Oct. 11, 2024

Jim Zeller interview

Jim Zeller joins me on episode 121.
Jim is from Montreal, Canada, and first starting playing harmonica at age twelve after stealing one from a school friend. He ran away from home at age fifteen and learnt harmonica as he hitch-hiked around North America.
Jim has a very distinctive energetic style of playing on both the diatonic and chromatic harmonica. He developed this style by emulating guitar riffs and the percussive elements of Indian music.
He has played with and supported some famous blues names, appeared in a Bob Dylan movie and has had a stellar career in the Canadian blues scene, being nominated for Maple Blues awards and appearing at the Montreal Jazz Festival over thirty times.

Links:
Jim's website:
https://jimzeller.wixsite.com/jimzeller

Yonberg harmonicas:
https://www.yonberg-harmonica.com/en

Videos:
Fright Train:
https://youtu.be/ITftta0SXRY?si=pjJyN2ChsFPCCsds

The Man With The Harmonica:
https://youtu.be/fcHhRSIMSzU?si=MJJuVgbA3Dsc6Ode

Playing The Godfather live at the Montreal Jazz Festival:
https://youtu.be/ajypG_32ij8

Wild Life:
https://youtu.be/7Dr2J2CNbak?si=e38mCvAppGPqsItp

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
--------------------------------
Blue Moon Harmonicas: https://bluemoonharmonicas.com

Support the show

01:31 - Jim is based in Montreal, Canada

01:36 - Speaks English and French, but plays the harmonica in French

01:49 - Started playing harmonica age 12, after ‘stealing’ a harmonica from a friend

03:57 - Ran away from home age 15 after problems with father, and learnt music and the harmonica during this year and a half

04:24 - Lots of travelling hitch-hiking, which was common in the early 1970s

04:44 - Joined up with a hippy gang who had a circus, there was a blues musician there who taught Jim some stuff

05:50 - Hitch-hiked to Alaska and was sitting with Indians on the Yukon river when he heard that Jimi Hendrix had died

07:30 - Jim has started writing a book about his life and adventures

08:02 - Jim wanted to be the ‘Jimi Hendrix of the harmonica’ and started using effects pedals

08:50 - First effects used was an Echoplex pedal

09:14 - Worked on harmonica to make it sound like a guitar, to fit in with the bands played with

10:21 - Early influences were the greats such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Little Walter and James Cotton

10:53 - Did tours with Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon

10:58 - Carey Bell was a mentor to Jim

11:28 - Using effects has contributed to Jim’s aim of becoming the ‘Jimi Hendrix of the harmonica’

12:32 - Other influences guitar led bands including Led Zeppelin and Cream

12:49 - Had always sung but became lead singer and lead the band

14:41 - Has a unique approach to the harmonica with varied genres with generally an undercurrent of rock blues

15:13 - Started playing with Alan Gerber from the late 1970s

16:07 - Jim moved to New York in 1977 at the beginning of the punk scene

16:16 - Played sessions as a sideman, including with Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush

16:57 - Would play more or less the same harmonica parts now as he did when he recorded them in the late 1970s

17:31 - Wanted to play in a unique way, and not the typical blues riffs, but to re-invent the instrument

18:03 - Appears in the Bob Dylan movie, Reynaldo and Clara

20:13 - Played songs with Joni Mitchell

21:19 - First album released under name was Cards on the Table, in 1979

25:10 - Cards On The Table was recorded with Alan Gerber but was released under Jim’s name

27:11 - Fire To The Wire album from 1995 featured the great chromatic instrumental, The Godfather theme

27:19 - Has appeared at the Montreal Jazz festival thirty-two times

28:11 - Jim first started playing the chromatic in his teens after seeing Larry Adler on television

29:19 - Sent Larry Adler him a demo tape, and Larry replied

29:58 - Jim felt he had to learn chromatic to be a complete harmonica player

30:10 - How the chromatic differs from the diatonic

30:47 - Has worked especially hard on chromatic since the pandemic

31:03 - What Larry Adler said in his letter

31:25 - Use of the 16 hole for cello like parts

31:58 - Chromatic can play any melody you hear, which diatonic can’t quite manage

33:07 - Blues From Another Planet album from 2019 has a version of The Man With The Harmonica played on chromatic

34:09 - How to use the chromatic in a rock ’n roll band situation by using the drive from diatonic playing on chromatic

35:38 - Carey Bell’s use of the chromatic isn’t just third position

36:44 - Jim’s favourite three chromatic players are Larry Adler, Toots Thielemans and Steve Wonder

37:41 - Jim’s diatonic playing was highly influenced by the percussive style of Indian music

40:08 - The harmonica is an instrument of hyperventilation

40:19 - Teaches his students to always leave a reserve of air

41:25 - Most players neglect the top end of the harmonica, so Jim has always worked hard on that

42:05 - Jim doesn’t use overblows as he plays chromatic for the ‘missing’ notes on diatonic

42:23 - Jim uses all ten holes of the diatonic

43:34 - Ten minute question

44:09 - Playing popular songs on the diatonic to appeal to a younger audience

45:45 - Harmonicas of choice: Suzuki SCX 12 and 16 hole chromatics

46:31 - Used some diatonics from a company in France called Yonberg, where you can change the harmonica reedplates very easily

47:50 - Likes Suzuki Bluesmaster diatonics

49:02 - Plays many different positions

49:25 - Embouchre

49:36 - Jim’s comping is very percussive

50:28 - Wrote a horn part to the song Bad Girl on harmonica

51:38 - Tongue blocking on diatonic gives impression of a brass section

51:49 - A saxophone combined with octaves on harmonica make it sound like three instruments

52:21 - Uses a wireless Sennheiser mic

52:43 - Pedal board contains distortion, chorus then octave pedal into a Boss copy of the Roland Space echo

54:21 - Doesn’t use amps on the road, although does use amps in the studio

54:30 - Sings into same mic as uses for harmonica

54:52 - Has used a green bullet mic previously

55:40 - Mic of choice in studio is SM57 which gives good bite on harmonica

WEBVTT

00:00:01.026 --> 00:00:03.088
Jim Zeller joins me on episode 121.

00:00:05.049 --> 00:00:11.237
Jim is from Montreal, Canada, and first started playing harmonica at age 12 after stealing one from a school friend.

00:00:12.098 --> 00:00:16.702
He ran away from home at age 15 and learned harmonica as he hitchhiked around North America.

