It was my first professional experience.
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gig.
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As I was going to the studio, I thought, all the money I get if I divide it by five, it makes quite a good deal for one note, you know, because there were just five notes to play.
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Once I was in the studio, well, we started playing and actually it took about three hours of recording because I played the thing and then the guy started, okay, can you play it higher?
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Of course I can.
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Can you play it lower?
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Can you play it slower?
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Faster?
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And maybe like this and maybe like that.
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So we spent three hours and at the end of the three hours they decided that the first take was just perfect I mean everybody knows the harmonica it's the most sold instrument in the world everyone has an image associated to the harmonica whether it's Bob Dylan or westerns it's we the harmonica players who know what you can do with the harmonica we must be creative and propose things because people will not think of it
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well I'm very interested in this you mentioned there about a band doesn't need a harmonica so you've got to show them what the harmonica can do how did you go about sort of exerting your your influence to say i'm the main instrument this is my music you know you know how do you do that as a harmonica player
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For me, from the very beginning, actually, the very important thing was to compose, to create music with the harmonica.
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Each time I mastered a new technique and I got to a certain point, I was actually converting my achievements into compositions.
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Like, for example, one of my first songs is a tune called Blues Band Boogie, which is in a lot of playlists actually now on Spotify.
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And I see that it has hundreds of thousands of streams and it's my first song the sparkle was me trying to to get the bands out of my harmonica
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trying
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to do the bands and the lower notes i came up with with a theme It just said that all that I was practicing and achieving, primarily I was composing.
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And from this came the idea that I wanted to share this music.
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Yeah, so you're composing a really key part of the music you come up with.
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So let's get into that first album now.
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I believe this is your Turnery Madness, yeah?
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This is your first album in 1997, which Blues Bend Boogie was on.
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This first album actually, I was overwhelmed by all the possibilities, all the styles that you could play with the harmonica.
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Actually, it was a harmonica player who made me record this first album.
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It is Marco Ballon, who is a French harmonica player, and he had a studio.
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So he was the person who proposed me to record this album.
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One of the songs on the album is Paul Le Melieur, which has got quite a spacey effect.
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at this stage it sounded like in your first album you're being quite experimental with the sounds you're getting out of the harmonica on that song
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I like a lot of experimenting with sounds actually this song was I was quite fascinated by Jaco Pastorius and I thought well if the bass can do licks like this why not the harmonica I like using delay and some overdrive and sometimes I experiment with some other crazy sounds
00:15:59.909 --> 00:16:09.919
yeah so that was your first album and then you started this harmonica school in Paris yeah I think you started in 98 actually when I decided
00:16:09.940 --> 00:16:34.547
that I would become professional I was doing my studies computer science studies which I stopped then I thought what will I do I did not imagine myself spending days practicing harmonica so I thought the thing that I love doing is to share I was giving private lessons so I thought about this harmonica school which I found Founded in a blues club called Utopia.
00:16:34.927 --> 00:16:39.231
And the idea of the school was to bring people different stages.
00:16:39.312 --> 00:16:40.432
There were four levels.
00:16:41.073 --> 00:16:44.397
And so from complete beginners to advanced players.
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It was organized like a workshop.
00:16:46.659 --> 00:16:48.542
So you could listen once a week.
00:16:48.721 --> 00:16:52.546
But at the end of the workshop, after three months, we were on stage.
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This was the key point of the school.
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That everything we were learning was directed into playing music live.
00:17:01.895 --> 00:17:32.989
So even the complete big beginner after three months was on stage with professional musicians to get this experience this feeling of what it means playing and sharing music with other musicians and the public this school was very successful now it's been a few years that I don't give lessons there because I don't have time to take care of the school but I still organize workshops once a year in Spain because I really love this contact with people and sharing.
00:17:33.269 --> 00:17:38.634
Yeah, and those workshops in Spain, they're in Roses, which is a very beautiful location.
00:17:38.694 --> 00:17:42.298
I've been very nearby on that coast, on the northeast of Spain.
00:17:42.318 --> 00:17:43.240
Yeah, very beautiful.
00:17:43.259 --> 00:17:49.665
We organized it with Juan Pablo Cumejas, who is a Catalan harmonica player, incredible player.
00:17:50.047 --> 00:17:56.953
It's more than 10 years that we've been doing this, and we have sea, we have sun, and we have harmonica.
