July 15, 2022

Joe Powers interview

Joe Powers interview
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Season 1 Chromatic Harmonica Classical Chromatic Traditional Harmonica

Joe Powers joins me on episode 65. 

Joe started out playing diatonic harmonica along with blues records as a teenager, before deciding to study music composition at college, taking up the chromatic there.

Joe’s passion for dancing led him to Argentina and tango music, where he has become the current leading exponent on harmonica. He believes the chromatic harmonica is the perfect instrument for tango music, and talks us through how to play this captivating genre.

Although known as the ‘tango harmonica guy’, Joe also loves to play many other styles of music on the harmonica, as demonstrated across his albums and live performances, including classical pieces with full orchestras. And other the pandemic Joe has put together his very own teaching platform.


Links:
Joe’s website:
https://www.joepowers.com

Email Joe at:  
joe@joepowers.com

Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/Joepowersmusic/

Buy Joe’s music here:
https://www.joepowers.com/music

Harmonica Path teaching:
https://www.joepowers.com/the-harmonica-path


Suzuki Bass Chromatic:
https://suzukimusic-global.com/products_single.php?parent_cate_cd=1&products_cate_cd=3&products_cd=119

Sennheiser Wireless system:
https://en-uk.sennheiser.com/wireless-microphone-system-voice-vocal-instrument-presentation

TC Helicon Mic Mechanic 2 pedal:
https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0DDW


Videos:

Joe’s YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/joepowersmusic/videos

Takes a dance while playing with the orchestra:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RZg5oACUiE

Threnody from Gordon Jacob harmonica Suite, performed in Japan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBf31rvIKGs

With Jamie Cullum in Tokyo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJL3ewLnpaI

Playing diatonic overblows with Japense guitarist Yosuke Onuma:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PJjqDA9gL4

Quarantine session with Mexican violinist Arianda Lozano:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cE1hRRXhQQ

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.

Support the show

01:26 - Currently touring Europe and speaking from the US

01:34 - Joe is from Portland, Oregon, US, and the music scene there

01:50 - Joe has played harmonica his whole life and had first lessons age 13-14

02:49 - Grew up playing blues and rock music, mostly by ear, on the diatonic

03:19 - Played in bands as a teenager before deciding to study music at the University of Oregon

03:35 - Was given a chromatic when starting at college

04:16 - Plays more chromatic than diatonic

04:41 - Received first harmonica when just 19 months old

05:16 - Joined first band as a teenager as the singer, adding some harmonica

06:14 - Still sings now

06:37 - Studied Music Composition at college, studying piano for a year before starting the course

07:32 - Started playing chromatic seriously on this course

08:01 - Auditioned to get onto the course by singing, they didn’t have a harmonica programme

08:18 - Went back a few years later and played a concert where he had auditioned for college and they had said he couldn’t play harmonica on the course

08:58 - Used piano mainly for music composition, but doesn’t play piano to perform on

09:36 - After completing music composition course moved to Argentina and discovered tango dancing

11:19 - Discovered the harmonica tango playing of Hugo Diaz

12:03 - When went back to Portland he started a tango band

12:11 - Other Argentine harmonica tango players and modern tango harmonica players

13:18 - Joe is the only professional tango harmonica player in the US (as far as he’s aware)

13:52 - Does play many styles of harmonica as well as tango

14:04 - Similarity of playing tango music on the harmonica and bandoneon

16:37 - How to make the chromatic sound reminiscent of the bandoneon

17:12 - Harmonica can merge sound of traditional tango instruments: bandoneon, violin and vocals

17:47 - Scales used in tango music

18:27 - How to get started playing tango music on the harmonica: rubato, button embellishments, octaves, vibrato

20:51 - Doesn’t use diatonic for playing tangos, although is experimenting with a blues / tango fusion on diatonic

21:21 - Uses standard tuned chromatics to play tango

21:57 - How is the chromatic received by tango purists

22:47 - Has played with some renowned tango musicians

23:24 - Tango allows Joe to travel all around the world because there’s tango everywhere

24:05 - Playing tango means people dance to the music

24:21 - Joe still loves to dance and will dance between his music sets

24:59 - The advantages of being able to dance the tango in being able to play the tango on harmonica

26:03 - Plays different genres in addition to tango music, and how much do you need to know a genre to play it

28:30 - First album released in 2005: World of Songs

30:00 - Just Duets album from 2012 has different performer and instrument on each song

32:54 - Amor de Tango album from 2007

35:47 - 2011 album Nostalgie, recorded with British new age pianist Michael Hoppe

36:39 - Another tango album released in 2015: Apasionado

38:46 - 2019 album Con Ojos Nuevos

40:01 - Recording albums in a day is the only way to do it and self-produced albums

41:10 - Plans for a new album

41:38 - Has played all around the world with some great live performances, including with orchestras

42:19 - Studied with Robert Bonfiglio a couple of times

42:32 - Playing challenging classical pieces

42:54 - How to get a gig with an orchestra

43:40 - Got some gigs with Jamie Cullum after Joe jammed along while part of the audience

45:28 - Joe’s teaching platform: The Harmonica Path, focusing on teaching reading music

46:31 - Also teaches online with one-to-one sessions

46:59 - Took part in the Trossingen competition in 2005

47:28 - Won the Belgian Crystal Harmonica Award/Classical Division in 2008 and classical technique and reading music

48:33 - 10 minute question

49:25 - Suzuki endorser

49:29 - Plays 16 hole Sirius model of chromatic

49:44 - The Suzuki Bass Chromatic

50:06 - Benefit of playing 16 hole chromatic

50:42 - Diatonic plays the Suzuki MR-550, which is good for overblows

50:53 - Uses overblows a lot on the diatonic and playing overblows on diatonic instead of using chromatic harmonica

52:50 - Embouchre

53:23 - Uses tongue switching on the chromatic

54:06 - Likes to travel light

54:37 - Uses BlowsMeAway SM57 mic with volume control, and connects a Sennheiser XSW wireless system

54:55 - Moves around a lot when playing so mainly uses a wireless mic

55:33 - Why prefers SM57 over 58

55:53 - Effects pedals: only uses TC Helicon Mic Mechanic 2

56:30 - Always uses a PA

56:43 - How does Joe fit everything into his backpack when he travels?

57:12 - Just finishing off a tour of Europe

58:11 - Developed the teaching platform over the pandemic as well as some online quarantine concerts

WEBVTT

00:00:00.386 --> 00:00:02.467
Joel Powers joins me on episode 65.

00:00:03.309 --> 00:00:12.358
Joel started out playing diatonic harmonica along with blues records as a teenager, before deciding to study music composition at college, taking up the chromatic there.

00:00:12.718 --> 00:00:19.385
Joel's passion for dancing led him to Argentina and tango music, where he has become the current leading exponent in harmonica.

00:00:19.766 --> 00:00:26.634
He believes the chromatic harmonica is the perfect instrument for tango music, and talks us through how to play this captivating genre.

00:00:27.329 --> 00:00:39.343
Although known as the tango harmonica guy, Joe also loves to play many other styles of music on the harmonica, as demonstrated across his albums and live performances, including classical pieces with full orchestras.

00:00:39.743 --> 00:00:43.046
And over the pandemic, Joe has put together his very own teaching platform.

00:00:43.887 --> 00:00:46.451
This podcast is sponsored by Seidel Harmonicas.

00:00:46.871 --> 00:00:55.901
Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Seidel Harmonicas.

00:00:57.442 --> 00:01:22.388
hello joe powers and welcome to the podcast

00:01:22.688 --> 00:01:24.370
yes hello neil a pleasure to be here

00:01:24.865 --> 00:01:26.090
Thanks so much for joining.

00:01:26.191 --> 00:01:31.989
So you are currently touring Europe at the moment, which we'll get into later, but you're talking to us from Berlin, yeah?

00:01:32.191 --> 00:01:32.733
That's right.

00:01:33.454 --> 00:01:34.237
Wie geht's?

00:01:34.465 --> 00:01:38.209
You're from the U.S., from Portland in Oregon, in the northwest of the U.S., yeah?

00:01:38.308 --> 00:01:38.709
That's right.

00:01:38.950 --> 00:01:41.552
So what's the music scene like around Portland?

00:01:41.731 --> 00:01:43.093
Oh, we've got a great music scene.

00:01:43.373 --> 00:01:47.798
Any flavor of music that you might enjoy, including excellent tango scene.

00:01:48.037 --> 00:01:49.718
Good place to be for musicians, for sure.

00:01:50.019 --> 00:01:50.760
Yeah, fantastic.

00:01:50.799 --> 00:01:54.102
So what got you into playing the harmonica up in Portland now?

00:01:54.283 --> 00:01:56.765
I've been playing harmonica basically my whole life.

00:01:57.025 --> 00:01:59.487
I got one when I was really little.

00:01:59.727 --> 00:02:01.509
My dad played harmonica.

00:02:01.890 --> 00:02:02.370
Still plays.

00:02:02.409 --> 00:02:03.912
He hasn't progressed too much.

00:02:04.432 --> 00:02:16.508
I originally kind of just tooted on it for a while and then had my first lessons when I was about 13 or 14 with a local harmonica player in Portland named Arthur Fresh Air Moore.

00:02:16.528 --> 00:02:22.377
Of course, we also had Paul DeLay in town and I wish I would have had a chance to study with him because he was a real inspiration.

00:02:32.225 --> 00:02:32.485
Great.

00:02:32.526 --> 00:02:33.826
So he was from Portland, was he?

00:02:33.967 --> 00:02:34.647
Yes, he was.

00:02:35.269 --> 00:02:36.469
Did you get to see him play?

00:02:36.490 --> 00:02:36.509
I

00:02:37.389 --> 00:02:37.651
did.

00:02:37.711 --> 00:02:41.033
Yeah, I had lots of opportunities to hear him.

00:02:41.454 --> 00:02:48.961
And yeah, I was always very inspired, not only by his harmonica playing, but by his songwriting and just his tasty music.

00:02:49.341 --> 00:02:55.566
Anyway, so yeah, I grew up playing blues and rock and that kind of stuff, mostly by ear.

00:02:55.626 --> 00:03:04.413
I was really fortunate because my mom had an excellent collection of vinyl records with all the blues harmonica greats.

00:03:06.276 --> 00:03:16.067
So, you know, I listened to both Sonny Boy Williamson's and Little Walter, of course, and Sonny Terry and, you know, Muddy Waters, plenty of Muddy Waters records and such.

00:03:16.206 --> 00:03:18.810
So I listened to that stuff a lot and was very inspired.