00:00:18.204 --> 00:00:24.170
Jim has a very distinctive, energetic style of playing on both the diatonic and chromatic harmonica.

00:00:24.210 --> 00:00:29.696
He developed this style by emulating guitar riffs and the percussive elements of Indian music.

00:00:30.722 --> 00:00:45.024
He has played with and supported some famous blues names, appeared in a Bob Dylan movie, and has had a stellar career in the Canadian blues scene, being nominated for Maple Blues Awards and appearing at the Montreal Jazz Festival over 30 times.

00:00:46.125 --> 00:00:48.569
This podcast is sponsored by Zeidel Harmonicas.

00:00:49.009 --> 00:00:58.344
Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.zeidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Zeidel Harmonicas.

00:01:00.289 --> 00:01:00.990
Bye.

00:01:28.578 --> 00:01:37.492
Well, actually,

00:01:37.572 --> 00:01:39.734
I speak English a bit better than French.

00:01:40.396 --> 00:01:42.159
I usually make a joke when I'm playing.

00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:47.287
Even if I sing a lot in English, I always play harmonica in French.

00:01:48.909 --> 00:01:49.469
Very good.

00:01:49.730 --> 00:01:52.634
So I believe he started playing harmonica at the age of 12.

00:01:52.894 --> 00:01:54.195
There's a legendary

00:01:54.316 --> 00:01:54.835
story.

00:01:55.216 --> 00:01:59.783
I was singing in little bands in Sherbrooke, Quebec, not far from here.

00:02:00.242 --> 00:02:01.203
And I was going to school.

00:02:01.504 --> 00:02:08.212
I went to this kid's friend at school's house for lunch, you know.

00:02:08.693 --> 00:02:11.276
And when I went up to his room, there was a bunch of harmonicas.

00:02:11.616 --> 00:02:13.340
And we were listening to albums.

00:02:13.699 --> 00:02:18.325
And as my friend went downstairs, I put one of the harmonicas in my pocket.

00:02:18.978 --> 00:02:22.967
And then eventually that's, the rest is history.

00:02:23.127 --> 00:02:33.193
But what is funny is this particular person that I hadn't seen in like 40 years, my son, I got him down through the internet and through Facebook.

00:02:33.602 --> 00:02:35.144
He got back in touch with me.

00:02:35.163 --> 00:02:37.766
He says, I've been following your career, Jim, for so long.

00:02:38.367 --> 00:02:39.729
He says, well, I have news for you.

00:02:40.570 --> 00:02:41.953
I gave you that harmonica.

00:02:41.992 --> 00:02:42.813
You didn't steal it.

00:02:43.215 --> 00:02:49.323
I said, well, it's much better that we keep the sexier story that I stole my first harmonica.

00:02:49.903 --> 00:02:55.811
But getting to answer the question, I started using it.

00:02:55.871 --> 00:02:57.614
I started practicing and playing it.

00:02:58.018 --> 00:03:06.909
In those days, you wanted to learn the riffs, but this was like put the needle on the record and take it off and put it back on, finally learn the riff, you know.

00:03:23.042 --> 00:03:26.568
Yeah, so it's a great blues story that you stole your first harmonica.

00:03:26.587 --> 00:03:32.478
And I think similarly as well, I believe you ran away at age 15 from home in a similar sort of blues vein.

00:03:32.979 --> 00:03:37.646
Basically, you know, it was kind of a troubled atmosphere at my house.

00:03:37.667 --> 00:03:43.376
My father was a heavy drinker, so it was kind of a violent situation.

00:03:43.436 --> 00:03:44.237
I had to get away.

00:03:44.638 --> 00:03:48.784
I had two brothers that were older than me, and I took off with a neighbor.

00:03:49.217 --> 00:03:51.962
We headed off to Lake Erie in the Great Lakes.

00:03:52.664 --> 00:03:56.070
The idea was to go there and pick tobacco, make money.

00:03:56.331 --> 00:03:59.056
Eventually, it was a runaway story.

00:03:59.538 --> 00:04:00.378
I just kept going.

00:04:00.659 --> 00:04:01.381
I kept going.

00:04:01.442 --> 00:04:05.088
I kept going for about maybe a year and a half.

00:04:05.128 --> 00:04:09.616
I learned to play music because I was sort of a gypsy spirit.

00:04:09.637 --> 00:04:11.640
The best credit card you can find...

00:04:12.193 --> 00:04:18.903
And when you're just making your way into the world, there's a harmonica, it was like a credit card, you know.

00:04:18.923 --> 00:04:22.048
If you could play good, you would draw positive things.

00:04:22.209 --> 00:04:24.031
So it sort of became that.

00:04:24.692 --> 00:04:26.735
I traveled all over, hitchhiking though.

00:04:26.855 --> 00:04:29.940
In those days, hitchhiking was a common thing.

00:04:29.980 --> 00:04:31.103
It was the hippie days, you know.

00:04:31.583 --> 00:04:32.865
I went all the way down to...

00:04:33.442 --> 00:04:43.574
I eventually hitchhiked my way all across Canada, and I got to Vancouver, and then at one point I tried to cross into the United States, it's Seattle, go through the woods.

00:04:44.255 --> 00:05:00.495
I ended up in Seattle, I ran into this gang, it was sort of a hippie gang, and they had a little circus, and the circus, and one of the guys in the gang, a blues guy, he had a dobro and he played harmonica, so he started showing me riffs and stuff like that.

00:05:00.755 --> 00:05:05.619
I already knew how to play, But it was like a sort of a shortcut, you know.

00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:08.843
By running into this guy, he was really a great player.

00:05:09.283 --> 00:05:10.665
So he taught me a lot of things.

00:05:11.107 --> 00:05:19.939
It was going very well until I was hitchhiking to go back to the bus where I was staying, you know, squatting, basically.

00:05:20.401 --> 00:05:25.829
Got arrested by the police, and they deported me out of Seattle and sent me back to Canada.

00:05:26.389 --> 00:05:28.151
So I tried to get back in.

00:05:28.232 --> 00:05:31.997
It was difficult because it was sort of very police-stated.

00:05:32.225 --> 00:05:34.908
Washington State, which is Seattle West Coast.

00:05:50.565 --> 00:05:57.473
I decided instead of trying to get to my friends in Seattle, I decided to hitchhike up to Alaska.

00:05:58.850 --> 00:06:00.932
Whatever.