00:17:57.346 --> 00:17:59.741
all day long and concerts every night.
00:18:00.365 --> 00:18:02.157
So it's a very good experience.
00:18:03.617 --> 00:18:05.058
Are you hoping to run that next year?
00:18:05.098 --> 00:18:07.560
Yes, because this year, of course, we couldn't.
00:18:07.922 --> 00:18:10.403
But next year, I hope it will be possible.
00:18:10.723 --> 00:18:15.248
So, yeah, so Rochelle Pless, she went to your harmonica school.
00:18:15.268 --> 00:18:16.128
I've had her on the podcast.
00:18:16.148 --> 00:18:19.872
She may have seen and she sort of first learned harmonica at your school.
00:18:20.071 --> 00:18:21.953
Yeah, she was
00:18:22.034 --> 00:18:23.214
a kid when she started.
00:18:23.255 --> 00:18:30.161
And I have a few of my students who became professionals or harmonica teachers.
00:18:30.781 --> 00:18:59.720
So I'm very proud of this because because it's it's transmitting passion to other people it is a great feeling even some famous harmonica players in France who are very successful and the singer Christophe Malet who is a huge star he's a singer but he uses the harmonica he took classes with me there are some Charles Pazy who is a harmonica player singer he signed with Blue Note record company well there are a few students like this and this is great
00:19:00.881 --> 00:19:06.167
yeah fantastic and you released a live album as a result of the concert that she did here, didn't you?
00:19:06.228 --> 00:19:09.997
So there's a live album called Greg Time, which is great to hear you live.
00:19:10.057 --> 00:19:12.022
And so you've got some recordings on there.
00:19:12.303 --> 00:19:15.330
For example, you play one with JJ Milton, the hooky boogie.
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000
.
00:19:33.986 --> 00:19:38.663
also one with olivier curio is it he's a chromatic jazz player
00:19:38.924 --> 00:20:11.147
yes chromatic incredible chromatic jazz player The thing about the Greg time, this was something incredible because actually I was organizing a concert each month and the idea was to get a band with musicians that do not know each other.
00:20:11.367 --> 00:20:22.619
So each time I was calling friends and trying to put up a band for one night and people who do not usually play together, of course, always very good musicians.
00:20:23.040 --> 00:20:23.942
And I was not...
00:20:24.354 --> 00:20:26.496
telling them what we were going to play.
00:20:26.875 --> 00:20:32.401
So it was like a jam session, but that for the audience looks like a concert.
00:20:32.520 --> 00:20:50.036
Of course, I was doing my set list before, and the idea was to start the songs on the harmonica without telling the band the key that the song is in, without giving instructions about rhythm or the chords, just with simple signs.
00:20:50.636 --> 00:21:25.634
And it is incredible how we managed to play music which is based on the blues because it is for me the most common language musical language around the world and we were able to play gigs with musicians who have never played before so it's a great great experience for me of how to improvise how to interact with the public when you play things that were not prepared at all you have to open your ears and for every other musician it's the same you listen to each other and there is something magical happens.
00:21:26.096 --> 00:21:29.965
And for the audience, it was always a great experience.
00:21:30.346 --> 00:21:33.253
So this was a great school for me, actually.
00:21:33.374 --> 00:21:33.955
So yeah, great.
00:21:33.996 --> 00:21:37.785
And so maybe on to your next album, La Porte Diable.
00:21:37.884 --> 00:21:38.747
Devil's Share.
00:21:58.657 --> 00:22:05.708
So again on here, some really nice, interesting, you know, experiments in the sounds you're getting on harmonica and really effective.
00:22:05.728 --> 00:22:12.217
For example, the first track, I think, or the track 1962, has got a very heavy effect and it's kind of like a dance beat.
00:22:12.257 --> 00:22:19.006
I know you're interested in playing, and you do play in quite a lot of pop songs and dance beats, which we'll get on to later.
00:22:32.130 --> 00:22:35.653
Is that one of the first dance beats you played against that 1962 song?
00:22:35.772 --> 00:22:36.093
Yeah.
00:22:36.433 --> 00:22:44.079
Actually, this one is inspired by Miles Davis' trumpet with some chromatic licks and a very strange kind of theme.
00:22:44.421 --> 00:22:48.683
For this song, I remember I used a kind of dynamic filter.
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