00:03:19.030 --> 00:03:25.736
Kind of grew up with the harmonica playing in rock bands, blues bands throughout middle school, high school.

00:03:26.237 --> 00:03:31.562
Towards the end of high school, I decided that I wanted to study music in college.

00:03:32.024 --> 00:03:35.430
I got I got accepted into the University of Oregon in the music program there.

00:03:35.650 --> 00:03:40.138
And when I was going away to college, one of my mom's friends gave me a chromatic harmonica.

00:03:40.337 --> 00:03:41.980
And up until then, I only played diatonic.

00:03:42.301 --> 00:03:46.109
I didn't really have any clue how it worked, but I brought it with me to college.

00:03:46.389 --> 00:03:55.786
As I was learning the ins and outs of music theory, how to read music, sight singing, and piano keyboard skills and such, I was also learning how to play chromatic.

00:03:56.098 --> 00:04:01.643
So you were playing diatonic as a youth until you went to college and, as you say, you picked up the chromatic then.

00:04:01.682 --> 00:04:03.865
So you were all diatonic before then?

00:04:04.164 --> 00:04:04.966
Exactly, yeah.

00:04:05.066 --> 00:04:12.973
In fact, I didn't even know about the chromatic really until I was about 18 or so and I got one from my mom's friend.

00:04:13.252 --> 00:04:15.354
It turned out to be a pretty important gift.

00:04:16.375 --> 00:04:19.377
Yeah, because I think it's fair to say you're probably more of a chromatic player.

00:04:19.398 --> 00:04:22.161
Although you definitely play both, you probably play the chromatic more now.

00:04:22.221 --> 00:04:23.100
Is that true to say?

00:04:23.401 --> 00:04:24.463
Yeah, that's definitely true.

00:04:24.742 --> 00:04:26.064
I do enjoy playing both in.

00:04:26.064 --> 00:04:28.499
instruments, but I principally play the chromatic I'd say.

00:04:41.442 --> 00:04:45.565
I think I read you received your first harmonica when you were 19 months old.

00:04:45.826 --> 00:04:47.007
Yes, that is true.

00:04:47.326 --> 00:04:53.252
That could make you the youngest player who started playing, so I'm quite interested in this idea that you started playing at 19 months.

00:04:53.432 --> 00:04:56.454
Did you carry on playing even at that young age, do you know?

00:04:56.475 --> 00:04:56.495
I

00:04:56.774 --> 00:04:57.675
don't think I really did.

00:04:57.696 --> 00:05:01.980
I mean, I think it was a Christmas present kind of thing that you'd give a child.

00:05:02.180 --> 00:05:06.483
Even that seems pretty young, but I do have a photo of me with a harmonica.

00:05:06.744 --> 00:05:11.067
It's not like I was, you know, taking lessons or practicing diligently at that age.

00:05:11.408 --> 00:05:16.452
But yeah, it wasn't really until I was around 13 or 14 that I started.

00:05:16.492 --> 00:05:24.322
I had some friends come up to me in our middle school, which is like around sixth grade or so here in the States.

00:05:24.721 --> 00:05:28.505
And they asked me if I could join their band as the singer.

00:05:28.526 --> 00:05:30.869
And so I did.

00:05:30.889 --> 00:05:35.533
And, you know, it was a typical kind of garage rock band.

00:05:35.913 --> 00:05:37.456
Yeah, I joined on as their singer.

00:05:37.836 --> 00:05:40.658
And then I also started playing harmonic with the band, too.

00:05:41.160 --> 00:05:52.495
And when I started, I was playing through the, we used to have these microphones that you would use to record a greeting onto your answering machine, like a tape answering machine for your phone.

00:05:52.696 --> 00:05:57.523
Anyway, I was playing through that connected to like a little boombox speaker.

00:05:57.562 --> 00:05:58.725
It was pretty awesome.

00:05:59.064 --> 00:06:00.648
That was my kind of my first band.

00:06:01.108 --> 00:06:01.348
Yeah.

00:06:01.449 --> 00:06:13.853
And I grew up playing diatonic with this band and then went on to high school and had some other some other kind of pop rock bands, was also kind of writing some of my own music and always singing as well.

00:06:14.177 --> 00:06:14.458
I do.

00:06:14.697 --> 00:06:29.610
Getting on then to

00:06:38.619 --> 00:06:40.701
when you went to study music.

00:06:40.740 --> 00:06:55.555
So you studied a degree in music composition in the university of oregon yeah that's right was it before then you started playing the chromatic or did you realize you needed you know the the sort of more musical capabilities and all the notes of the chromatic when you when you started the course

00:06:56.137 --> 00:07:17.579
so um i was really pretty clueless uh but by the time i i or right before i got to music school um actually the summer before i went to music school i studied really intensively with a private piano teacher and basically started to learn how to read music um i didn't read at all um so i didn't really understand understand much about, you know, all of the notes I need and such.

00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:19.701
Like I said, I mostly played by ear.

00:07:20.021 --> 00:07:23.526
I knew a lot about grab this harmonica if you wanted to play in this key.

00:07:23.906 --> 00:07:29.872
So yeah, I kind of really kind of crammed to take the entrance exam.

00:07:30.252 --> 00:07:32.254
I actually did pretty well in the entrance exam.

00:07:32.596 --> 00:07:37.880
And yeah, then I had this chromatic that my mom's friend had given to me right before college.

00:07:38.581 --> 00:07:40.463
I just started messing around with it.

00:07:40.584 --> 00:07:45.209
You a semitone.

00:07:45.309 --> 00:07:49.834
So I kind of started to learn that and then I figured out, oh, that's the chromatic scale.

00:07:50.675 --> 00:07:57.882
And then as I was, of course, in music school, I learned pretty quickly, you know, about all of the different keys and such.

00:07:58.163 --> 00:08:00.925
And I started doing that on my chromatic as well.

00:08:01.266 --> 00:08:02.867
Could you do the chromatic as your main instrument?

00:08:03.067 --> 00:08:06.672
I went in for the audition and I actually auditioned singing.

00:08:07.552 --> 00:08:10.055
I got accepted into the voice department.

00:08:10.435 --> 00:08:17.824
Yeah, they didn't, unfortunately, they didn't have a harmonica program and they kind of scoffed at me, you know, harmonica, that's not a real instrument.

00:08:18.384 --> 00:08:30.197
Ironically, years later, I went back and performed on the same stage where I had my audition to a totally sold out audience as part of a big Baroque music festival, the Organ Bach Festival.

00:08:30.216 --> 00:08:31.838
So I got the last laugh there.

00:08:32.219 --> 00:08:32.500
Great.

00:08:32.580 --> 00:08:36.283
So on the course then, they say you auditioned for singing.

00:08:36.323 --> 00:08:40.427
Is that what you did on the course or as well as harmonica or some piano?

00:08:40.889 --> 00:08:41.089
Yeah.

00:08:41.149 --> 00:08:42.951
So I started out studying.

00:08:42.990 --> 00:08:49.337
Everybody had to study the same stuff in the beginning, you know, the theory courses, keyboard skills, sight singing, this kind of stuff.

00:08:49.837 --> 00:08:51.941
But I was also part of a voice studio.

00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:53.883
So I was studying basically opera singing.

00:08:54.123 --> 00:09:04.293
It was pretty quickly after that, maybe after my first term or so, that I switched my major to music composition, which was actually kind of what I was more interested in anyway.

00:09:04.514 --> 00:09:09.438
I wanted to be able to know enough about music so that I could compose, you know, write my own music.

00:09:09.700 --> 00:09:11.561
And so, yeah, so I switched to music composition.

00:09:11.961 --> 00:09:12.201
Great.

00:09:12.221 --> 00:09:12.341
Yeah.

00:09:12.361 --> 00:09:15.105
And so one way Which instrument were you composing?

00:09:15.505 --> 00:09:19.370
Everyone studying composition had to have a basic proficiency with piano.

00:09:19.910 --> 00:09:24.296
And I would never consider myself a pianist by any stretch of the imagination.

00:09:24.535 --> 00:09:26.177
But I know how it works.

00:09:26.258 --> 00:09:28.660
I can compose with it, basically.

00:09:28.801 --> 00:09:34.607
So I don't really have the technique necessary to play anything that anyone would want to listen to on there.

00:09:34.908 --> 00:09:36.409
But yeah, I can compose with it.

00:09:36.802 --> 00:09:45.208
So great, so you completed then your music composition course, and then I think I read that you then went off to Argentina, is that right?

00:09:45.750 --> 00:09:50.734
Yeah, so it was kind of my junior year in college.

00:09:50.874 --> 00:09:56.578
I got into ballroom dance, actually, so much so that I became the treasurer of the ballroom dance club.

00:09:56.739 --> 00:09:59.422
Actually, I think nobody wanted to be the treasurer, so they appointed me.

00:10:00.381 --> 00:10:06.768
But anyway, yeah, I was doing all of the typical kind of ballroom dances you might imagine, and some of the Latin ones as well.

00:10:06.768 --> 00:10:08.950
salsa and merengue.

00:10:09.211 --> 00:10:13.154
And then a teacher was offering an Argentine tango class.

00:10:13.495 --> 00:10:18.200
And I had already danced kind of the ballroom version of tango, which is kind of hilarious.

00:10:18.460 --> 00:10:19.782
It's kind of overly dramatic.

00:10:19.981 --> 00:10:24.927
So I didn't really know much about Argentine tango, but everybody was talking about it.

00:10:25.067 --> 00:10:26.950
And it seemed very interesting.

00:10:27.210 --> 00:10:28.831
So I joined the class.

00:10:29.172 --> 00:10:32.556
And when I heard the music, I was just totally blown away.

00:10:32.576 --> 00:10:37.941
It was just the most beautiful, passionate music that I that I'd ever heard, really.

00:10:37.980 --> 00:10:40.043
Of course, I continued with the dancing.

00:10:40.403 --> 00:10:48.172
I spent my senior year studying Spanish and also doing a language exchange with an Argentine woman.

00:10:48.932 --> 00:10:50.514
She wanted to practice her English.

00:10:50.875 --> 00:10:54.619
And of course, I wanted to practice my Spanish, but not just Spanish.

00:10:54.678 --> 00:10:59.083
I wanted to learn how they speak in Argentina, which is kind of a, it's a distinctive dialect.

00:10:59.403 --> 00:11:01.866
Anyway, so I spent my senior year doing that.

00:11:02.427 --> 00:11:10.475
And after I graduated, I went down to Argentina intending to to live there for a little while and just study dance.