00:06:01.273 --> 00:06:02.074
I was hitchhiking.

00:06:02.394 --> 00:06:09.423
So I'd be hitchhiking on the highway, and at one point, I would be hitchhiking on both sides of the road.

00:06:09.742 --> 00:06:12.867
I didn't care whether I'd go north or south.

00:06:13.286 --> 00:06:15.709
I just wanted to get a ride because it was starting to get cold.

00:06:16.851 --> 00:06:19.595
So basically, this was the adventure that was beginning.

00:06:19.634 --> 00:06:24.961
It was wide open because it was a time where the youth, it was hippie days.

00:06:25.122 --> 00:06:33.579
There was peace and love, and it was calm and There were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kids hitchhiking all over the place.

00:06:33.598 --> 00:06:35.783
I don't think we went all the way up to Alaska.

00:06:35.802 --> 00:06:40.432
I remember being in Whitehorse, Yukon, on the side of the Yukon River.

00:06:40.451 --> 00:06:43.557
I remember clearly it was like in September.

00:06:43.577 --> 00:06:46.863
And I was sitting on the side of the river with these Indians.

00:06:46.944 --> 00:06:51.733
I was staying in an old abandoned steamboat from the Gold Rush days.

00:06:52.161 --> 00:07:05.937
but it was an abandoned riverboat on the way up, and I remember it started snowing, it was September, and I was staying with these Indians, you know, because they were all squatting there, basically, and I had a little transistor radio.

00:07:06.619 --> 00:07:11.144
The gang that were there, there was a transistor radio, there was no TV, there was nothing, we had nothing, you know.

00:07:11.603 --> 00:07:27.033
And basically, I heard in the transistor radio, it was like coming in and out, and the great American guitar players, Jimi Hendrix was found dead, so I remember that moment I said, Jimi Hendrix died and I'm sitting by the river.

00:07:27.572 --> 00:07:30.036
So I stayed there, it was quite an adventure.

00:07:30.276 --> 00:07:32.697
I started writing a book recently, so it's coming along.

00:07:33.298 --> 00:07:42.767
It's funny when you talk about stuff like that, what happens is it sort of branches out, it's like a tree, all of a sudden you start seeing, you start drawing in all kinds of things.

00:07:42.807 --> 00:07:52.101
Chronologically, I'm sort of, I can follow myself, knowing what basically happened to a certain extent.

00:07:52.463 --> 00:07:58.475
But being 70 years old, which I just turned on August 7th, means that there's a lot of mileage.

00:08:00.139 --> 00:08:01.101
And the journey goes on.

00:08:01.182 --> 00:08:01.843
Anyway, that's

00:08:02.745 --> 00:08:02.785
it.

00:08:02.824 --> 00:08:08.257
You mentioned Jimi Hendrix there, and so something that you said is that you wanted to be the Jimi Hendrix of the harmonica.

00:08:08.297 --> 00:08:08.637
Yes.

00:08:22.466 --> 00:08:26.632
Was that before you found out he died, or was it that moment by the Yukon River?

00:08:27.675 --> 00:08:31.461
No, I think it basically was just the way that I was using it.

00:08:32.101 --> 00:08:33.485
This was after, I believe.

00:08:33.884 --> 00:08:42.960
But when I came back and I started playing in bands and I was playing electric, I remember I had my first effects, the pedals and so on.

00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:48.470
I remember I was playing, at the time I was playing, I was using a Sun amplifier.

00:08:48.865 --> 00:08:49.908
a guitar head.

00:08:50.067 --> 00:08:52.873
And the first effects that I had was called an Echoplex.

00:08:53.453 --> 00:08:58.442
And an Echoplex is a tape echo, which eventually they made into space echo, which I used over the years.

00:08:58.802 --> 00:09:00.306
I still use delay like that.

00:09:12.265 --> 00:09:25.424
But all of these effects When I joined bands, I started trying, I was basically, there was always bands that were guitar trios in general, and I would be added to that as a singer.

00:09:25.885 --> 00:09:31.052
But as a side band, before I started to being a frontman singer.

00:09:31.533 --> 00:09:37.982
So as a harmonica player, I was always playing guitar-oriented and to become the second guitar player.

00:09:38.423 --> 00:09:53.301
Things like Hey Joe, a lot of the Yardbirds songs, playing basically so much with trios with guitar players, I was basically developing myself as a guitar player on the harmonica.

00:09:53.341 --> 00:10:06.113
So I was playing lots of guitar and using the echo and using different effects I would be able to put the harmonica into the band instead of it just being like riffs and leads.

00:10:06.312 --> 00:10:07.975
It became a part of the band.

00:10:08.315 --> 00:10:09.875
I would play rhythm.

00:10:10.677 --> 00:10:15.760
Basically, I was trying to develop a way to be like the second guitar player in a guitar trio.

00:10:16.481 --> 00:10:21.285
Using effects, it hadn't really been done and exploited a lot at that point.

00:10:21.586 --> 00:10:31.495
My first roots, of course, were like Sonny Williamson, Little Walter, of course, which was the one of the first guys, James Cotton, the blues guys.

00:10:50.114 --> 00:10:53.597
Eventually had a good fortune of playing with a lot of them, you know.

00:10:53.889 --> 00:10:57.720
doing tours and so on, with Muddy Waters, touring with Willie Dixon.

00:10:57.759 --> 00:11:08.830
One of my friends, who was sort of a mentor to me, who sort of took me under his wing, was a great guy, terrific harmonica player, Gary Bell.

00:11:25.025 --> 00:11:28.673
He played with Muddy Waters, but he was with Willie Dickson.

00:11:28.874 --> 00:11:45.606
So I'm sure that in the sense of wanting to become the Jimi Hendrix of the harmonica, to a certain extent I have become that in the sense that I use the effects and electrifying the harmonica in a sense, in a way that I hadn't really heard.

00:12:01.282 --> 00:12:17.445
The reason I was trying to develop it was so that I could integrate my harmonica into a band situation, a power trio, where I would add the harmonica and it wouldn't sound like, I just wouldn't wait and do riffs.

00:12:17.885 --> 00:12:19.528
I could play parts.

00:12:19.808 --> 00:12:29.022
And that basically sort of also evolved into using ideas like horn section type parts, you know.

00:12:29.217 --> 00:12:43.956
So it was a developing, but obviously the thing was the music that inspired me at the time, just because of my age, was those pioneers, those icons.

