Clint Hoover interview

01:33 - Originally from Minneapolis, now living in Pittsburg, but most of his music career spent around the twin cities of St Paul and Minneapolis

02:08 - First turned onto the harmonica when saw James Cotton playing with The Muddy Waters band

03:17 - Started playing diatonic harmonica a few years later at age 17, and blues harmonica was Clint’s entry point

04:11 - First learnt by playing by ear, along to records and had the Tony Glover harmonica book

04:48 - Started playing in a duo in school

05:02 - Picked up the chromatic from the advice of a bassist playing some piano to Clint

06:04 - Was still mainly blues-based originals when Clint started playing the chromatic

06:51 - In 1987 attended the Parsons Jazz and Contemporary Music Program in New York

07:12 - Decided to become a musician after completing Art college, learning music theory and played a lot of guitar to get work in bands

07:40 - Then transferred knowledge of guitar to the chromatic harmonica and started playing some jazz

08:10 - Started teaching harmonica at a music school in Minneapolis, where he met a lot of musicians

08:42 - Had lessons with Robert Bonfiglio while in New York

09:09 - Tried to get some lessons with Toots Thielemans but that didn’t work out

09:25 - Tried to apply Bonfiglio’s corner switching technique to Bebop, but couldn’t apply this too well to improvisation

10:09 - Is corner switching more suited to music reading?

10:33 - Mainly uses puckering when playing jazz on the chromatic and tongue blocking when playing diatonic

10:58 - Clint took private lessons with Robert Bonfiglio as part of the jazz course as that didn’t have any harmonica tutors

11:44 - Only studied on the jazz course in New York for one year due to the finances

12:14 - Still plays guitar for composition and applying musical knowledge from that to the harmonica

13:02 - The value of playing a chordal instrument when playing a mainly single note instrument like the harmonica

13:28 - Also a great diatonic player where he was inspired to learn overblows after seeing Howard Levy perform

16:01 - Clint chooses to play chromatic on most of jazz playing as likes the dedicated reed for each note

17:13 - Uses diatonic in the jazz genre more for jazz blues and jazz soul

17:24 - Still practises overblows on the diatonic and remains fascinated in transferring chromatic harmonica knowledge to the diatonic

18:13 - Clint believes the chromatic can be as expressive as the chromatic, with great bending capability on the chromatic too

19:09 - Spent a lot of time on developing expressiveness on chromatic, making it sound close to a diatonic

19:26 - Hasn’t removed the wind savers to make the chromatic more bendable and plays a standard tuned chromatic in the key of C only, except for some recording purposes

20:52 - Plays a range of different styles of music, from pre-war to modern jazz, to rock and pop

21:52 - Some of Clint’s favourite harmonica players, starting with Les Thompson: the unheralded West coast version of Toots

22:07 - Irish player Eddie Clarke and Clint played some Irish music at one point

23:16 - Clint is a fan of pre-war harmonica and mentions Blues Birdhead, supposedly the first person to have recorded an overblow and played like a jazz trumpeter

25:12 - Rhythm Willie is another favourite pre-war harmonica player of Clint’s

25:40 - Clint played in a jug band (The Sugar Kings) where he recorded some pre-war style harmonica and got to a good level playing that

26:50 - Horn players are a major source of inspiration for Clint and the Charlie Parker Omnibook

28:44 - First album released in 1997: Dream of the Serpent Dog

29:19 - Recorded an album before the one in 1997, with rock band The Fontanas in 1989 with that album eventually released in 2023

30:31 - The Fontanas album has Clint’s hard driving chromatic harmonica featured strongly on the songs

30:56 - The playing on the Fontanas album is pre-Blues Traveller, which has a similar sound

31:50 - Plays hooks on the chromatic on the Fontanas songs

32:11 - Overlaid saxophone and harp on the Fontanas songs

32:19 - Why the Fontanas album has been released 34 years later

33:38 - Dream of the Serpent Dog album, mainly acoustic jazz with some World Music too

34:24 - Snake Oil song is in ‘second flat’ (as per the Howard Levy system)

34:57 - Album with Bill Geezy & The Promise Breakers is more pop based

35:41 - Clint is better known as a chromatic player but he has released a lot of recordings on diatonic

36:26 - Album with Papa John Kolstad (who Mike Turk also recorded with)

37:36 - Released album as a band leader: The Clint Hoover Trio

38:55 - Two jazz albums with a band called Eastside, in 2009 and 2014

40:13 - In 2021 played rock harmonica with a band called Jimmy Mac & The Attack after moving to Pittsburgh

40:52 - Got into playing amplified harp and using effects in this band

41:14 - This album recorded ‘live’ in the studio, bringing a freshness to the sound which Clint likes

41:36 - About using the chromatic in a rock setting, which is not heard very often, and plays organ lines on the diatonic

42:50 - Likes to use a Hohner CX12 for amplified chromatic playing

43:10 - Done quite a lot of session work, including a TV news theme

43:40 - Has recorded some material for harmonica instruction books but hasn’t released his own

44:00 - Done a lot of teaching of harmonica and has own methodology

44:25 - Ten minute question

45:13 - Practise regime includes lots of scale and arpeggio work, as well as transposing and practising repertoire

46:10 - Still practises a lot, now at the age of 68 he thinks it keeps him young and what Dizzy Gillespie said about practising

47:21 - Diatonic of choice is the Hohner Golden Melody, and has lots of customised ones in compromised tuning so chords sound good

47:55 - Customisers he uses include Joe Spiers, Joel Andersson and Tom Halchak

48:42 - Advantages of custom harps but still has to set offset to own liking due to playing style

49:24 - Chromatics are high maintenance and a lot of that work has to be done by Clint himself

49:41 - Has lots of different types of chromatic

49:50 - Uses the older model of the Golden Melody and also likes the Hohner Rocket

50:13 - Favourite chromatic is the Hohner 64X and has customised versions from Will’s Make

50:36 - Uses CX12 for amplified work on chromatic

50:41 - Uses a 12 hole more these days, previously using only 16 hole chromatics

51:01 - When playing with The Fontanas used a Hohner CBH 16 hole chromatic with the slots on them making them good to use amplified

51:52 - Has an Eastop brass comb chromatic and Suzuki Fabulous

52:16 - Uses Richter tuned diatonics and standard tuned chromatics

53:01 - Amplification: did play acoustically for a long time and the dynamic range of the diatonic

54:28 - Returned to amplified playing in recent times once moved to Pittsburgh

54:38 - Main amps of choice is a Fender Princeton Blackface Reverb

54:55 - Has a custom Megatone amp

55:21 - For jazz plays through a powered PA speaker through a cupped mic for a clean sound

55:47 - Mics include an Audit Fireball and a Sennheiser 441, a Bulletini, but doesn’t use a lot of bullet mics

57:24 - Future plans includes getting out playing around Pittsburgh, some teaching and is working on a follow-up album to Dream of the Serpent Dog