00:11:10.796 --> 00:11:13.038
And I ended up staying for about a year and a half down there.

00:11:13.298 --> 00:11:14.340
And I did study dance.

00:11:14.399 --> 00:11:18.445
I did get a teaching certificate to teach Argentine tango.

00:11:18.904 --> 00:11:27.394
But also while I was there, a friend told me about a harmonica player, which many of your listeners I'm sure will have heard of, named Hugo Diaz.

00:11:27.673 --> 00:11:32.198
He died in 1977, but he left behind some amazing recordings.

00:11:32.460 --> 00:11:39.687
He was primarily a, what they call in Argentina, a folklore musician, or he played kind of Argentine folk music.

00:11:39.868 --> 00:11:43.912
But he did record four tango albums, and they are just amazing.

00:11:59.811 --> 00:12:02.673
I got a hold of some of those and was very inspired.

00:12:02.913 --> 00:12:10.802
And after leaving Argentina, when I went back home to Portland, Oregon, I started a tango band with some other friends, started playing tango and harmonica.

00:12:11.062 --> 00:12:11.802
Yeah, fantastic.

00:12:11.842 --> 00:12:16.787
So like you say, Hugo Diaz there, he's the forerunner of tango and harmonica.

00:12:17.148 --> 00:12:18.349
He's what inspired you to play.

00:12:18.428 --> 00:12:22.032
Are there any other tango harmonicas around that you're aware of?

00:12:22.153 --> 00:12:23.072
There were a few others.

00:12:23.354 --> 00:12:23.913
Yeah, there was

00:12:24.235 --> 00:12:30.900
actually the first guy, Luis Saltos, recorded the first full-length tango album in 1973.

00:12:32.066 --> 00:12:37.589
And then that same year was when Hugo Diaz recorded the first of his four albums.

00:12:38.131 --> 00:12:40.743
1973 was a big year for Tango Harmonica.

00:12:41.730 --> 00:12:43.471
Funnily enough, that's the year I was born.

00:12:43.491 --> 00:12:46.336
I don't play any tango harmonica, not yet.

00:12:46.636 --> 00:12:47.437
Not yet, not yet.

00:12:48.438 --> 00:12:49.780
But there were some others as well.

00:12:51.222 --> 00:12:53.926
They were just kind of the first to record albums.

00:12:54.246 --> 00:12:56.188
Some others who were a little lesser known.

00:12:56.590 --> 00:12:59.494
Paco Garrido was one of them, a guy named Jaco Zeller.

00:13:00.115 --> 00:13:01.556
There's many players now.

00:13:01.596 --> 00:13:02.957
There's a lot more than there used to be.

00:13:03.219 --> 00:13:06.102
So every year there's more, which is kind of exciting.

00:13:06.423 --> 00:13:11.629
Yeah, so are most of these guys based in South America or Argentina specifically?

00:13:11.778 --> 00:13:15.020
Most of them are, yes, yes, in Buenos Aires, yeah.

00:13:15.221 --> 00:13:17.783
But there are a few scattered around the world.

00:13:18.063 --> 00:13:22.827
As far as I know, I'm kind of the only professional tango harmonica player in the U.S.

00:13:23.168 --> 00:13:24.289
There could be another one, I don't know.

00:13:24.549 --> 00:13:26.051
Haven't met him yet, or her.

00:13:26.871 --> 00:13:29.975
But yeah, it's definitely kind of a rarity.

00:13:29.995 --> 00:13:30.014
¦

00:13:43.298 --> 00:14:09.059
Yeah well a unique selling point let's let's call it that so it's fantastic you're keeping up that tradition and as you say you're known as the tango harmonica player although you do play other other styles and genres yeah so we will we'll get on to those but let's start off on tango which is obviously what you're known for and as you say you've got a good history there of developing it so what is it about tango harmonica how would you describe the sort of style and how you approach playing it on the harmonica?

00:14:09.380 --> 00:14:14.765
Sure well maybe some of the listeners wouldn't know about the bandoneon.

00:14:15.186 --> 00:14:18.950
The bandoneon is kind of an accordion-like instrument.

00:14:19.289 --> 00:14:25.376
It has a very distinctive sound from the accordion, so it's kind of a bit more intense of a sound.

00:14:25.397 --> 00:14:27.458
The accordion's a bit smoother sounding.

00:14:27.658 --> 00:14:29.561
So the bandoneon can sound a little harsh.

00:14:29.981 --> 00:14:37.490
It's also tuned in octaves, so when you press a single button on the bandoneon, it produces octaves, so the reeds are in octaves.

00:14:37.710 --> 00:14:43.355
When I want to get a similar sound to the bandoneon, I'm not sure if I mentioned it.

00:14:43.416 --> 00:14:48.562
It's kind of the main, like when you think of tango music, it's kind of the principal instrument.

00:14:48.802 --> 00:14:50.624
And this is an Argentinian instrument, is it?

00:14:51.083 --> 00:14:52.905
It's actually, it's a German instrument.

00:14:53.326 --> 00:14:55.369
I actually wrote an article for Harmonica World.

00:14:55.668 --> 00:14:59.734
It was a while back to 2007, where I went into all of this.

00:15:00.214 --> 00:15:08.001
So the bandoneon was invented in the 1830s, named after its chief proponent, Heinrich Band.

00:15:08.602 --> 00:15:13.822
And originally, it was meant to be a portable Church organ.

00:15:14.785 --> 00:15:20.130
And it was brought over to South America on boats, most likely by sailors.

00:15:20.630 --> 00:15:24.934
As it's an accordion-like instrument and it's from Germany, do you know if Hohner originally manufactured it?

00:15:24.955 --> 00:15:28.538
Because of course they built accordions, didn't they, in that family of instruments?

00:15:28.898 --> 00:15:30.919
Yeah, I don't think that they did.

00:15:31.279 --> 00:15:33.201
But yeah, I'm actually not sure.

00:15:33.261 --> 00:15:35.943
But it's a really bizarre instrument.

00:15:36.024 --> 00:15:41.009
I think that Heinrich Band kind of cornered the market on bandonians, I believe.

00:15:41.408 --> 00:15:43.410
I don't know the whole history of the bandonian.

00:15:44.030 --> 00:15:52.702
But when it over to South America, it was used to play a lot of polkas and waltzes and mazurkas and this kind of thing.

00:15:53.083 --> 00:15:59.613
And eventually they started using it to play tango music around the beginning of the early 1900s.

00:15:59.994 --> 00:16:01.855
So the bandoneon has a very distinctive sound.

00:16:11.201 --> 00:16:16.110
The harmonica can also create a sound that's very similar to a bandoneon.

00:16:16.631 --> 00:16:21.740
Like I mentioned previously, the bandoneon has kind of a harsh sound.

00:16:22.581 --> 00:16:27.350
And the chromatic, I play the chromatic a lot in octaves by using tongue blocking.

00:16:27.932 --> 00:16:32.580
And I can create a pretty harsh sound when I need to.

00:16:37.857 --> 00:16:39.961
which kind of is reminiscent of a bandoneon.

00:16:40.341 --> 00:16:45.330
Of course, with the harmonica, we can also control the tone of the instrument.

00:16:45.429 --> 00:16:49.176
We can bend notes, and I can add the vibrato of my choice.

00:16:49.355 --> 00:16:55.044
I often use a throat vibrato, but sometimes I'll use a hand vibrato or even a tongue vibrato.

00:16:55.505 --> 00:17:02.937
Typical instruments in the tango are, of course, the bandoneon, the piano, violin, and double bass.

00:17:03.330 --> 00:17:09.955
And then you'd have maybe a vocalist join in on the songs occasionally.

00:17:09.976 --> 00:17:18.103
The harmonica, I kind of see it as like if you took the bandoneon, a violin, and a singer, and you kind of put them into one instrument.

00:17:18.262 --> 00:17:22.807
So it kind of fills that role, kind of melodic role sometimes.

00:17:23.366 --> 00:17:27.510
And it kind of has, you know, you've got this kind of timbre of the bandoneon.

00:17:27.810 --> 00:17:34.921
You have the vibrato of the voice, and you have portamento or the note bend of the violin, you know.

00:17:44.897 --> 00:17:45.499
this kind of thing.

00:17:46.058 --> 00:17:46.960
Yeah, great.

00:17:47.160 --> 00:17:52.104
So is there any particular scales used in tango music, anything like that musically?

00:17:52.324 --> 00:17:59.330
Yeah, it tends to be a lot more minor scales, harmonic minor, natural minor.

00:17:59.770 --> 00:18:08.939
You also have major scales as well, and there's a lot of chromaticism in the tango, but we're not using a bebop scale or blues scale in tango music.

00:18:09.138 --> 00:18:13.482
Although, you know, that said, I do like to create a fusion every now and then.

00:18:13.762 --> 00:18:19.489
So if it's more of a tradition tango sound, then you're not really going to use other scales outside of those.

00:18:19.729 --> 00:18:26.936
But if it's a fusion, let's say a jazz tango or a blues tango, then yeah, I would definitely incorporate other scales.

00:18:27.738 --> 00:18:33.884
So for anyone who might be interested in learning their first tango song, which might include myself, how would you approach it?

00:18:33.903 --> 00:18:38.669
You'd learn the melody first, and then do you improvise tango music then off the scales you talked about?

00:18:39.089 --> 00:18:39.369
Sure.

00:18:39.569 --> 00:18:40.510
A lot of

00:18:41.092 --> 00:18:49.204
playing tango on harmonica centers around in So you find a tango melody that interests you.

00:18:49.538 --> 00:18:52.182
The first thing to do is to just learn to play the melody.

00:18:52.622 --> 00:18:58.190
But then from there, you'll add on layers of, I guess you could say, complexity.

00:18:58.671 --> 00:19:01.855
The first thing to work on is your rubato.

00:19:02.155 --> 00:19:05.299
And this is where you're kind of slightly playing out of time.

00:19:05.820 --> 00:19:07.963
So sometimes you're playing a little faster.

00:19:08.003 --> 00:19:09.244
Sometimes you're playing a little slower.

00:19:09.425 --> 00:19:12.650
You know, if I have a song like, you know, Mary Had a Little Lamb, let's say.

00:19:13.010 --> 00:19:18.238
So if I just played it straight, it would be...

00:19:22.178 --> 00:19:24.076
If I wanted to add some rubato.

00:19:32.642 --> 00:19:34.625
I can start to play a little bit more with the rhythms.

00:19:34.924 --> 00:19:37.969
And this is the kind of thing that you do when you're playing tango.