00:12:44.336 --> 00:12:47.421
We're going back to the Led Zeppelin, we're going back to Cream.

00:12:47.900 --> 00:12:49.844
The Cream was a big influence.

00:12:50.224 --> 00:12:51.806
Jimi Hendrix was a big influence.

00:12:51.905 --> 00:13:24.626
as well so obviously by learning all those riffs and playing with guitar playing like guitar trios as bands I started singing I'd always been singing for a long time but I hadn't really got to the point where I was a lead singer I started developing that much later I'd say at the same time I was still singing all the time when I had the responsibility to put my own act together where I needed to be the front man as a singer, as the harmonica added to it.

00:13:43.061 --> 00:13:54.386
But there was a period of time where I had to The luxury of just being the harmonica player in the band, which I haven't had in, I say, 50 years, I haven't been just the harmonica player.

00:14:10.184 --> 00:14:15.070
Once in a while, somebody asks me to come and sit in with them and play with them, and I do it.

00:14:15.201 --> 00:14:22.192
do a couple of gigs, but of course I get on stage and then all of a sudden I can't hold back.

00:14:22.212 --> 00:14:23.975
I've got to be the tenor of it.

00:14:24.035 --> 00:14:25.037
That's just the way it is.

00:14:25.437 --> 00:14:37.576
But as far as development, for sure the guitar, the Jimi Hendrix guitar sound and a lot of the electric guitar is a great influence in what I do and the sound that I do.

00:14:37.615 --> 00:14:41.341
You can hear it a lot on albums if you listen to my albums.

00:14:41.601 --> 00:14:41.942
Yeah, you've

00:14:41.982 --> 00:14:44.349
got a very unique approach to the harmonica.

00:14:44.428 --> 00:14:52.327
The genres are quite varied, but sort of what you've described mostly as is kind of rock blues and, you know, that hard driving, very energetic style you have.

00:15:09.090 --> 00:15:09.731
Yeah, for sure.

00:15:09.751 --> 00:15:25.107
I would say also there was a, I realized there was been around 1977, I guess around that time, I'd been playing with a keyboard player, a multi-instrumentalist named Alan Gerber.

00:15:41.474 --> 00:15:43.177
He was in a group, an American group.

00:15:43.236 --> 00:15:44.779
They were one of the first super groups.

00:15:44.820 --> 00:15:46.663
They were called Rhinoceros.

00:15:47.345 --> 00:15:48.447
And he was a partner.

00:15:48.506 --> 00:15:49.609
We became a partner.

00:15:49.990 --> 00:15:51.432
So we put together a duo.

00:15:51.852 --> 00:15:55.980
Then he played piano, he played guitar, great singer.

00:15:56.341 --> 00:15:58.365
We were doing duos like that at the time.

00:15:58.817 --> 00:16:02.381
But at one point, he was living in New York and in Montreal.

00:16:02.442 --> 00:16:06.085
I met him in Montreal, but we had a loft in Manhattan.

00:16:06.105 --> 00:16:08.106
So I moved to New York around 77.

00:16:08.128 --> 00:16:15.875
And when I got to New York, it was a time where the beginning of the whole boxing certainly influenced.

00:16:16.235 --> 00:16:21.581
And it's very intriguing because I'll listen to recordings that have been released.

00:16:21.740 --> 00:16:26.066
And let's say things that I've played on studio sessions over the years.

00:16:26.433 --> 00:16:35.914
I listened the other day, somebody sent me a track from an album I played on as an overdub harmonica guest on an album.

00:16:36.336 --> 00:16:41.086
Like, for example, Frank Marino from Mahogany Rush.

00:16:57.378 --> 00:17:03.846
I listened to some of the songs at the studio sessions that I was doing as a harmonica, invited harmonica guest.

00:17:04.066 --> 00:17:19.924
Some of the stuff that I was doing back in, all the way back to 76, 77, 78, I listened to it and I say, I would probably have done the same, almost the same, if they would have called me to do that session today, I would have played almost the same thing.

00:17:20.526 --> 00:17:24.991
And it was sort of a phenomenon at the time because it was this wild kid, you know.

00:17:25.031 --> 00:17:26.773
Nobody really played harmonica like that.

00:17:27.201 --> 00:17:30.386
So I found a way, I tried to cheat things, basically.

00:17:30.467 --> 00:17:41.182
What I was trying to do is I was trying to give myself a way to be not just like a typical cliche blues harmonica riffs here and there.

00:17:41.202 --> 00:17:49.214
I wanted to be in the band, to sort of innovate, reinvent the instrument to a certain extent.

00:18:03.809 --> 00:18:10.597
You mentioned that you were touring with Alan Gerber's part with Duo, and during this time it appeared in a Bob Dylan movie,

00:18:10.998 --> 00:18:11.259
yeah?

00:18:11.278 --> 00:18:13.701
Okay, that was an interesting thing.

00:18:13.721 --> 00:18:16.285
We were performing, I think, in Quebec City.

00:18:17.006 --> 00:18:20.028
We were playing in clubs, you know.

00:18:20.048 --> 00:18:21.770
It was a wild time, you know.

00:18:21.911 --> 00:18:24.094
It was very original.

00:18:24.453 --> 00:18:27.218
We did big concerts because we became quite popular.

00:18:27.746 --> 00:18:31.109
suddenly, and we had a big following.

00:18:31.490 --> 00:18:32.772
So we were playing in this club.

00:18:33.053 --> 00:18:39.682
It was like, oh, we finished the show, and the club was in the basement of a hotel in downtown Quebec City.

00:18:39.882 --> 00:18:45.369
And the first city, actually, that ever existed in North America was Quebec City.

00:18:45.930 --> 00:18:48.473
Just a little historical tidbit.

00:18:48.865 --> 00:18:54.916
And so, Quebec City, we were playing, and we finished the show, and we had a few Jack Daniels.

00:18:54.957 --> 00:18:55.979
We went up to the room.

00:18:56.019 --> 00:18:57.520
There's a knock on the door.

00:18:57.662 --> 00:19:02.750
It was about maybe at 2 o'clock, and a knock on the hotel room door.

00:19:03.772 --> 00:19:04.314
Jim, Jim.

00:19:05.875 --> 00:19:06.738
Jim Allen.

00:19:07.618 --> 00:19:11.246
Bob Dylan, ATC.

00:19:11.266 --> 00:19:11.326
Jim.

