Jan. 27, 2023
Marko Jovanovic interview
Marko Jovanovic joins me on episode 78. Marko is a German player with Serbian roots, from where he developed an interest in playing Balkan music on the harmonica, returning to the region to team up with several acts to release some great music in that genre. He’s also an expert blues player, has played chamber music, Arabic music and much more on both diatonic and chromatic harmonicas. Marko also runs the successful Berlin Harmonica School, where as well as one-to-one group classes he has som...
Marko Jovanovic joins me on episode 78.
Marko is a German player with Serbian roots, from where he developed an interest in playing Balkan music on the harmonica, returning to the region to team up with several acts to release some great music in that genre. He’s also an expert blues player, has played chamber music, Arabic music and much more on both diatonic and chromatic harmonicas.
Marko also runs the successful Berlin Harmonica School, where as well as one-to-one group classes he has some great online video tutorials from players around the world. Offering lessons in a range of different styles, including Irish, Argentinian, and soon to come: more chromatic, flamenco and advanced diatonic harmonica. And he also runs the FEN harmonica festival now too.
Links:
Marko’s website:
https://mjharmonica.com/
Berlin Harmonica School:
https://harmonica-school-berlin.com/
FEN Festival:
https://harmonica-fen-festival.com/
Videos:
Marko’s YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@mjharmonica/featured
Marko playing On The Road Again with Bluesrudy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ooqHFbmK9k
Playing with Lars Vegas & The Love Gloves:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvksaOsXgkY
Playing with George Sareski:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9lVZN76fjo
Playing at Harmonica Masters 2015 Trossingen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtbW9HHAxbU
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/
01:32 - Marko was born in Munich but now lives in Berlin
01:50 - Has Serbian (former Yugoslavia) roots
02:14 - Runs a harmonica workshop in Croatia every year after previously teaching in Tuscany, Italy
03:41 - Marko started out on harmonica age 13 after hearing lots of harmonica through father
04:27 - Uncle showed Marko how to play
04:46 - Harmonica was first instrument, after failed attempt to build a guitar
05:03 - Also plays some bass and piano
05:48 - Started out on diatonic harmonica playing blues, picking up the chromatic a little later
06:37 - Can play some things on chromatic that can’t play on diatonic, and vice-versa
06:56 - First started learning chromatic to tackle a jazz song in Ab for a recording session
08:17 - Alan Wilson from Canned Heat was one of first harmonica players to inspire Marko
09:33 - Howard Levy was another inspiration
10:06 - Also drew inspiration from other musicians beyond harmonica players
10:29 - Marko has recorded lots of different genres
10:49 - How other instruments have influenced Marko’s harmonica playing, including African music
12:23 - Prefers the smaller ensemble of duos / trios, to give the harmonica more space
13:03 - Playing more and more acoustically these days
13:32 - First recorded album was with Lars Vegas and the Love Gloves blues band, who Marko met at a festival in Germany
14:30 - Joined as a bass player initially with the Love Gloves, but then shared that role so could play more harmonica
15:19 - How Marko learned the upright bass in 10 days
15:52 - How bass guitar has informed harmonica playing
17:41 - How Marko incorporates techniques from bass into his harmonica teaching
18:05 - Played chamber music with the Ensemble Piaccordia after spending some time learning accordion
20:55 - Plays mostly diatonic with the Ensemble Piaccordia
21:00 - Blues duo with Peter Crow, first blues guitar partner Marko played with
21:38 - Some of the more modern harmonica players who influenced Marko
21:47 - Marko learnt to appreciate early blues through Peter Crow
22:45 - Did harmonica and guitar workshops with Peter Crow
23:27 - Little Sam Lud is another duo Marko has performed with
24:44 - Played in the Sahara with Little Sam Lud
25:14 - Versatility of the harmonica
25:52 - Duo with Branko Gallic
27:00 - Approach to playing Balkan music and ornamentation
29:20 - Played Arabic music with Trio Fanolic - Culap - Jovanovic
30:34 - Latest album is ‘Big Love’ with guitarist Georgi Sareski
31:57 - Marko has a collection of archive recordings on his website
32:38 - Founded the Berlin Harmonica School
33:33 - Releasing online video tutorials with different players, including Joel Andersson (Irish harmonica) and Santiago Alvarez (Argentine tango)
34:33 - Berlin Harmonica School started off as group harmonica workshop before moving more online due to Covid pandemic
36:50 - Hold face-to-face workshops in Croatia and Berlin
36:57 - Quality tutorial videos versus YouTube (which also has lots of great content)
39:04 - Marko provides one-on-one lessons to advanced and professional level players
41:03 - Now runs the FEN harmonica festival every two years
41:26 - Marko has been a judge and performer on numerous occasions at the World Harmonica Festival in Trossingen