00:19:38.470 --> 00:19:41.232
That's kind of the first step, is to work on the rubato.

00:19:41.753 --> 00:19:44.958
After that, you can start to add embellishments.

00:19:45.378 --> 00:19:48.784
The button on the chromatic is actually perfect for adding embellishments.

00:19:49.203 --> 00:19:52.087
I call them button embellishments, for lack of a better term.

00:19:57.474 --> 00:19:58.737
This sort of sound.

00:19:59.357 --> 00:20:01.099
You'd also learn to play it in octaves.

00:20:08.993 --> 00:20:10.848
You could add a vibrato.

00:20:18.786 --> 00:20:21.627
And you can see how it starts to become a tango song.

00:20:22.548 --> 00:20:23.849
Yeah, no, it sounds great, doesn't it?

00:20:23.890 --> 00:20:24.790
And really effective.

00:20:24.891 --> 00:20:28.473
And particularly on the chromatic, it makes it sound really powerful, doesn't it?

00:20:28.493 --> 00:20:29.694
With those big octaves and everything.

00:20:29.935 --> 00:20:30.375
That's right.

00:20:30.476 --> 00:20:32.478
Yeah, the octaves really fill out the sound.

00:20:32.657 --> 00:20:33.038
Exactly.

00:20:33.378 --> 00:20:40.023
Yeah, and I think particularly with the chromatic, which can be quite a gentle sounding instrument, it's great to hear that, you know, it's singing out like that.

00:20:40.164 --> 00:20:41.945
And the tango seems to really suit it, doesn't it?

00:20:42.185 --> 00:20:42.787
It really does.

00:20:43.007 --> 00:20:46.589
Yeah, I think the chromatic is very well suited for tango.

00:20:47.151 --> 00:20:49.913
I'm a little biased, but I think it's kind of the perfect tango instrument.

00:20:51.474 --> 00:20:53.396
So you never play diatonic when you're playing tango?

00:20:53.717 --> 00:20:56.380
I don't usually play diatonic when I'm playing tango.

00:20:56.680 --> 00:21:01.184
Recently, I've been kind of experimenting with a fusion of blues and tango.

00:21:01.465 --> 00:21:05.269
So I do have one song where I do use diatonic.

00:21:05.509 --> 00:21:08.472
It doesn't quite have the right sound that I want.

00:21:08.993 --> 00:21:14.640
A lot of it has to do with the button, specifically the button embellishments, but also the octaves, right?

00:21:14.900 --> 00:21:18.443
I mean, you can play some octaves on your diatonic, but on the chromatic...

00:21:18.703 --> 00:21:21.047
you can play anything in octaves, which is fantastic.

00:21:21.207 --> 00:21:31.217
Yeah, and you've never experimented with sort of different tunings or different sorts of harmonica or chromatics to, are you just playing standard ones when you're playing the tango?

00:21:31.458 --> 00:21:33.400
Yeah, I'm just playing standard chromatics.

00:21:33.539 --> 00:21:37.023
I like the four octave ones because it gives me that extra bass octave.

00:21:37.223 --> 00:21:40.847
But yeah, I'm pretty happy with the standard tuning for what I need.

00:21:41.067 --> 00:21:43.631
Yeah, I haven't really experimented with any of the other tunings.

00:21:43.990 --> 00:21:44.471
Well, that's great.

00:21:44.491 --> 00:22:01.968
That means, again, if people want to try it, they've got a chromatico ready, they don't have to do it anything different so that's a big advantage so again you know you've done very well out of tango we'll get into that and your world travels playing this music and other music but uh how is uh the chromatic harmonica received by the tango purist

00:22:03.008 --> 00:22:10.654
yeah well you know fortunately for me we have uh because of hugo diaz we have a precedent of tango harmonica since the 1970s so

00:22:19.041 --> 00:22:19.523
¶¶

00:22:27.362 --> 00:22:29.483
So it isn't totally outlandish.

00:22:29.723 --> 00:22:38.511
But you're right, there are tango purists out there who maybe would prefer to hear a tango orchestra from the golden age of tango.

00:22:38.811 --> 00:22:47.038
But I would say, for the most part, I'm very well received by tango aficionados all over the world.

00:22:47.499 --> 00:22:51.423
Yeah, and you've played with some renowned tango masters, yeah?

00:22:51.522 --> 00:22:52.983
So I'll let you pronounce the names.

00:22:53.003 --> 00:22:57.087
But you've been received into the top echelons of the tango music.

00:22:57.248 --> 00:22:57.327
Yeah.

00:22:57.327 --> 00:23:01.311
Yes, I've had the pleasure of playing with some fantastic musicians.

00:23:01.451 --> 00:23:09.840
And yeah, even some more contemporary groups that do tango fusion, electronic tango rock, things like this.

00:23:10.261 --> 00:23:10.642
It's great.

00:23:10.682 --> 00:23:13.565
There's so much happening with the tango right now.

00:23:13.585 --> 00:23:15.847
And there's a lot of new music.

00:23:15.887 --> 00:23:18.009
It's a very exciting time to be a tango musician.

00:23:18.250 --> 00:23:18.611
Yeah.

00:23:18.631 --> 00:23:21.693
And again, something I read about you is that you're very well traveled.

00:23:22.154 --> 00:23:23.096
So you're on tour now.

00:23:24.317 --> 00:23:31.184
You're able to travel around the world playing tango music everywhere because the there's always pockets of tango in various cities around the world, yeah?

00:23:31.385 --> 00:23:31.826
That's right.

00:23:31.905 --> 00:23:43.622
I mean, if there's tango in Eugene, Oregon, which I doubt most of your listeners have heard of, that's where I went to college, you can bet that there's tango in almost any city with over 100,000 people.

00:23:44.002 --> 00:23:47.146
You'll find tango in many of the cities that have fewer than 100,000 people.

00:23:47.366 --> 00:23:55.157
It's not uncommon for a festival to pop up as well in some of the smaller cities all over Europe, for example.

00:23:55.490 --> 00:23:55.750
Yeah.

00:23:56.090 --> 00:23:59.173
I mean, in every town, you know, has got dance classes, right?

00:23:59.212 --> 00:24:05.117
So it's perfect for that too, yeah, because, you know, lots of people are interested in dance, of course, yourself included, of course, and that's great.

00:24:05.439 --> 00:24:09.541
And to be able to play music with people so passionately dancing, that must be really satisfying to play to.

00:24:09.842 --> 00:24:14.145
It's very gratifying when you look out and you see everybody, you know, because you know they're listening.

00:24:14.165 --> 00:24:16.848
They're not just listening with their ears, they're listening with their whole body.

00:24:16.888 --> 00:24:21.192
It really is a special kind of communication between the musicians and the dancers.

00:24:21.692 --> 00:24:25.675
So you're still able to do the dances yourself, or is this something you still actively do?

00:24:25.695 --> 00:24:25.715
I

00:24:26.156 --> 00:24:26.676
do, yes.

00:24:26.757 --> 00:24:37.147
I love dancing and in a typical evening when I play a concert, a tango dance event, I'll dance a little bit and then I'll get up and I'll play a set and then I'll go dance

00:24:37.189 --> 00:24:37.489
some more.

00:24:37.528 --> 00:24:49.481
I've actually got a nice clip of you on YouTube where you're playing on stage and then there's two dancers on the stage with you and you take the place of the gentleman and dance with the lady and the crowd loves it.

00:24:49.781 --> 00:24:51.884
So there's a little clip of that.

00:24:51.983 --> 00:24:52.865
It's a nice moment.

00:24:52.884 --> 00:24:54.267
So is that a little party trick of yours?

00:24:54.948 --> 00:24:57.830
Oh yeah, well That was, you know, I was just having fun.

00:24:58.090 --> 00:24:59.011
Exactly.

00:24:59.612 --> 00:25:06.700
So next thing then, if people want to take up tango music on the harmonica, do you have to be able to do the dance as well to be able to play the music?

00:25:08.061 --> 00:25:08.481
It helps.

00:25:08.622 --> 00:25:14.268
It really does help because you understand more about the rhythms and things like that.

00:25:14.548 --> 00:25:15.630
But it's not a requirement.

00:25:16.009 --> 00:25:19.594
Yeah, I think anyone who's interested could definitely learn to play.

00:25:19.933 --> 00:25:23.097
But again, it is quite a seriously interesting point though, isn't it?

00:25:23.157 --> 00:25:27.481
Because like you say there, you know, as a dancer, You know, you're understanding the rhythm.

00:25:27.603 --> 00:25:34.390
So I don't think we've had many harmonica players who are great dancers on here, you know, as part of playing the harmonica.

00:25:34.430 --> 00:25:39.395
So it's quite interesting to think that it probably does give you another quite unique approach to playing the instrument.

00:25:39.536 --> 00:25:41.959
Well, it does, especially when you're playing dance music, right?

00:25:42.378 --> 00:25:44.320
You kind of know both sides of the equation.

00:25:44.801 --> 00:25:48.705
You know kind of what the dancers want and you can kind of play to that.

00:25:51.970 --> 00:25:52.190
piano plays

00:26:03.329 --> 00:26:27.250
so we'll move on a little bit from the tango now that's obviously your main thing but you do play different genres right i've got here you've obviously played classical quite a lot and we'll get into that but you played classical orchestra pieces um uh and you played sort of more modern music and some blues of course on the diatonic and on the chromatic and um a bit of jazz and so so all sorts of stuff so you do play you know you're interested in playing lots of things

00:26:27.411 --> 00:26:50.481
yeah i i love playing all all kinds of music you know i i do love playing tango but my favorite kind of concert to do is a concert where i get to do tons of different styles of music um i just had the opportunity to play last week in Poland I gave a concert there where I played some blues and some jazz and some tango and some classical music I just like to mix it up and do a whole bunch of different styles of music

00:26:50.721 --> 00:26:51.221
Yeah.

00:26:51.462 --> 00:26:59.028
And then, you know, again, interesting point, you know, how much do you think you have to, you know, sort of entrench yourself in the music to be able to play it really well?

00:26:59.169 --> 00:27:02.853
Because a bit like yourself, I do like to play different styles of music as well myself.

00:27:02.893 --> 00:27:07.296
But, you know, do you feel that, you know, you know, the tango really well, you know, it helps you play it.

00:27:07.316 --> 00:27:08.477
What about the other styles of music?

00:27:08.517 --> 00:27:11.460
How much do you think you have to really get into them to be able to play them well?

00:27:11.940 --> 00:27:12.181
Sure.