00:19:11.521 --> 00:19:19.512
He says, you've got to come down, Bob Dylan and his gang, because they want you to play tomorrow night in the Coliseum.

00:19:19.873 --> 00:19:23.018
The Coliseum is like the arena.

00:19:23.038 --> 00:19:23.878
So we went down.

00:19:23.919 --> 00:19:25.381
We went on stage.

00:19:25.942 --> 00:19:27.344
We played another set.

00:19:27.844 --> 00:19:29.326
And I remember who was sitting.

00:19:29.406 --> 00:19:30.768
It was Bob Dylan was there.

00:19:30.788 --> 00:19:34.393
It was Joni Mitchell, Nick Ronson.

00:19:34.594 --> 00:19:37.478
I used to see him in New York when I moved to New York after that.

00:19:38.049 --> 00:19:43.780
we played one original song in French that we'd written, did a couple of songs in the concert.

00:19:44.241 --> 00:19:51.875
Of course it was filmed, the movie came out, Rinaldo and Clara, and they used some of the footage of our performance too.

00:19:52.656 --> 00:20:00.683
It was quite a night actually because After our show, it was sort of like in those days where nobody was wearing a watch.

00:20:00.983 --> 00:20:02.928
There was no time limit.

00:20:03.308 --> 00:20:04.190
You just go out.

00:20:04.289 --> 00:20:06.233
If it's four in the morning, it doesn't matter.

00:20:06.273 --> 00:20:07.015
Let's keep going.

00:20:07.696 --> 00:20:13.426
So we ended up at the Chateau Frontenac, which is this big hotel in Quebec City.

00:20:13.467 --> 00:20:17.134
And I remember sitting at the piano.

00:20:17.857 --> 00:20:30.311
sitting side by side at the piano, the grand piano in the lobby of the hotel, playing songs with Joni Mitchell, who I eventually saw many years later.

00:20:30.352 --> 00:20:35.718
But it was very exciting, it was lots of fun, and it was great.

00:20:36.538 --> 00:20:42.145
Actually, somebody sent me, he had a ticket from the show.

00:20:42.690 --> 00:20:52.949
Like somebody on the internet the other day, somebody on Facebook, he sent a picture of the Rolling Thunder review, and it happened to be in 1976.

00:20:52.989 --> 00:20:57.857
That means I was 22 years old.

00:20:57.877 --> 00:21:02.987
I made jokes to my friends.

00:21:03.007 --> 00:21:04.289
I said, I should have quit then.

00:21:04.769 --> 00:21:24.261
yeah he did some amazing stuff through the 70s as you say you know you you got some tips from carrie bell you played with willie dixon and muddy waters and and um some bb king as well so so let's talk about um getting into your album so i've got down here your first album came out at least in your name cards on the table in 1979 so

00:21:42.337 --> 00:21:45.201
Well, that's actually the first album that was in my name.

00:21:45.643 --> 00:21:53.554
Actually, what happened with that album is interesting because at the time I was performing with Alan Gerber, we were in New York.

00:21:54.075 --> 00:22:01.644
We were working with a producer who wanted to produce an album with us in New York.

00:22:02.145 --> 00:22:04.509
And his name was Giorgio Gomelsky.

00:22:05.109 --> 00:22:10.577
And Giorgio Gomelsky was the first manager of the Rolling Stones.

00:22:11.009 --> 00:22:13.574
And he also produced the Yardbirds.

00:22:13.634 --> 00:22:15.817
He produced this crazy Russian guy.

00:22:16.298 --> 00:22:17.579
He got us a deal somehow.

00:22:17.640 --> 00:22:19.163
He saw us play somewhere.

00:22:19.182 --> 00:22:27.936
And he got us a deal to do demos for a company called Capricorn Records, which is the same company that had the Allman Brothers.

00:22:28.336 --> 00:22:29.239
They're out of Georgia.

00:22:29.259 --> 00:22:36.130
And so we went into the, I think it was the Power Station studio in New York, and we did some demos at that time.

00:22:36.481 --> 00:22:41.711
Gerberzella, and we recorded a bunch of songs with session guys in New York.

00:22:42.311 --> 00:22:46.719
And the idea was to get us a record deal and get us on the road.

00:22:47.019 --> 00:22:57.237
What happened is the demo, he presented it, and this guy, Giorgio Ganofsky, he was very, very highly reputed producer, manager guy.

00:22:57.277 --> 00:23:02.306
He goes way back in England, all the way back to the days of the Yardbirds.

00:23:02.657 --> 00:23:09.868
Even is the one who produced some of the first albums by Sonny Boy Williamson when he went to England.

00:23:10.269 --> 00:23:13.375
And basically, he's a monument.

00:23:13.855 --> 00:23:17.961
But anyway, somehow, he had a whole scene happening in New York.

00:23:18.563 --> 00:23:20.105
At the time, there was a punk scene.

00:23:20.464 --> 00:23:25.673
But this was more like a universe and more avant-garde gift was the...

00:23:26.210 --> 00:23:36.383
So a lot of the young musicians that came all over the United States were hanging out and we were doing like sort of, you know, very progressive, but blues oriented.

00:23:37.023 --> 00:23:44.713
And at that time we did these demos and we were going to have a, we were trying to get a deal with Capricorn Records.

00:23:44.953 --> 00:23:50.661
I remember even having a meeting with Chas Chandler, who was with the Animals, of course.

00:23:50.941 --> 00:24:08.588
It happened, funny that it goes around to that, but he also had the Somehow they claimed that he was the one who got Jimi Hendrix his deal in England originally, but he was the bass player of the Animals, Chaz Chandler, who had a record company with another company in New York.

00:24:08.961 --> 00:24:19.180
Anyway, somehow we did the demos, and we tried to make a deal, and we were going to try to set up a deal, but Alan Gerber didn't want to give away the publishing.

00:24:19.641 --> 00:24:24.589
And somehow it made a big conflict, and the deal fell apart.

00:24:25.026 --> 00:24:30.513
So what I did, basically, because I was sort of let down by the situation, so I came back to Quebec.

00:24:30.854 --> 00:24:37.523
And when I came back to Quebec, there was a management company up here who wanted to do an album with me anyway.

00:24:37.924 --> 00:24:39.046
It became Jim Zeller.

00:24:39.586 --> 00:24:45.174
And that album in 1979 came from when we had been writing those days together.