42:21 - Thoughts on harmonica competitions
42:55 - FEN stands for Fascination Education Network and the principles of the festival
44:36 - Harmonica is a young instrument, still in its development
44:51 - 10 minute question
46:25 - Marko plays Hohner diatonics
46:45 - Uses some of Joel Andersson’s custom harmonicas and thoughts on custom harmonicas
48:17 - Good to practise on lower quality harmonicas as it improves your playing on better quality ones
49:20 - Some of Joel Andersson’s harmonicas are available through the Berlin Harmonica School website
50:26 - Plays Suzuki Sirius chromatics
51:05 - Overblows: uses them but like to think of them as just another note
52:37 - If you want to learn the diatonic fully then you need to learn 4 techniques of: bending, blow bending, overblowing and overdrawing
53:17 - Embouchre: uses the technique most appropriate to the music
54:41 - Uses Schertler amp, which is sold via Berlin Music School website
55:41 - Mics: uses Shure SM58 and Sennheiser MD441
56:19 - Uses Electrovoice mic when playing through a tube amp, given to Marko from Bill Barrett
56:52 - Tube amps of choice: has played a Fender Champ and Princeton and Marble amp
57:28 - Playing technique much more important than gear
57:46 - Four new online courses coming out through Berlin Harmonica School: Bill Barrett, William Galison, an advanced diatonic course from Marko, and a flamenco course from Antonio Serrano
WEBVTT
00:00:00.130 --> 00:00:02.273
Marko Jovanovic joins me on episode 78.
00:00:03.013 --> 00:00:13.788
Marko is a German player with Serbian roots, from where he developed an interest in playing Balkan music on the harmonica, returning to the region to team up with several acts to release some great music in that genre.
00:00:14.349 --> 00:00:21.239
He's also an expert blues player, has played chamber music, Arabic music and much more on both diatonic and chromatic harmonicas.
00:00:22.201 --> 00:00:25.326
Marko also runs the successful Berlin Harmonica School.
00:00:25.570 --> 00:00:43.399
where as well as one-to-one group classes, he has some great online video tutorials from players around the world, offering lessons in a range of different styles, including Irish, Argentinian, and soon to come, more chromatic, flamenco, and advanced diatonic, and he also runs the Fenn Harmonica Festival now too.
00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:47.085
This podcast is sponsored by Seidel Harmonicas.
00:00:47.545 --> 00:00:56.831
Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world, at www.zidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Zidel Harmonicas.
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Hello, Marko Johanovic, and welcome to the podcast.
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Hi, Neil.
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So I'm talking to you in Germany.
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I think you're living in Berlin now, but you're originally from Munich.
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That's right.
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I'm right now in Berlin, actually since 1999.
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So in the meanwhile, I'm longer living in Berlin than I was living in Munich.
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But I grew up and I was born in Munich.
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That's right, yeah.
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But I understand you have Serbian roots, but you were born in Germany, as you just said.
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Yes, my
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parents came in the 70s from Yugoslavia to Berlin.
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Munich and they met there nowadays it's called Serbia when they left their country it was called Yugoslavia but I mostly see myself still as a Yugoslavian somehow it seems to be more appropriate in my heart than Serbian
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yeah and hence the reason you go back to Croatia that's a name of Yugoslavia isn't it
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yeah we started there from 2014 a series of workshop which is still happening every year with our school with my school I was the years before teaching in Italy, in Tuscany, which was nice.
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And it was my first time of experiencing that kind of workshop format where you meet for a week and you have a nice place and you really have a week time of introducing more complex ideas or musical ideas and practice for a longer time together with the people.
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And after two years doing that in Tuscany, I realized I want to try to establish my own series of workshops and my natural first thought appeared why not doing it in Croatia where I haven't been since the end of the war.
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Back then it was almost 20 years and I thought that would be a wonderful reunion and reconnection to a part of the Mediterranean where I spent a lot of time in my childhood.