00:27:12.260 --> 00:27:13.582
I mean, I think, I think it helps.

00:27:13.662 --> 00:27:16.884
I think you can always go deeper into any of these things.

00:27:17.184 --> 00:27:19.567
I'm always trying to learn and trying to improve.

00:27:20.106 --> 00:27:21.892
And, you know, I It's a lifelong thing.

00:27:21.912 --> 00:27:24.280
I think anybody you would ask would say the same.

00:27:24.461 --> 00:27:26.327
There's always more to learn with music, right?

00:27:26.568 --> 00:27:29.980
And it's just great that we have all these different styles to learn about.

00:27:30.273 --> 00:27:43.144
Because I'm always torn somewhat between, you know, because if you look at some, you know, some virtual, so classical player or some, you know, some fantastic jazz player, you know, they probably do sort of only play more or less those genres of music, don't they?

00:27:43.224 --> 00:27:46.627
And then they become brilliant at them and then probably don't cross over too much.

00:27:46.728 --> 00:27:51.853
Not saying that, you know, what you're doing is wrong, of course, but yeah, you know, there is this kind of thing, isn't it?

00:27:51.873 --> 00:27:57.317
But, you know, the kind of pinnacle of being a classical or jazz musician, for example, you know, you have to completely devote your life to it.

00:27:57.377 --> 00:28:00.660
And so it's quite interesting to think that should you be playing different genres Sure.

00:28:00.700 --> 00:28:02.182
Yeah, I

00:28:03.884 --> 00:28:05.865
guess it's definitely open for debate.

00:28:06.346 --> 00:28:08.568
My personal belief is that it can only help you.

00:28:08.608 --> 00:28:11.392
I guess it depends on the genre of music that you're playing.

00:28:11.672 --> 00:28:17.157
If you're focused on only playing classical music, then probably playing jazz isn't going to be that beneficial.

00:28:17.298 --> 00:28:18.098
It might be a hindrance.

00:28:19.259 --> 00:28:28.150
But yeah, I would certainly think that going the other direction could be very helpful, that learning classical chops and then playing jazz could be very interesting.

00:28:28.190 --> 00:28:30.192
You could do some very interesting things with it.

00:28:30.192 --> 00:28:30.893
that

00:28:30.913 --> 00:28:40.963
so let's go into your albums then and we can cover some of the different genres that you play so sure what sort of year was it when you did form your you know you went back to oregon formed your own tango band what sort of year we're talking then

00:28:41.144 --> 00:28:44.007
that must have been around 2003 or so

00:28:45.347 --> 00:28:54.117
yeah so so it wasn't long after that in 2005 you released your first album world of songs with a with a guitarist called lewis charles is that that's a duo album between the two of you is it

00:28:54.498 --> 00:28:59.625
That's right, yeah, that was my very first album, and you can still kind of find it through my webpage.

00:29:01.227 --> 00:29:10.219
The idea was to have every track be a different kind of music and to really kind of take a trip around the world with harmonica and guitar, and Lewis also sings on there.

00:29:10.239 --> 00:29:12.021
I also sing on a track on there as well.

00:29:12.201 --> 00:29:13.483
That was a lot of fun to put together.

00:29:13.963 --> 00:29:15.686
Yeah, so as you say, lots of different styles.

00:29:15.727 --> 00:29:16.607
You've got some blues on there.

00:29:16.627 --> 00:29:17.648
You've got blues with a feeling.

00:29:17.709 --> 00:29:19.171
I see you playing some diatonic blues.

00:29:19.191 --> 00:29:40.153
¶¶ You've got a Congolese folk song, I think it is, called Banana, is it?

00:29:40.173 --> 00:29:42.317
It's called Banaha, Banaha.

00:29:42.438 --> 00:29:54.882
And

00:29:54.902 --> 00:29:57.626
then you've got a Japanese medley on there as well, which is interesting.

00:29:57.646 --> 00:29:59.230
So yeah, all sorts of different styles on there.

00:29:59.490 --> 00:29:59.951
That's right.

00:30:00.111 --> 00:30:00.511
That's right.

00:30:00.571 --> 00:30:00.792
Yeah.

00:30:00.873 --> 00:30:06.423
And followed up several years later with another release that was kind of in the similar vein.

00:30:06.884 --> 00:30:07.806
That one was from 2005.

00:30:08.067 --> 00:30:11.673
And in 2012, I released an album called Just Duet.

00:30:11.954 --> 00:30:21.232
And the concept behind the album was that every track would be both a duet with a different instrument and also a different style of music.

00:30:38.882 --> 00:30:41.846
So I've got a whole large variety of things on there.

00:30:41.866 --> 00:30:44.371
And that was tons of fun to put together.

00:30:44.391 --> 00:30:47.457
I do want to do a follow-up album at some point.

00:30:47.797 --> 00:30:55.470
But yeah, on that album, I have a duet with a koto player, the Japanese koto, which is kind of like a Japanese harp.

00:30:55.891 --> 00:30:57.012
Beautiful sounding instrument.

00:31:06.849 --> 00:31:09.319
There's a duo with the Arhu.

00:31:09.634 --> 00:31:11.556
I'm not sure if I'm saying it correctly.

00:31:11.816 --> 00:31:12.856
Kind of a Chinese violin.

00:31:12.997 --> 00:31:14.178
It has only two strings.

00:31:14.498 --> 00:31:16.099
Very beautiful sounding instrument.

00:31:16.779 --> 00:31:19.162
I have a duet with Hammond B3 organ.

00:31:20.123 --> 00:31:20.864
George on my mind.

00:31:20.903 --> 00:31:22.965
There's a tango duet with a bandoneon.

00:31:23.205 --> 00:31:24.787
There's, I mean, there's all kinds of stuff.

00:31:24.807 --> 00:31:26.268
There's banjo duet.

00:31:26.288 --> 00:31:28.130
There's a pipe organ duet.

00:31:28.309 --> 00:31:31.113
I even do a duet with harmonica and tuba.

00:31:32.173 --> 00:31:35.777
The maple leaf rag, an arrangement for harmonica and tuba.

00:31:39.599 --> 00:31:47.875
I

00:31:47.935 --> 00:31:49.499
have Chardas on there with piano.

00:31:50.220 --> 00:31:52.044
There's a vibraphone duet.

00:31:52.525 --> 00:31:58.175
I just tried to include a whole bunch of different things on there because I just love it.

00:31:58.195 --> 00:31:59.198
I love all the variety.

00:31:59.521 --> 00:32:02.044
Yeah, fantastic.

00:32:02.605 --> 00:32:04.006
So how did

00:32:05.086 --> 00:32:27.586
you get all these different musicians then onto your album?

00:32:29.488 --> 00:32:30.133
fun project.

00:32:44.801 --> 00:32:45.763
Yeah, no, fantastic.

00:32:45.784 --> 00:32:49.931
Like you say, really showing a great diverse range, all different instruments and genres.

00:32:49.951 --> 00:32:53.678
So yeah, definitely not old tango stuff, although there is tango music on there.

00:32:54.038 --> 00:33:00.690
And then after this, you did the Amor de Tango, which is old tangos on that album.

00:33:00.993 --> 00:33:02.375
Yeah, so I kind of jumped ahead.

00:33:03.238 --> 00:33:14.016
My second album and my first kind of, in quotation marks, solo album, I guess this would be kind of my first kind of big album as an artist, I guess you could say, was Amor de Tango.

00:33:14.056 --> 00:33:15.238
I released it in 2007.

00:33:15.357 --> 00:33:31.788
So I flew down to Argentina.

00:33:32.288 --> 00:33:35.314
I hadn't been there for years, and I really lucked out.

00:33:35.354 --> 00:33:38.878
I had some amazing musicians back me up on this one.

00:33:39.078 --> 00:33:42.865
Latin Grammy nominee pianist Nicolas Ledesma joined me.

00:33:43.226 --> 00:33:52.720
I had one of the top bass players, Horacio Cabargos, and I had a very talented guitar player, Raul Lusi, as well.

00:33:52.980 --> 00:33:53.721
And we...

00:33:54.178 --> 00:33:56.540
We recorded this album in two days.

00:33:56.921 --> 00:33:59.903
I think we did like 10 tracks in one day and four in the next.

00:34:00.223 --> 00:34:01.826
And I'm really happy with how it came out.

00:34:02.227 --> 00:34:03.807
This is all traditional tango.

00:34:04.009 --> 00:34:05.650
The tango has three rhythms to it.

00:34:05.730 --> 00:34:11.456
There's the tango rhythm, which is kind of a march, you know, jump, jump, jump, jump, this sort of sound.

00:34:11.976 --> 00:34:16.442
There's a waltz rhythm, which tangueros call waltz, with a V, waltz.

00:34:17.001 --> 00:34:20.286
And it's, you know, as you expect, it's in three rhythms.

00:34:20.385 --> 00:34:22.909
and this sort of thing.

00:34:23.210 --> 00:34:26.494
And then there's another one called Mi Longa, which is a bit more bouncy.

00:34:26.976 --> 00:34:33.045
The bass line is kind of like this kind of sound.

00:34:33.286 --> 00:34:36.590
And I have all of these different dance rhythms on there.

00:34:36.630 --> 00:34:45.804
That was an amazing experience to go down there, record in an excellent studio, and have some really amazing musicians come in and play with me.

00:34:46.244 --> 00:34:48.047
It was kind of a dream come true.

00:34:50.242 --> 00:35:18.878
so so

00:35:26.242 --> 00:35:27.043
Yeah, fantastic.

00:35:27.083 --> 00:35:29.567
Yeah, it sounds like, is that the album you're most proud of then?

00:35:30.387 --> 00:35:33.652
Well, it's hard to say that, you know, they're all my children.

00:35:33.672 --> 00:35:41.364
So I think it was a very important album for me, because it was kind of, I don't know, I was in kind of, I was probably about 26 or so.

00:35:41.405 --> 00:35:45.349
And this was kind of my first time saying, hey, world, you know, this is me, this is what I do.

00:35:45.650 --> 00:35:45.831
Yeah.

00:35:46.072 --> 00:35:47.454
So it was, it was important.

00:35:47.914 --> 00:35:58.782
A few years later, though, in 2011, I recorded an album with a new age pianist, a British Grammy nominated composer named Michael Hoppe.

00:35:59.202 --> 00:36:06.079
And we recorded this beautiful album, which was originally called Melancholy, but later the name was changed to Nostalgie.

00:36:06.380 --> 00:36:08.083
And these are all his original compositions.

00:36:32.257 --> 00:36:34.543
And it was something totally different from the Tango album.