00:24:45.194 --> 00:24:52.546
We'd been together maybe about seven, eight years.

00:24:52.566 --> 00:24:52.605
¶¶

00:25:10.145 --> 00:25:12.829
But that album was fun because of that.

00:25:13.851 --> 00:25:25.948
I'd always been surrounded by, I was always been this sort of like featured guy in the picture, you know, this little chord gesture within, in different scenes with the different bands and the artists.

00:25:25.968 --> 00:25:31.976
So I always had partners, but in this case, the partner in Long Long was there.

00:25:31.996 --> 00:25:35.961
And all of a sudden, the record company wanted to sign me up anyway.

00:25:36.450 --> 00:25:39.252
So I went in the studio and we recorded that album.

00:25:39.373 --> 00:25:40.854
The exclusive lead singer.

00:25:41.295 --> 00:25:43.457
Because I'd been singing a lot with Gerber.

00:25:43.717 --> 00:25:44.678
It was like a duo.

00:25:45.117 --> 00:25:49.522
And these were songs that I'd been writing and doing with this guy Gerber at the time.

00:25:49.563 --> 00:25:52.424
And all of a sudden it was my own album.

00:25:52.846 --> 00:25:57.349
Which I had a lot of support anyway because I was very well known in Montreal.

00:25:57.509 --> 00:25:58.310
I had a good name.

00:25:58.631 --> 00:26:00.012
But I was a young kid still, you know.

00:26:00.393 --> 00:26:02.634
When you figure I was 25 years old.

00:26:02.815 --> 00:26:04.016
So 25 years old.

00:26:18.657 --> 00:26:20.519
You're willing to go and go for it.

00:26:20.601 --> 00:26:22.077
It's time to go for it.

00:26:37.089 --> 00:26:38.131
What's happening, y'all?

00:26:38.151 --> 00:26:40.353
Jason Ritchie from Blue Moon Harmonicas.

00:26:40.893 --> 00:26:44.977
And I'm here to tell you that Blue Moon Harmonicas are the way.

00:26:45.416 --> 00:26:48.480
You can customize them yourself or you can get Tom to do them.

00:26:48.779 --> 00:26:50.481
The website is a rabbit hole.

00:26:50.541 --> 00:27:10.182
We're talking about custom combs, custom cover plates, throwbacks, refurbished pre-wars, double re-plates, anything you can imagine, aluminum, ABS, plastic, phenolic resin, wood, any kind of comb you want, any kind of Covered Tom Halcheck's Your Man, He's Got You.

00:27:11.326 --> 00:27:19.443
An album you did in, I think, 1995, Fire to the Wire, features the Godfather movie thing, which has, I think, become quite an anthem for you.

00:27:19.463 --> 00:27:23.472
You play at the Montreal Jazz Festival, which you've appeared at, I think, 32 times.

00:28:03.170 --> 00:28:05.773
This song, you play it on the chromatic harmonica.

00:28:05.814 --> 00:28:11.261
So how did you pick up playing the Godfather movie thing, which just works so amazingly well in how you play it?

00:28:11.742 --> 00:28:14.548
Basically, I started playing chromatic harmonica from when I was...

00:28:14.988 --> 00:28:16.430
I remember when I was really young.

00:28:16.510 --> 00:28:19.494
I was maybe about 16, 15.

00:28:21.298 --> 00:28:23.020
And I was watching television.

00:28:23.101 --> 00:28:26.405
And I was watching television, French television.

00:28:26.645 --> 00:28:27.426
This is going back.

00:28:27.507 --> 00:28:31.773
We're going back, I figure, it was the late 60s, you know.

00:28:32.258 --> 00:28:39.913
And there was this harmonica player on one of these talk shows, and he was playing chromatic harmonica.

00:28:40.515 --> 00:28:43.922
I'd been playing blues harp for quite some time.

00:28:44.242 --> 00:28:49.634
But as I'm watching this show, I saw this guy, his name was Larry Adler.

00:29:06.913 --> 00:29:13.140
Larry Adler was on this talk show because he was living in England, but he came on the talk show.

00:29:13.180 --> 00:29:15.382
I think he was playing with the Symphony of Montreal.

00:29:16.083 --> 00:29:34.741
And I started watching him and I said, so basically I called, I think I was about 14 or 15 years old, and I called the radio, the TV show, the TV station, and somehow I got his address in England, Larry Adler.

00:29:35.201 --> 00:29:51.746
And basically I sent him a reel-to-reel tape I'd made of harmonica playing that I'd played at little jams with acoustic guitar and playing harmonica, and sent him, because I wanted him to hear what I was playing, and he wrote back to me.

00:29:52.386 --> 00:30:05.208
He actually wrote back, received my letter, wrote back, he says, yes, I've listened to the tape, and I said to myself at that point, if I wanted to be a harmonica player, I had to learn how to play the chromatic as well.

00:30:05.729 --> 00:30:10.292
Because I couldn't be a harmonica player complete if I didn't play chromatic harmonica.

00:30:10.692 --> 00:30:14.257
But chromatic harmonica is another instrument, it's another universe.

00:30:14.656 --> 00:30:22.064
I'm still to the point where, I've gotten to the point where I've really become, I sort of combined the two at first.

00:30:22.644 --> 00:30:26.888
Because chromatic, you don't do bending, you do, it's a completely different game.

00:30:27.249 --> 00:30:31.913
But it's a different game, but it requires work and practice and practice and practice.

00:30:47.586 --> 00:30:56.019
Over the last few years, I've really developed my chromatic playing a lot, especially during the time of the COVID because I had plenty of time.

00:30:56.441 --> 00:30:58.222
So I studied and I practiced.

00:30:58.284 --> 00:31:00.968
I even learned the Rhapsody in Blue completely.

00:31:01.429 --> 00:31:06.798
But Larry Adler himself wrote me a letter as a young kid.

00:31:07.201 --> 00:31:14.886
I listened to your tape, it was really great, however, and then he gave me all kinds of suggestions and advice, you know.

00:31:15.409 --> 00:31:20.505
What to listen to, what to, and he gave me suggestions of classical music to listen.

00:31:20.897 --> 00:31:25.144
So the chromatic harmonica, I'm using it a lot when I was playing with Gerber as well.

00:31:25.566 --> 00:31:30.334
And I had a 16-hole that I used because the low octave, I can play cello parts.

00:31:30.534 --> 00:31:34.480
A lot of the songs that we were writing in those days were on piano.