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So we found there a wonderful hotel and we met a Yeah, fantastic.
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So
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you run a Berlin harmonica school.
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We'll get into that a little bit later.
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But yeah, nice taste there of some of the courses that you run.
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So I believe you started out on harmonica around age 13.
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So what got you into the harmonica?
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The harmonica was very present early on.
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My dad listened a lot to blues music and I literally grew up with that music surrounding me and us.
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And my uncle, his brother, he played harmonica.
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I saw him very often on stage, hopping, jumping on stage and joining for a session or playing with his band.
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This was very inspiring from a very early age on.
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This instrument in particular, music in general, was very present in our home.
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But the harmonica as a small port magical powerful instrument was very very present yeah with 13 I decided why not give it a try and I asked my uncle if he would be willing to show me the first steps into the harmonica world immediately catched me
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fantastic yeah and so it was your first instrument was it the harmonica
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i would say yes although i was trying to build my own guitar a year earlier but i did not succeed in building a proper sounding guitar so uh i gave that up and change it to the harmonica yeah
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but now you do play what i think some bass and some piano and yes
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i played later on for a couple of years in one band in particular a lot of i played a lot upright bass which was a great experience and later on i of course, started a little studying piano.
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It was never the intention of becoming a piano player.
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I mean, piano is, I think, one of the best instruments for harmonica players for studying and for understanding musical relationships, not only for a harmonica player, I mean, for any instrumentalist or for any musician.
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I mean, that's the most visual instrument where you can really see what's going on.
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And in a time where I had the urge to really dig a little deeper into musical theory, piano was very important and still is important for me yeah
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so you started playing out 13 was this was diatonic i take it with the blues
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i started with diatonic yes that's my instrument i play the most i started playing chromatic 2004 which is 18 years now and i love them both now i almost play more chromatic in the recent days and years so But I think that the diatonic is my first love and it will stay.
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Although I'm very excited in getting to know the chromatic better and better from day to day, it's a lovely addition.
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Things you struggled or you're struggling with a diatonic, you can finally easily play on the chromatic and vice versa.
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And I think it's good to be aware of both possibilities and the similarities and the differences of these instruments.
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It's certainly an addition of expressive possibilities in certain situations.
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yeah
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yeah so that was your motivation for picking up the chromatic was it to you know to see what else it could do or there wasn't a specific song you were trying to learn or anything like that to or style of music
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no i remember the initial reason why i really decided to to start chromatic was a studio job where i was asked to play over an a flat jazz tune a solo and i was really struggling to do that with a diatonic harmonica although i i could i could play the changes I could create some interesting idea over it but it just didn't sound right or I could not sound bring it to sound in the way I wanted it and I realized that this would have been the perfect situation if I would have played the chromatic in that time but I did not play played it and actually the next day I bought a chromatic and started practicing seriously because yeah I mean I love to play the latonic and there are certainly possibilities of playing it chromatically and in other keys and expanding your technique and musical knowledge that you can master a lot.
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But sound-wise, it's not always the option you want to have.
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Sometimes it's just a struggle against the instrument and you can hear that and sometimes not appropriate.
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And in these cases, I prefer the chromatic then.
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Yeah, sure.
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Yeah.
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Good to have both.
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Yeah.
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What about the people you listen to inspiring you?
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Yeah, I mean, I think you could divide it in harmonica players and non-harmonica players.
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So one of the earliest memories I have of one of the first fascinations or moments when I was really fascinated from the sound and from someone really touching me with his playing that was Kent Heat playing with John Lee Hooker on this album, Who Can Heat.
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Yeah.
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Alan Wilson on the whole album is just fantastic how he's flying and navigating his instrument.
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You do a version of On the Road again, don't you?
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On the Road
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Yes, yes, yes.
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It's kind of like a homage to that period.
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Yes, it's a song which was very present in that time when I started playing harmonica on the road again.
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Alan Wilson was one of the first inspirations, but later on, when the first time I heard Howard Levy with, for example, Trio Globo with a cello player and percussion player, Glenn Veles.
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Thank you.
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fantastic album where I for the first time was touched by the possibilities using the harmonica outside of the blues world that really opened up imaginations of like wow there are so many things which can be done yeah but I have to say that I listened very very very much to harmonica players from all kinds of genres and at some time I almost stopped listening to it and focused more on listening to music in general I was not avoiding listening to harmonica players but I was more interested in finding my sound or finding how it all
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works.