00:36:35.023 --> 00:36:38.570
And then I followed that with the Just Duet album, which I already told you about.

00:36:38.952 --> 00:36:42.760
And then I released another Tango album in 2015.

00:36:42.840 --> 00:36:47.769
Actually, I released two Tango albums in 2015, but only one of them is on my website.

00:36:48.034 --> 00:36:48.293
Yeah.

00:36:48.313 --> 00:36:50.335
And this is the Apasionado, is it?

00:36:50.556 --> 00:36:51.416
That's pretty good.

00:36:51.476 --> 00:36:52.277
That's not too bad.

00:36:52.438 --> 00:36:53.298
Yeah.

00:36:53.318 --> 00:36:54.260
It's Apasionado.

00:36:54.320 --> 00:36:55.041
Yeah.

00:36:55.061 --> 00:36:55.240
Yeah.

00:36:55.561 --> 00:36:55.782
Great.

00:36:55.842 --> 00:36:59.525
So again, this is another entirely tango album.

00:36:59.545 --> 00:37:01.547
You recorded this one also in Buenos Aires.

00:37:01.907 --> 00:37:02.367
That's right.

00:37:02.467 --> 00:37:05.311
I went back to Buenos Aires and I worked with some different musicians.

00:37:05.572 --> 00:37:08.974
Again, I got really lucky and had some amazing players join me.

00:37:21.793 --> 00:37:31.048
The idea of this album was to have half of the tracks be my own original compositions and the other half are very famous tangos.

00:37:31.630 --> 00:37:31.869
Great.

00:37:31.929 --> 00:37:35.436
So which one is one of your own compositions?

00:37:35.556 --> 00:37:39.561
Well, the title track, Apasionado, is my own composition, for example.

00:37:39.842 --> 00:37:42.666
It's very much in the style of Pugliese.

00:37:42.806 --> 00:37:44.869
He's an Argentine composer.

00:37:46.974 --> 00:37:47.134
Pugliese

00:37:56.961 --> 00:38:02.507
I dedicated this album to one of my friends who passed away, an amazing pianist named Octavio Brunetti.

00:38:02.686 --> 00:38:10.813
And actually, the final track on the album is a recording of Astor Piazzolla's famous, famous piece called Oblivion of the two of us playing.

00:38:10.833 --> 00:38:11.815
We're playing it live.

00:38:12.215 --> 00:38:19.942
And if you remember before, I told you how I played a concert, a sold out concert at my school on the same stage where I auditioned.

00:38:20.302 --> 00:38:23.125
That was recorded that night, actually, on that stage.

00:38:23.344 --> 00:38:24.826
It was a very magical moment for me.

00:38:25.065 --> 00:38:46.371
And it was the last time I got to play with my friend Octavia.

00:38:46.391 --> 00:38:51.637
And then you recorded an album, I think 2019, is that the last album you put out?

00:38:52.001 --> 00:38:53.744
Yeah, that's the most recent.

00:38:53.963 --> 00:38:56.445
We intended to release it in 2020.

00:38:56.465 --> 00:39:00.048
Of course, the pandemic put everything on hold.

00:39:00.268 --> 00:39:03.972
I went to Madrid actually to play with a pianist who I work with there.

00:39:04.112 --> 00:39:05.673
His name is Guglielmo Fofani.

00:39:05.833 --> 00:39:07.996
Yeah, while I was there, he was like, hey, let's record an album.

00:39:09.137 --> 00:39:10.157
I was like, okay, let's do it.

00:39:10.297 --> 00:39:14.782
So we went into the studio on my last day in Madrid and we just recorded the whole album in one day.

00:39:15.081 --> 00:39:18.784
It's called Con Ojos Nuevos, which means with new eyes.

00:39:19.166 --> 00:39:25.911
And actually, you know, it seemed kind of appropriate to release it after the pandemic, because we're kind of all seeing the world with new eyes.

00:39:25.931 --> 00:39:36.202
And the very first song is actually one of the classic tangos by Carlos Gardel, who's maybe one of the most famous, iconic tango singers.

00:39:36.663 --> 00:39:39.565
This piece is called Volver, and it means to return.

00:39:39.726 --> 00:39:45.130
So it seemed kind of very appropriate to start the album with that piece since we were coming back after the pandemic.

00:39:51.746 --> 00:39:52.766
Thank you.

00:40:01.378 --> 00:40:04.059
And how about that recording an album in a day?

00:40:04.079 --> 00:40:06.161
Do you think that works well?

00:40:06.302 --> 00:40:09.244
I guess pluses and minuses to every way you approach it.

00:40:09.724 --> 00:40:11.786
As far as I'm concerned, it's the only way to do it.

00:40:12.146 --> 00:40:14.009
My Tango albums were all recorded in a day.

00:40:14.148 --> 00:40:17.731
The Just Duet, it would have been too logistically difficult.

00:40:18.213 --> 00:40:20.014
I recorded Just Duet over a month.

00:40:20.393 --> 00:40:22.797
It was my first foray into recording myself.

00:40:22.836 --> 00:40:27.681
So I bought all of the gear and recorded the whole album myself and actually mixed it myself.

00:40:27.900 --> 00:40:30.943
Then I sent it off to be mastered by someone who knew what they were doing.

00:40:31.344 --> 00:40:34.728
The other albums I recorded basically in a day.

00:40:35.347 --> 00:40:39.012
Conojos Nuevos, the most recent one, recorded entirely in a day.

00:40:39.331 --> 00:40:42.376
My other two Tango albums were basically done in two days.

00:40:42.755 --> 00:40:44.737
I really think it's a great way to do it.

00:40:44.918 --> 00:40:50.664
You have everybody there, and you just focus, and you just get all the music out there.

00:40:50.864 --> 00:40:56.871
And it's a very good, strong, intense energy, which translates well into the Tango music, I think.

00:40:59.873 --> 00:41:00.094
Tango music

00:41:00.833 --> 00:41:13.376
Have you got any more albums lined up to come out soon?

00:41:13.577 --> 00:41:16.262
It's been since 2019 since your last one.

00:41:16.769 --> 00:41:16.949
I

00:41:16.969 --> 00:41:24.757
don't have one exactly worked out yet, but I would like to record one probably next year in Buenos Aires.

00:41:24.817 --> 00:41:26.579
Maybe I'll go down and record another tango album.

00:41:26.898 --> 00:41:27.820
I think it's about time.

00:41:27.840 --> 00:41:31.021
I've been composing a lot of music and I'd like to release a new one.

00:41:32.023 --> 00:41:33.945
So you're living the dream, Joe.

00:41:33.985 --> 00:41:36.067
You're traveling the world, playing the harmonica.

00:41:36.086 --> 00:41:37.047
It sounds fantastic.

00:41:37.068 --> 00:41:38.148
I'm very envious of you.

00:41:38.909 --> 00:41:41.391
And you've done lots of great live performances as a part of this show.

00:41:41.431 --> 00:41:47.940
You played all around the world and you played the Gordon Jacob harmonica suites in Japan.

00:42:02.594 --> 00:42:03.134
That's right.

00:42:03.195 --> 00:42:05.516
Yeah, I played that one in Japan.

00:42:05.577 --> 00:42:07.577
I played it in Barcelona.

00:42:07.597 --> 00:42:09.420
I also played it in Oregon.

00:42:09.699 --> 00:42:16.865
I also played the Villa Lobos Harmonica Concerto with the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, which was an amazing experience.

00:42:17.106 --> 00:42:18.228
Very challenging piece.

00:42:19.309 --> 00:42:22.811
I really admire and respect Robert Bonfilio.

00:42:23.172 --> 00:42:26.855
I had the opportunity to study with him a couple of times, take a couple of lessons with him.

00:42:27.034 --> 00:42:28.617
Of course, he just owns that piece.

00:42:28.677 --> 00:42:29.157
It's amazing.

00:42:29.257 --> 00:42:31.878
But yeah, I did play that piece as well.

00:42:32.079 --> 00:42:39.987
So there's some challenging classical pieces yeah so but how did you get that up to speed to be able to play it with an orchestra that must be very daunting experience

00:42:40.407 --> 00:42:54.523
yeah it was it was a lot of work I think I spent about a year practicing that one I also hired a pianist to accompany me so I could practice it more in a kind of a live performance setting just a lot of work a lot of practice yeah

00:42:54.784 --> 00:42:57.806
how do you get a gig then when you were you invited to play with an orchestra

00:42:57.907 --> 00:43:31.282
well it's the same way you get any gig really you either contact the orchestra and send them your material or you make a personal connection that leads to the performance or if you're lucky enough to be part of an agency or something like that that can find gigs for you or if you have a manager or of course also organizers will contact you so these are all of the possibilities certainly all of them are true for me once you've played for someone one time for an organizer once then it's very likely that you'll go back again as well

00:43:31.623 --> 00:43:34.146
yeah no fantastic It must be amazing playing with an orchestra.

00:43:34.385 --> 00:43:34.686
It is.

00:43:34.827 --> 00:43:39.210
I think it's one of the most powerful things to be accompanied by that many musicians.

00:43:39.311 --> 00:43:40.311
It's really incredible.

00:43:40.652 --> 00:43:44.096
And as well as this, you've played with various other artists in the UK.

00:43:44.135 --> 00:43:47.579
Jamie Cullum's a famous jazz kind of pop artist.

00:43:47.619 --> 00:43:48.201
You played with him.

00:43:48.501 --> 00:43:55.708
Yeah, it's kind of a crazy story, but he came to Portland and I didn't really know much about his music, but I was kind of curious.

00:43:55.728 --> 00:43:56.690
So I went to his concert.

00:43:56.949 --> 00:43:59.552
I don't know what possessed me, but I had my harmonica with me.

00:43:59.753 --> 00:44:39.110
And there was a moment in the concert where he came off stage I mean he was playing with a bass player and I happened to be seated like basically right next to where he was standing so I you know I like this was in the middle of his concert I pulled out my harmonica and I started jamming along he was playing nature boy the jazz standard at first like his eyes kind of popped out he kind of looked at me and then he started listening and then he handed me the microphone I took a solo and then he's like he's like take another one man this is great take another one and so I took another solo yeah after the after that he invited me backstage and we We hung out and, you know, and then I ended up playing with him five more times, played with him in Europe and I played with him in Japan.

00:44:49.570 --> 00:44:52.052
So yeah,

00:44:53.172 --> 00:44:53.333
it

00:44:55.614 --> 00:45:01.219
was pretty cool.

00:45:19.536 --> 00:45:21.538
is just really spot on.