00:31:34.801 --> 00:31:46.602
So I would be playing accompaniment, but on chromatic, playing like a cello accompaniment, chamber orchestra type of accompaniment that I was creating and coming up with the style.

00:31:46.945 --> 00:31:55.336
So when I got to the point of playing in my shows, I started playing the Godfather theme because chromatic harmonica does that.

00:31:55.857 --> 00:32:08.273
If you know anything about harmonica, the thing is that when you start playing chromatic, you want to play every song, every melody that you hear, you know you can go and find it if you take the time.

00:32:08.673 --> 00:32:13.952
And if the inspiration of the melody brings you to it, you will take the time.

00:32:14.314 --> 00:32:27.692
And as you develop and you start to create and realize that you're capable of playing any melody that exists, which is different than on a diatonic harmonica where you have to find sort of cheap things, you know.

00:32:28.054 --> 00:32:29.095
You can still do it.

00:32:29.194 --> 00:32:30.877
There's a lot of things you can do with it.

00:32:31.317 --> 00:32:38.989
But in the old days, when it was just a basic diatonic harmonica, you had to do sort of basically...

00:32:39.490 --> 00:33:15.079
different positions open the whole universe of melody to you so because of that i would find songs that were i was using the chromatic more and more in my shows and i was i was using it and in the case of the godfather it just seemed to be a a theme that was uh that was a great theme and i played in shows and everybody it was great song it's very dynamic and then But on the most recent album that I've done, which was in 2019, you can look up the man with the harmonica.

00:33:15.200 --> 00:33:19.009
I did a version of that as well, which is Ennio Morricone.

00:33:59.970 --> 00:34:02.772
found different ones that I would use.

00:34:03.232 --> 00:34:06.336
Playing chromatic harmonica takes you to a different place.

00:34:06.777 --> 00:34:27.239
However, when you put chromatic harmonica and you put it into a rock and roll band situation, you have to find a way to drive it because it's not the same as comping on a diatonic harmonica where you can play chords, you can drive, you can bend, you're basically doing guitar bending riffs and so on.

00:34:27.659 --> 00:34:32.909
But chromatic harmonica is very, it's It's a delicate thing, but I found a way to play it.

00:34:51.376 --> 00:35:40.043
Because I guess somehow over the years I realized it was because I was able to Because I was so proficient at blues harmonica and diatonic harmonica when I applied it to chromatic harmonica using the same technique of power like the drive that I would have and I would find ways to play it loud enough to cut above the band and at the same time it wouldn't sound as linear as you would imagine it but I would still have I wouldn't bend it my first technique was diatonic harmonica but when I went to chromatic there's a great part of the diatonic harmonica blues harp playing in the style of the way that I play the chromatic, which chromatic, I mean, spoke about Carrie Bell.

00:35:58.273 --> 00:36:05.184
And this is like, he was always using octaves, and he would always play, basically, on a chromatic harmonica.

00:36:05.204 --> 00:36:25.557
A lot of the blues guys, you know, if you even go to guys like Charlie Musselwhite, who do play chromatic, but they play chromatic, but they stick to their secure, diatonic game, which is basically, they do most of the things in D minor.

00:36:26.050 --> 00:36:35.623
So by playing in D minor, you can do what you would do in a normal blues, the same type of figures that you're playing on a diatonic blues harp.

00:36:36.143 --> 00:36:37.804
Cary Bell, that was his thing, you know.

00:36:37.945 --> 00:36:41.590
So he showed me how to use it, and he was really proficient.

00:36:42.190 --> 00:37:00.146
The real chromatic harmonica players, my three favorite ones actually are, number one, Larry Adler, the first one who actually was kicked out of the United States in the, The communist situation with, he was a friend of George Gershwin and a friend of Charlie Chaplin.

00:37:00.507 --> 00:37:01.869
And they kicked him out of the States.

00:37:02.289 --> 00:37:04.952
So he ended up doing his career in Great Britain.

00:37:05.273 --> 00:37:08.719
So he was one of the great harmonica players, chromatic harmonica players.

00:37:09.579 --> 00:37:15.307
There was also the Belgian harmonica player, a fantastic, legendary harmonica player named Toots Spielmans.

00:37:15.547 --> 00:37:17.590
He's a chromatic specialist as well.

00:37:17.751 --> 00:37:19.273
He played with Stéphane Grappelli.

00:37:19.293 --> 00:37:19.552
He was...

00:37:21.634 --> 00:37:35.871
He's a phenomenal harmonica player.

00:37:36.431 --> 00:37:40.777
And I would say that another great chromatic harmonica player is Stevie Wonder.

00:37:41.438 --> 00:37:43.239
So let's talk about your diatonic playing.

00:37:43.480 --> 00:37:48.226
You talked a lot about chromatic there, but your diatonic also brought some very fast...

00:37:48.641 --> 00:37:53.987
complex runs, quite, you know, lots of repetition in there to build up the energy and the dynamisms.

00:38:11.182 --> 00:38:13.585
You know, how did you develop your diatonic style?

00:38:14.565 --> 00:38:26.467
Well, it's funny because I remember when I was about I remember I came back when I went on my journey as a hippie back in like, you know, about a year and a half I was gone.

00:38:26.847 --> 00:38:33.916
When I came back, when I first, I went back to school for one year living in the country somewhere with my grandmother.

00:38:33.936 --> 00:38:43.949
And at the same time, when I came back, I started, I moved to Montreal and I got an apartment and I was getting my act together.

00:38:44.418 --> 00:38:55.869
I guess in the early days, when I started with Gerber, I'd say maybe around 75, 76, and I used to put on albums of Indian music, and I used to play with them.

00:38:56.226 --> 00:38:59.429
I used to put them on, I used to put them on and just play, and play.

00:38:59.829 --> 00:39:06.554
And I would make basically tape loops with my Echoplex, but I was practicing all the time with Indian music.

00:39:06.994 --> 00:39:09.818
I was learning to play very percussive, you know.

00:39:09.838 --> 00:39:18.885
So speed became developed where I was learning to develop into the harmonica became, I played very percussive.

00:39:18.905 --> 00:39:26.192
So even when I'm playing in dual situations, playing with bands, I'm always playing the snare, you know, it's like a part of it.

00:39:26.192 --> 00:39:36.914
So the energy of percussiveness, spending hours and hours jamming along with reggae music, the Indian music, learning the rhythms and just playing.