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But I mean one thing which will pick up when we talk through your recordings is that you certainly like to play different genres don't you and get away from the harmonica just being a blues instrument and you know maybe jazz for chromatic so that's a big part of that I guess yeah what you've just said there you know finding your own sort of sound in those different genres where there isn't you know you generally wouldn't hear any harmonica so any particular instruments besides harmonica that you've tried to emulate on the harmonica?
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So many I would have I have difficulties to name just one.
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I think the way would be, I'm impressed by a sound, I'm impressed by a player, and what is the instrument he plays that is inspiring that moment.
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It can be an oud, it can be a clarinet, it can be Ravi Shankar's guitar playing.
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I mean, it's so many fantastic players and music out there.
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If you find something which really touches you and inspires you, then it's the way to go and to follow.
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I was not limiting myself to only listening to one instrument.
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I think what drove me and still drives me is the curiosity in finding sounds and ways of expressions, musical expressions, which are unique.
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And I was for many years really investigating like in libraries or later on in internet, trying to find in different blog spots from, for example, one blog spot, it was called awesome tapes from Africa.
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And there was a guy traveling in Africa and collecting from all the markets the cassettes and digitalizing them this was a very inspiring huge resource of very unique recordings and and inspirations for me for african music and rhythms and sounds and there you really could find treasures you normally would not hear if you certainly not in any mainstream radio or or other platform
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yeah so it's probably a good time then to start looking through the your recording career so again very varied and played with lots of different people quite often in duos it's not always, but is a duo something you favor?
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Certainly small setups, duos, trios are my favorite.
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Partly it's a practical decision of if you want to travel and play not only just once, if you want to play regularly, it's of course a matter of organization, travel costs and so on.
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But besides that, musically speaking, I like very much to have space in music and the more instruments and more player are in a band, the less the space is getting lost.
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And harmonica sounds, I think, the most beautiful if you give it proper space to shine.
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And if it's not played too loud, I love to play with amplifier, but it can lose all the subtleties, all the little nuances the instrument can carry in imitating or creating atmosphere and emotion.
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And I used to play in the past much more electric.
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Recent years, I switched more and more to acoustic setups and acoustic playing because of the richness of the instrument, which can get lost when you play exclusively or over an amplifier.
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Okay, so let's talk then again through your recording.
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So the first one I've got you down is playing with Lars Vegas and the Love Gloves.
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You recorded three albums with these.
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Yeah.
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Yes, it was my first band when I moved to Berlin.
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We met at a blues festival as a blues competition in Dresden.
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I was playing with a colleague of mine, Peter Krause, a Kusti Blues finger-picking master from South Germany.
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And we played as a duo.
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And Lars Vegas and the Love Gloves, they played as a trio after us.
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They won the first prize of the jury.
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prize of the audience and so it was natural somehow that when we figured out that we both live in Berlin to meet and to to get to know each other and their bass player was leading the band and I was looking for a band so that was also natural somehow to join the band as a bass player and that's how my bass career started.
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I had 10 days to learn to play the upright bass and they gave me a bass and they introduced me to a string instrument which I've never played before and practiced for 10 days and then we started playing and touring and because I was actually a harmonic player and they knew if they saw me as a harmonica player we decided to swap and switch instruments according to different songs and the singer and guitar player was a was the best upright bass player of us all then the drummer was a upright bass player so all three of us played bass and we changed during the set and there I switched between bass and harmonica that was the first band yeah
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great yeah you did
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well to learn the bass in 10 days of course you cannot expect from yourself any virtuosity in 10 days but I learned basic accompaniment basically lines and the forms I had to learn to slap and grooves and so on and after 10 days we had the first concert and we played a lot so I experienced definitely that playing that's cool in a way I mean if you play on the stage and if you're playing in front of an audience there is no joking you really have to concentrate and do your job but it was fun
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So I often talk about and you mentioned already about how the piano you know it's got a lot of similarities with the harmonica and often talk about how you know different instruments inform your harmonica playing so what is it about the bass that's helped your harmonica playing you think absolutely
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like with languages if you pick up learning a language it creates a certain new aspect in your personality and or touches it and learning a new instrument is similar you are learning new tools of expression you're maybe becoming more aware of a musical aspect you were not aware before and for me with the bass it was exactly like is that until then, I was only playing melody and some accompaniment rhythm in the background, but switching to such an important role like the bass, that was really, really altering my knowledge and my perspective or my vision for music.