00:45:21.737 --> 00:45:24.762
I just kind of went and sat in with him and that was a lot of fun.

00:45:25.161 --> 00:45:35.293
And so as well as obviously all the playing and all the touring you're doing, you also teach and you've got on your website, you've got an online harmonica teaching portal called Harmonica Path.

00:45:35.393 --> 00:45:36.213
You want to tell us about that?

00:45:36.434 --> 00:45:36.914
Absolutely.

00:45:37.014 --> 00:45:42.300
So I kind of mentioned to you, I think a lot of harmonica players are in a similar situation.

00:45:42.320 --> 00:45:48.547
I started harmonica playing totally by ear, you know, and I just didn't know anything about music theory.

00:45:48.987 --> 00:46:20.942
Later on when I when I finally kind of learned about music theory it just totally changed my musical world kind of opened up all of these new horizons for me I feel very strongly about harmonica players of all varieties whether they play diatonic chromatic tremolo whatever I feel like everybody should learn to read music so what I've done is I've developed and I'm continuing to develop a harmonica course that does just that it teaches harmonica players from the very beginning to read music and I try to make it as painless as possible I'm into the intermediate module now.

00:46:20.981 --> 00:46:22.724
So the beginning module is totally complete.

00:46:23.103 --> 00:46:29.590
And people, if people are curious about that, they can go to my webpage, which is just JoePowers.com and they can, they can check it out.

00:46:29.650 --> 00:46:30.891
It's called the Harmonica Path.

00:46:31.012 --> 00:46:33.855
Do you also teach face-to-face or Skype or anything like that?

00:46:34.076 --> 00:46:38.840
I haven't been doing any face-to-face actually since the pandemic started, but I am doing online.

00:46:39.041 --> 00:46:40.583
I've got lots of online students.

00:46:41.043 --> 00:46:49.331
So yeah, if people are interested in lessons, they can reach out to me through the contact form on my webpage, or they can just email me Joe at JoePowers.com.

00:46:49.391 --> 00:46:50.193
pretty easy to remember

00:46:50.413 --> 00:47:03.347
i'll put that on the on the podcast page as well yeah so great and uh yeah i'd say all styles but obviously particularly uh if people want to get into playing tango and then that's the way to do it i think was it right you won uh one of the competitions at trottingham in in 2005 uh

00:47:03.387 --> 00:47:21.766
actually i came in fourth place so i didn't exactly win yeah um but yeah i mean you know hey not bad um fourth in the world let's see that was the year um that philip jares was there so you know i really didn't have a chance he's fantastic i tried to I competed in as many of them as I could.

00:47:21.786 --> 00:47:25.670
I did a couple of chromatic competitions and I did a diatonic one.

00:47:26.110 --> 00:47:27.753
And yeah, it was a great experience.

00:47:27.952 --> 00:47:32.338
And you did win the Belgian Crystal Harmonica Award in the classical division.

00:47:32.677 --> 00:47:33.599
That's right, I did.

00:47:33.619 --> 00:47:35.280
Yes, that was pretty cool.

00:47:35.501 --> 00:47:38.985
So how did you enter a Belgian or how did you get a Belgian award?

00:47:39.244 --> 00:47:41.527
It was an online competition.

00:47:41.708 --> 00:47:44.050
People voted for the players.

00:47:44.510 --> 00:47:48.094
Somehow I was voted as the classical person that year.

00:47:48.255 --> 00:47:49.295
But again, classical, right?

00:47:49.295 --> 00:47:54.101
So, you know, we talked about all the different styles you've played, obviously majoring in tango.

00:47:54.161 --> 00:47:58.465
So, but, you know, you've got to be pretty good technically to be able to play classical well, yeah?

00:47:58.686 --> 00:48:03.331
Yeah, well, it's all about playing very precisely when you're doing classical.

00:48:03.371 --> 00:48:05.632
Of course, you want to play emotionally as well.

00:48:05.733 --> 00:48:07.735
But yeah, you want to be technically precise, exactly.

00:48:08.036 --> 00:48:13.322
Yeah, so obviously as well, you're reading classical music, I take it, when you're playing it, at least to learn it in the first place.

00:48:13.362 --> 00:48:17.686
So that is something you've become much better at than initially when you said you didn't read at all.

00:48:17.947 --> 00:48:18.586
Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:48:18.626 --> 00:48:23.391
I mean, you know, since I graduated from music school, I can read music, you know, no problem.

00:48:23.492 --> 00:48:26.054
Of course, I could always improve, as could anybody, I suppose.

00:48:26.235 --> 00:48:27.836
That's how I learn all my music now.

00:48:28.077 --> 00:48:33.103
Unless it's not written down, in which case, you know, I'll listen to it and oftentimes I'll transcribe the music.

00:48:33.262 --> 00:48:38.929
So one question I ask each time, Joe, is if you had 10 minutes to practice, what would you spend that 10 minutes doing?

00:48:39.228 --> 00:48:44.195
I mean, recently, I've been spending a lot of time kind of working on bebop improvisation.

00:48:44.474 --> 00:48:46.257
So that's, I mean, that's what I personally would do.

00:48:46.317 --> 00:48:53.784
I'd probably kind of work on some rhythm changes you know improvising over rhythm changes or some standards some bebop stuff

00:48:54.085 --> 00:49:00.032
sure yeah so does that mean you're you know you're getting more into jazz obviously you already play jazz yeah but uh yeah you're focusing more on jazz at the moment

00:49:00.331 --> 00:49:15.268
i think i'm always working on improvisation because i just love it whenever i get a chance i'm always working on jazz improvisation but yeah um if i'm on a if i'm on a tour playing tango music sometimes i get pretty busy and i don't i don't always have time to work on it so

00:49:15.547 --> 00:49:15.708
yeah

00:49:15.788 --> 00:49:19.391
but yeah it's it's always it's always what i like to go to and work on.

00:49:19.713 --> 00:49:20.934
I just love improvising.

00:49:21.253 --> 00:49:24.277
And so we'll get on to talking about Guianan in the last section.

00:49:24.318 --> 00:49:28.061
So first of all, you're a Suzuki endorser, I think?

00:49:28.222 --> 00:49:28.621
That's right,

00:49:28.842 --> 00:49:29.023
yes.

00:49:29.302 --> 00:49:32.987
So harmonica-wise, chromatics, are you playing the Sirius, is it?

00:49:33.286 --> 00:49:36.010
Yeah, I'm playing the Sirius 64, exactly.

00:49:36.230 --> 00:49:39.152
Do you always play the 16-hole, or do you also play 12?

00:49:39.474 --> 00:49:44.239
You know, if they came out with a five-octave chromatic, then I would use that.

00:49:44.458 --> 00:49:46.902
In fact, they just came out with that excellent bass chromatic.

00:49:46.981 --> 00:49:49.103
I don't know if you've tried that, but it is awesome.

00:49:49.103 --> 00:49:50.005
Have you tried that?

00:49:50.284 --> 00:49:50.985
I haven't tried it.

00:49:51.045 --> 00:49:54.088
I have talked about it with people on here and I would love to get one.

00:49:54.108 --> 00:49:57.413
But yeah, I haven't quite made the plunge to pay for it yet.

00:49:57.472 --> 00:49:59.135
But yeah, you've got one there.

00:49:59.534 --> 00:50:02.818
I just got one a couple of months ago and I love it.

00:50:02.998 --> 00:50:06.362
It's really cool to be able to play that low and quickly.

00:50:06.682 --> 00:50:12.168
So yeah, I play the serious mainly and I love having the extra octaves.

00:50:12.228 --> 00:50:17.094
So I really don't understand why anybody would want to play anything other than a four octave chromatic.

00:50:17.173 --> 00:50:18.034
I just don't understand it.

00:50:18.335 --> 00:50:29.327
So have you always played the 16 hole then because I think it's switching between the 12 and the 16 because personally I do play a 12 hole because I find the 16 harder to navigate so obviously if you're used to it I get that you know it's fine but

00:50:29.827 --> 00:50:41.739
yeah I mean I think I've played a 16 hole for years my first chromatic was probably a 12 hole yeah I mean after I started playing 16 hole basically I never went back to a 12 hole

00:50:42.021 --> 00:50:43.822
yeah great and diatonic wise

00:50:44.463 --> 00:50:49.989
I play the Suzuki pure harp which is an all rosewood harmonica a very a very fine instrument.

00:50:50.110 --> 00:50:52.693
It's very nice for overblowing, just right out of the box.

00:50:53.094 --> 00:50:56.059
Yeah, I noticed listening that you do play overblows, yeah?

00:50:56.300 --> 00:50:57.661
Yes, yes, I do, definitely.

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000
.

00:51:08.706 --> 00:51:12.628
Is that something you did from early on or did you pick it up later in your playing?

00:51:13.050 --> 00:51:17.253
Well, back when I was a teenager, nobody was really talking about overblows.

00:51:17.873 --> 00:51:21.376
It's something that I started doing in my 20s, continue to do.

00:51:21.757 --> 00:51:30.644
I try to play the C diatonic in all 12 keys and also try to improvise in all 12 keys on C diatonic and read music and all of that.

00:51:30.684 --> 00:51:34.768
I try to treat it like a fully chromatic instrument, but it's quite challenging.

00:51:35.949 --> 00:51:42.856
It's interesting because people like myself included, I do play diatonic a lot as well, but I don't play really overblows a little bit.

00:51:42.956 --> 00:51:48.021
But, you know, because I play chromatic, I think, well, I've got all the notes on the chromatic, so why do I need to play overblows on the diatonic?

00:51:48.061 --> 00:51:52.827
But, you know, so what is it you like about the overblows on the diatonic that you choose to play that instead of playing the chromatic?

00:51:53.027 --> 00:51:55.230
The diatonic has a very particular sound.

00:51:55.510 --> 00:52:00.434
The tone is very particular, but you can also, there's a lot more control over the tone.

00:52:00.614 --> 00:52:10.481
You know, I don't know how well it comes through here, but I don't really have to tell you and your listeners that you can get a very deep tone with the diatonic because you can get so much of her hands around the instrument.

00:52:16.769 --> 00:52:17.650
You

00:52:17.690 --> 00:52:21.474
could get all kinds of nice hand wah and stuff like that with the diatonic.

00:52:21.614 --> 00:52:27.579
You could kind of do that with the chromatic, but it's not quite the same because the harmonica is a little bit bigger, right?

00:52:27.980 --> 00:52:32.143
So the sounds that you could create and just the fact that it's so small.