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Understanding the connection between rhythm and harmony and that bass is really the instrument which is holding everything together and the responsibility you have in a band timing-wise and also harmony-wise.
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It's just a huge responsibility and I was not aware of that.
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Nobody told me that.
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I realized it literally on the first song, on the first gig.
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In the first couple of rounds, when I realized, oh my God, if I drag or if I'm pushing the tempo, I'm responsible for it.
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I started really sweating and that was the point where I realized, oh my God, now I cannot step back.
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I have to stick to it and then do my best not to play wrong or create chaos on stage.
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Bass is a fantastic instrument in terms of understanding rhythmical function, groove-based, listening, hearing, playing.
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Later on, in many years in my teaching or in my classes, I refer very much to the bass, listening to the bass, picking up bass lines as a starting point and learning to play bass lines as an improvisational starting point and so on.
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So somehow my early experience with learning the bass definitely had a great impact in my musical understanding.
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Absolutely, yeah.
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And so the next outfit we've got you down with is with the chamber music ensemble.
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Is it Pia Cordia?
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Oh, yeah.
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Pia Cordia
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Fantastic music and very different from the blues band that you've just talked about playing with.
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So how did you get with them and what about learning how to play chamber music on the harmonica?
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That's also an interesting story.
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In that period, I was...
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very interested in accordion.
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And I had accordion at my home and I practiced accordion for some time and I wanted to bring it to the next level.
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So I was looking for an accordion teacher in my neighborhood.
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I happened to meet Gerhard Schieve, who's the ensemble leader of Pia Accordia and who was the leader of that band.
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And he was recommended to me as an accordion teacher.
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And I came to the first lesson, first class, and I He introduced me to the first basic ideas of accordion.
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I could play a little, not too well.
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I mean, I was a beginner, but self-taught.
00:19:21.698 --> 00:20:24.709
couple of things but he introduced me to proper technique to proper playing technique and so I repeated that for I think two or three lessons and after the third lesson I realized oh my god playing upright play bass playing diatonic harmonica at that time I was practicing a little singing playing piano and now another instrument accordion I realized that is going to be maybe too much I realized that is maybe not going to happen in this life and so I told him thank you so much for your time and dedication but i think it's not for me and and somehow we we talked and and and he knew that i'm a harmonica player and then we jammed i think we jammed after the third lesson we played a little and um and he offered me after that little session he offered me if i would be interested in becoming uh the first soloist of that ensemble so that the ensemble would that he would write arrangements and compositions around the harmonica I was very excited because I've never played in such a quintet ensemble setup.
00:20:24.970 --> 00:20:26.250
And I immediately said yes.
00:20:26.510 --> 00:20:31.357
And we started practicing for one and a half years and arranging everything.
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We had a couple of concerts, did a recording.
00:20:50.817 --> 00:20:53.260
And so is this on diatonic, chromatic or both?
00:20:53.661 --> 00:21:00.229
Mostly on the diatonic, although I played two or three songs chromatic, but mostly diatonic.
00:21:00.449 --> 00:21:01.711
You mentioned Peter Crowe earlier on.
00:21:01.730 --> 00:21:06.236
You played with Peter Crowe, who's, as you say, a great blues player, finger picker and singer.
00:21:06.296 --> 00:21:08.778
So is this one of your earliest acts as well?
00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:15.326
He was definitely my first blues guitar partner when I was living in Munich still.
00:21:15.346 --> 00:21:17.950
piano plays
00:21:26.306 --> 00:21:26.685
Hey!
00:21:27.394 --> 00:21:27.773
What
00:21:30.817 --> 00:21:39.884
was fascinating was our difference in approaches because back then I was very much listening to modern blues players.
00:21:40.045 --> 00:21:46.611
I was fascinated by Mark Ford, Andy Just and Sugar Blue and fast players, technical players.
00:21:47.371 --> 00:21:53.977
And he was into country blues from the 20s and 30s and Jazz Gilliam and all the greats from that period.
00:21:54.277 --> 00:22:05.653
And he was a huge collector and he is a huge collector of document record series and had all of the vinyls and shellacs and everything, a huge library of that old music.
00:22:05.813 --> 00:22:08.195
And that was so far away at that time for me.
00:22:08.215 --> 00:22:16.469
I really had difficulties to listen through the noise, which I was not used to of that old recordings.
00:22:16.788 --> 00:22:22.397
But after some time, I realized what treasure lays there and what the origins are.
00:22:22.529 --> 00:22:37.048
which are captured from that time, that really opened up somehow the true depth of that music and the richness of that culture and varieties which blues has.
00:22:37.289 --> 00:22:45.039
And I realized how little I knew back then from all the different influences and cultural aspects of blues music.
00:22:45.339 --> 00:22:47.824
And you did harmonica and guitar workshops together.
00:22:47.844 --> 00:22:48.904
Is that something you still do?
00:22:49.445 --> 00:22:50.126
We started
00:22:50.146 --> 00:22:52.210
the previous mentioned...
00:22:52.513 --> 00:22:57.237
harmonica workshops or harmonica guitar play workshops in Tuscany, in Italy.
00:22:57.257 --> 00:22:59.367
I did two years...
00:23:00.034 --> 00:23:01.836
teach with him and gave a workshop.
00:23:02.016 --> 00:23:07.760
And from that on, I decided to make my own series in Croatia.
00:23:07.921 --> 00:23:14.606
And we do not play regularly together anymore, which doesn't mean that we will not play maybe one day again.
00:23:14.727 --> 00:23:22.653
But in the recent years, I'm so much focused on the school's work and my projects that I'm simply focused more on these things.
00:23:23.213 --> 00:23:26.977
But we're still friends and in contact regularly.
00:23:26.997 --> 00:23:30.861
And then Little Sam Ludd is another G or you've been in.
00:23:30.921 --> 00:23:34.183
So I think Little Sam is from New Orleans.
00:23:34.744 --> 00:23:37.048
Little Sam is not actually a guy.
00:23:37.107 --> 00:23:39.931
Little Sam Lute is a word play.
00:23:39.951 --> 00:23:41.972
It's Ryan Donoghue and me.
00:23:42.073 --> 00:23:49.361
Ryan is from New Orleans and we met 2001 in Berlin and played in many, many bands together.
00:23:49.661 --> 00:23:53.785
He was sometime also a band member of the Lars Vegas and the Love Gloves.
00:23:54.365 --> 00:24:01.153
We played in many, many different projects together, sometimes only for a couple of concerts or for a tour.
00:24:01.693 --> 00:24:11.046
In 2009, we recorded an album which is actually still not published and I'm really considering to publish it now after almost 13 years.
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000
...
00:24:26.018 --> 00:24:30.771
With Ryan, we came up with this idea, Little Sam Lut.
00:24:30.912 --> 00:24:35.605
Sam Lut is actually the meaning in Serbian, I am crazy.
00:24:35.886 --> 00:24:38.795
So the translation would be, I am a little crazy.
00:24:39.115 --> 00:24:40.961
Yeah, we recorded...
00:24:41.281 --> 00:24:46.148
That album, which is not published, but it will be soon, we played in the Sahara together.
00:24:46.169 --> 00:24:54.820
We played for a Sahrawian refugee camp music school opening with the most famous Sahrawian singer, Mariam Hassan.
00:25:03.993 --> 00:25:09.523
Music That's
00:25:09.544 --> 00:25:09.844
a great one.
00:25:09.864 --> 00:25:13.808
And again, a good example of the different styles you're playing with that outfit.
00:25:14.289 --> 00:25:14.710
Yeah, I
00:25:14.750 --> 00:25:24.422
mean, the harmonica is capable, quite capable of integrating and delivering all that emotion in so many different styles.
00:25:24.662 --> 00:25:28.125
And I think that is what amazes many people.
00:25:28.226 --> 00:25:32.269
People, when they hear and witness it in that moment, that it's possible.
00:25:32.390 --> 00:25:36.373
And sometimes I'm asked, what instrument do I actually play?
00:25:36.432 --> 00:25:43.138
Because people cannot believe that it's a regular diatonic harmonica, like from their grandpa.
00:25:43.980 --> 00:25:50.705
But that's, I think, one of the greatest strengths we have with our instrument, that it's powerful and expressive.
00:25:51.086 --> 00:25:51.286
Yeah.
00:25:51.586 --> 00:25:54.868
And then next one, another duo, I think, with Branko...
00:25:55.148 --> 00:25:56.109
Branko Galuic, yeah.