00:52:32.824 --> 00:52:40.771
And also the diatonic, it was my first instrument and it will always be a very important part of my musical experience.

00:52:41.030 --> 00:52:43.112
I'm very connected to the diatonic.

00:52:43.213 --> 00:52:48.358
You know, both instruments have their capabilities and I just wouldn't want to have to choose one over the other

00:52:48.737 --> 00:52:55.364
yeah no absolutely yeah what about your um your embouchure what do you like to use and do you use the same on both instruments

00:52:55.766 --> 00:53:19.753
uh diatonic i use almost uh exclusively pucker um unless i'm playing like octaves or if i'm um you know playing harmonies but yeah i'll mostly play pucker i don't i really don't know how anyone can do um overblows and overdraws uh with with tongue blocking i know it's possible but i i have no idea how they do it because it just seems Sounds like so much of your tongue has to be used when you're doing that.

00:53:20.114 --> 00:53:23.139
And then on the chromatic, I use both quite a bit.

00:53:23.338 --> 00:53:28.427
I do a lot of corner switching, switching my tongue from left to right when I'm playing.

00:53:33.025 --> 00:53:33.686
this sort of thing.

00:53:34.108 --> 00:53:37.675
And then, you know, so I, that gives me kind of one sound.

00:53:37.735 --> 00:53:45.393
And of course the octave playing gives me one sound, but when, whenever I want to dig in and I want to get some bent notes, I feel much more comfortable playing that with pucker.

00:53:45.413 --> 00:53:47.677
Yeah.

00:53:50.561 --> 00:53:53.925
So yeah, I use both embouchures on the chromatic.

00:53:54.284 --> 00:53:54.505
Yeah.

00:53:54.646 --> 00:53:59.690
With your tongue switching, I really noticed it's like you almost like having a bass accompaniment with yourself, almost like a piano.

00:53:59.730 --> 00:54:03.592
You're able to just jump down and give yourself a bass accompaniment and then go straight back up to the high notes.

00:54:03.632 --> 00:54:04.994
That sounded really effective.

00:54:05.235 --> 00:54:05.655
Exactly.

00:54:05.974 --> 00:54:15.643
And equipment wise, and again, obviously you like to travel the world and travel light, so I'm guessing you don't take much with you, but what about, you know, what equipment are you using amplifier wise?

00:54:16.003 --> 00:54:20.527
This is kind of something that I'm a little too obsessed with, traveling as light as possible.

00:54:20.527 --> 00:54:22.750
I travel with just one backpack.

00:54:22.951 --> 00:54:26.815
I never want to check my bag, so I don't check my bag anymore.

00:54:27.135 --> 00:54:31.500
So when I'm traveling with my backpack, I have all of my sound equipment.

00:54:31.539 --> 00:54:36.844
I've got my performance attire and I also have my albums and they all manage to fit into my backpack.

00:54:37.045 --> 00:54:41.230
I'm using a Blows Me Away Ultimate 57 microphone.

00:54:41.489 --> 00:54:47.936
I also have this Sennheiser wireless microphone system called the XSW.

00:54:48.157 --> 00:54:52.762
It's really small and portable and it's It just clips on the end of the Ultimate 57.

00:54:53.322 --> 00:54:55.565
Do you normally then use a wireless microphone?

00:54:55.885 --> 00:55:02.132
I normally use a wireless microphone because anyone who's ever seen me play would know I don't like to stand still.

00:55:02.152 --> 00:55:07.418
I like to kind of jump down into the audience and kind of get up in people's faces.

00:55:07.518 --> 00:55:09.920
And, you know, I really like to interact with the audience.

00:55:10.240 --> 00:55:11.061
And dance, of course.

00:55:11.682 --> 00:55:13.844
And sometimes I'll dance around.

00:55:13.864 --> 00:55:16.248
So, yeah, I just can't stand still.

00:55:16.268 --> 00:55:17.608
I like to jump around.

00:55:17.648 --> 00:55:20.052
And, yeah, I absolutely have to be wireless.

00:55:20.431 --> 00:55:23.355
I do not like playing with a microphone stand.

00:55:23.454 --> 00:55:27.318
Of course, sometimes I'll also use a lavalier mic depending on the type of music that I'm playing.

00:55:27.418 --> 00:55:32.985
But for tango music, blues, jazz, I prefer the handheld Ultimate 57.

00:55:33.905 --> 00:55:36.208
Is there any particular reason you like the 57 or the 58?

00:55:36.688 --> 00:55:40.552
I like the 57 because I can get some hand wah.

00:55:40.594 --> 00:55:41.835
There's a proximity effect.

00:55:41.974 --> 00:55:45.478
I find that the 58 has a little bit less proximity effect.

00:55:45.599 --> 00:56:21.036
For me, it's like if you can't get that proximity effect, it's like you're missing this whole aspect to playing harmonica that i just love do you use any effects at all we're lucky as harmonica players because we can create a lot of effects on our own right without any fancy pedals distortion tremolo vibratos you know tonal changes and note bending we could do all those with our instrument so yeah i i don't really use uh effects pedals the only thing that i do bring with me is a little uh stompbox made by tc helicon it's called the mic mechanic 2 it has a reverb that works pretty well.

00:56:21.297 --> 00:56:27.302
I like it because it's the smallest possible form factor I could find that has an XLR input and output on it.

00:56:27.664 --> 00:56:29.385
It fits into my backpack.

00:56:30.005 --> 00:56:33.849
Yeah, and you're playing through PA pretty much all the time, aren't you?

00:56:33.911 --> 00:56:39.856
I'm always playing through PA, and yeah, this mic mechanic can kind of improve the sound on almost anything.

00:56:39.936 --> 00:56:42.278
I've occasionally played it through a guitar amp.

00:56:42.539 --> 00:56:43.481
It does a great job.

00:56:43.840 --> 00:56:48.385
So now I'm wondering where you put all your clothes, because obviously seeing you play quite a lot, you're wearing suits and everything.

00:56:48.646 --> 00:56:50.288
This is some sort of magic backpack you have.

00:56:50.288 --> 00:56:51.929
It's a magic

00:56:51.969 --> 00:56:52.289
backpack.

00:56:52.590 --> 00:56:55.893
Maybe you haven't learned about the wonders of packing cubes.

00:56:56.333 --> 00:57:00.097
If you use a packing cube, you can squish a lot of clothes together.

00:57:00.119 --> 00:57:04.943
If you learn how to fold your clothes in the right way, you can eliminate wrinkles.

00:57:05.123 --> 00:57:10.168
Of course, if you buy wrinkle-resistant clothing as well, it's a whole art, a traveling light.

00:57:10.248 --> 00:57:10.489
Yes.

00:57:10.710 --> 00:57:12.010
Yeah, you've got it down to fine art.

00:57:12.050 --> 00:57:12.711
Yeah, fantastic.

00:57:12.731 --> 00:57:12.871
Yeah.

00:57:13.112 --> 00:57:18.557
You've been touring Europe, and unfortunately, I'm really sad that I missed you playing in the UK at the start of this tour.

00:57:18.637 --> 00:57:24.443
So I know you did meet Pete Hewitt, the head of Harmonica UK here in the UK, and you've been touring around Europe.

00:57:24.545 --> 00:57:26.467
You've got three dates remaining, I think, haven't you?

00:57:26.527 --> 00:57:29.550
One in Austria, two in Denmark, before you head back to the US.

00:57:29.909 --> 00:57:34.394
No, I actually have a couple of new dates that have just been added.

00:57:34.454 --> 00:57:40.581
I've got one more tomorrow night here in Berlin, and then I'll be in Budapest next week.

00:57:40.782 --> 00:57:44.505
I've just got a date in Bratislava, which I'm very excited about, Yugoslavia.

00:57:44.766 --> 00:57:52.539
And then I'll play in Vienna, I'll play in Copenhagen, and also a small village near there called I'm probably saying it wrong.

00:57:52.840 --> 00:57:54.664
And then I'll head back home to Portland.

00:57:55.206 --> 00:57:57.253
They had a great time touring around Europe this summer.

00:57:57.693 --> 00:57:58.456
It's been amazing.

00:57:58.597 --> 00:58:01.364
It's been so nice to be back after three years.

00:58:02.088 --> 00:58:02.327
Yeah.

00:58:02.789 --> 00:58:04.072
Yeah, it's been really fun.

00:58:04.802 --> 00:58:06.903
And you survived the pandemic okay, did you?

00:58:07.103 --> 00:58:07.905
I'm

00:58:07.945 --> 00:58:08.304
still here.

00:58:08.344 --> 00:58:10.106
I'm still here.

00:58:10.206 --> 00:58:14.150
And the big thing for me from the pandemic was this harmonica course.

00:58:14.389 --> 00:58:21.396
I kind of taught myself, you know, some basics of coding, kind of created this harmonica course from scratch.

00:58:21.456 --> 00:58:26.880
And there's kind of play along recordings and there's videos and, you know, there's all kinds of stuff in there.

00:58:27.282 --> 00:58:27.501
Yes.

00:58:27.621 --> 00:58:29.463
I mean, you did some quarantine concerts as well.

00:58:29.664 --> 00:58:31.264
I've got one with a violinist that you did.

00:58:31.304 --> 00:58:32.646
That's right.

00:58:32.826 --> 00:58:33.867
I did that as well.

00:58:33.947 --> 00:58:34.146
Yes.

00:58:34.347 --> 00:58:34.768
Yeah.

00:58:34.768 --> 00:58:37.976
So thanks so much for joining me today, Joel Powers.

00:58:38.036 --> 00:58:38.777
Thanks so much, Neil.

00:58:38.797 --> 00:58:40.523
This has been a real pleasure talking with you.

00:58:40.844 --> 00:58:42.949
Thanks to Zydle for sponsoring the podcast.

00:58:43.309 --> 00:58:49.425
And be sure to check out their great range of harmonicas and products at www.zydle1847.com.

00:58:49.762 --> 00:58:54.789
Thanks so much to Joe for joining us.

00:58:54.889 --> 00:58:55.951
What a great player he is.

00:58:55.971 --> 00:59:01.137
If you're excited to learn some tango on the harmonica, be sure to check out his website and teaching resources.

00:59:01.577 --> 00:59:07.025
And also please check out the podcast website and Spotify playlist, all linked from the podcast page.

00:59:07.527 --> 00:59:09.329
I'm off to play some tango myself now.

00:59:09.849 --> 00:59:10.670
Take it away, Joe.

00:59:18.362 --> 00:59:18.461
Tango

00:59:23.233 --> 00:59:31.262
so