00:25:56.289 --> 00:25:58.192
Branko Galuic is from creation.
00:25:58.192 --> 00:26:40.102
and he used to live for a couple of years here in Berlin he lives now in Paris and is quite successful there we recorded one album in my sleeping room actually not living room sleeping room that was the sound the best and I was getting more and more involved in recording home recording we recorded there the album and we had also a duo the first time where I was coming closer to my dream in in introducing the harmonica into Balkan music and mixing it with Balkan blues, blues Balkan and everything in between.
00:26:40.142 --> 00:26:50.397
There was a great playground in checking out what's possible and how can I make it.
00:27:01.250 --> 00:27:02.073
the Balkan music.
00:27:02.334 --> 00:27:03.336
How do you approach that?
00:27:03.357 --> 00:27:08.556
Are you playing particular scales of that music consciously or are you just playing that fit?
00:27:09.281 --> 00:27:16.008
If you want to play in a certain genre, not only Balkan music in any genre, I mean, it is literally like a language.
00:27:16.067 --> 00:27:22.333
You have to get to know a little the language you want to speak or the genre you want to play there.
00:27:22.373 --> 00:27:29.419
Every musical genre has its particularities, special rhythms, grooves, ways of expressions.
00:27:29.619 --> 00:27:36.465
If you want to step into and sound authentic or respect the tradition, you really have to know what's going on.
00:27:36.625 --> 00:27:40.930
And in Balkan music in particular, it's of course, about scales.
00:27:41.109 --> 00:27:46.715
It's about rhythms, a lot of odd rhythms, 7-8, 9-8, 11-8.
00:27:46.796 --> 00:27:53.143
And it's also about a particular way of improvising, which is very connected to Arabic music.
00:27:53.502 --> 00:27:59.410
So there are many, many little things you have to know to navigate through your style or in Balkan music.
00:27:59.930 --> 00:28:01.991
Ornamentation is a huge thing.
00:28:02.333 --> 00:28:11.946
And there you have to figure out, for example, with the diatonic harmonica, certain things are just limited and or the limitation starts with the ornamentation.
00:28:11.967 --> 00:28:12.828
That's what I wanted to say.
00:28:12.868 --> 00:28:20.848
For example, with a chromatic harmonica, you have the lever where you can trill and change between a half step very easily.
00:28:20.868 --> 00:28:24.176
On the diatonic harmonica, you cannot do that.
00:28:24.642 --> 00:28:25.363
so easily.
00:28:25.762 --> 00:28:36.051
But what you can do is if you switch, for example, to a position where you have a lot of overblows, you can then use overblow bendings to play ornamentations.
00:28:36.392 --> 00:28:47.321
And that's something I really was working on and I was fascinated with that new aspect of diatonic harmonica playing to adjust it to the needs of the genre, so to say.
00:28:47.501 --> 00:28:52.205
And it sounds great that, you know, the Balkan music, that style music does sound fantastic in harmonica too, doesn't it?
00:28:52.266 --> 00:28:55.750
So yeah, I think we're all envious and would love to play a bit of that stuff.
00:28:55.789 --> 00:28:57.472
So yeah, thanks for the insights there.
00:28:58.855 --> 00:29:02.040
Here's a quick word from the podcast sponsor, Blows Me Away Productions.
00:29:04.664 --> 00:29:07.048
Hey folks, this is Charlie Musselwhite.
00:29:07.068 --> 00:29:14.362
If you're in an amplified tone like I am, the best and only place to start is a microphone from Blows Me Away Productions.
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Check them out at blowsmeaway.com.
00:29:17.606 --> 00:29:19.069
You know I ain't lyin'.
00:29:20.417 --> 00:29:23.941
A couple more outfits you played with then, just to finish off this section.
00:29:23.980 --> 00:29:27.325
So you play with the Trio Franulic, is it?
00:29:27.384 --> 00:29:29.467
Which is an outfit you met in Croatia?
00:29:30.007 --> 00:29:33.270
Yeah, it's Trio Franulic Csulap Jovanovic.
00:29:33.471 --> 00:29:35.873
It's a very hard band name to pronounce.
00:29:36.294 --> 00:29:37.914
Franulic Csulap Jovanovic.
00:29:38.336 --> 00:29:39.596
We recorded two albums.
00:29:39.876 --> 00:29:41.459
Put was the first one.
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