00:39:36.934 --> 00:39:40.481
And it wouldn't be something conscious.

00:39:40.922 --> 00:39:42.766
It was very much percussive.

00:39:43.208 --> 00:39:45.753
It was very much the percussiveness.

00:40:09.570 --> 00:40:14.315
At the same time, I found that harmonica is an instrument of hyperventilation.

00:40:14.815 --> 00:40:17.018
It's the only instrument you do breathing in.

00:40:17.099 --> 00:40:18.960
So basically, you know, you're playing...

00:40:19.081 --> 00:40:27.351
I have students that I teach sometimes, and I teach them to use the diaphragm to always leave a reserve of air.

00:40:27.371 --> 00:40:36.161
It's funny, when I teach harmonica players, I've had students for a while, but I teach them, I said, you have to think of breathing backwards.

00:40:36.802 --> 00:40:43.413
When you're playing diatonic harmonica and blues harmonica, most of your work is breathing in.

00:40:43.452 --> 00:41:02.065
So when you breathe in, so when you're breathing in, you have to realize that when you're breathing and you're developing and you're always getting your reference point melodically and structurally, musically, the reference point is as you inhale.

00:41:02.561 --> 00:41:10.711
So when you're playing, you're not using what the normal apparatus of breathing is, where you blow out and then you breathe in.

00:41:11.032 --> 00:41:13.414
So you're always breathing in to catch your breath.

00:41:13.795 --> 00:41:16.739
In this case, it's the opposite when you play the harmonica.

00:41:17.239 --> 00:41:24.628
You use firing, blowing out, is to basically empty your lungs so that you can breathe in again.

00:41:24.668 --> 00:41:32.097
Another development is also that at one point, I realized when I started playing that...

00:41:32.610 --> 00:41:36.759
Most harmonica players would play up to the sixth hole.

00:41:37.280 --> 00:41:45.538
And they would go to the sixth hole because the thing is that diatonic one, two, three, four, five, six hits blow out and breathe in two notes higher.

00:41:45.838 --> 00:41:49.085
But when you get to seven, eight, nine, ten, it's the opposite.

00:42:00.353 --> 00:42:03.612
Most used, basically, the first six holes.

00:42:04.277 --> 00:42:06.208
But there were certain guys...

00:42:06.690 --> 00:42:17.204
point, like Howard Levy, who came along and they developed the overblow, which I never really got into the overblow because I admire it and I'm fascinated by it.

00:42:17.523 --> 00:42:23.012
But at the same time, because I played chromatic, I sort of could do all of that on chromatic.

00:42:23.371 --> 00:42:33.726
However, what I developed myself is that I use all 10 holes in my runs, where usually you would go up and you get up to the 9th or the 6th hole, you know.

00:42:33.954 --> 00:43:07.773
what to do on top of that because things go upside down you're not moves they're making is the opposite way now but somehow just by driving through and keep going and keep going found the ways that I could find I knew where I was exactly even as I got from 7, 8, 9, 10 so I knew where I was and I knew how to come back down and bend around and I was extending the scale with 4 more holes basically I was adding Eight notes to the vocabulary, so to speak.

00:43:31.436 --> 00:43:33.757
Touching on that, you're saying that you've done teaching there.

00:43:34.018 --> 00:43:36.922
10 minutes to practice, what would you spend those 10 minutes doing?

00:43:37.742 --> 00:43:38.925
If I had 10 minutes to

00:43:38.945 --> 00:43:54.085
practice, in many cases over the last, I would say over the last couple of few years, my practice is mostly on chromatic and working on different songs, melodies.

00:43:54.530 --> 00:44:02.077
and my practice is pretty much focused on mastery of the chromatic because it's so vast.

00:44:02.297 --> 00:44:24.594
However, as far as if I was to practice on diatonic, I would always be doing, because I use a lot of different, like for example, the other night I was playing at a club, I think it was Saturday night I was playing, and the club owner comes up to me, and I'm with my band, Okay, Jim, I really want, I have one thing to ask you, man.

00:44:24.635 --> 00:44:25.836
You're the greatest, da-da-da.

00:44:26.338 --> 00:44:28.501
But can you make them dance, you know?

00:44:28.840 --> 00:44:30.364
Because it's all young kids, okay?

00:44:30.744 --> 00:44:32.867
So I start playing, and I start playing.

00:44:32.927 --> 00:44:33.568
I said, okay.

00:44:33.929 --> 00:44:37.094
I look at my band members, you know, my bass player, and we start playing.

00:44:37.454 --> 00:44:41.840
We're playing Billie Jean, but I'm playing the theme on the blues harp, you know?

00:44:42.322 --> 00:44:43.864
So lots of things like that.

00:44:44.744 --> 00:44:50.534
I guess practice is more a question of choosing songs and choosing type of riffs.

00:44:51.010 --> 00:44:57.001
But as far as diatonic, the practice is mainly I jump on stage and I just drive it.

00:44:57.682 --> 00:45:10.889
But if there's a specific song that I want to master and find a way to play that melody and fit it in and put it into the context of the structure and the arrangement of the song, that would be a practice thing.

00:45:11.233 --> 00:45:15.958
As far as using practice, I would practice mostly on chromatic.

00:45:16.318 --> 00:45:25.666
Basically, I would take a song and I would try to break it down and practice it to the point where I could play it freely, dig in and really play it.

00:45:26.126 --> 00:45:38.818
Like a jet pack would play a theme and the theme would be, you make it your own, but you have to, as they say, when you grok, it means that you learn it to the point where you become what you're learning.

00:45:39.197 --> 00:45:42.045
So I guess that's what practicing I would focus on.

00:45:42.871 --> 00:45:43.112
Great.

00:45:43.152 --> 00:45:44.945
So, yeah, we're just getting to our session now.

00:45:45.313 --> 00:45:47.715
So first of all, what harmonicas do you like to play?

00:45:48.135 --> 00:45:51.719
Yeah, basically the chromatic that I use is, I use two.

00:45:51.860 --> 00:45:57.264
I have a 12-ball Suzuki Chromatics, which I like.

00:45:57.545 --> 00:46:05.170
And I also have the same, but it's a C, the name of it is the GSX-48.

00:46:05.190 --> 00:46:12.498
They have also the CSX Chromatics Suzuki, and they make a 64 as well, which is four octaves.

00:46:12.978 --> 00:46:15.280
I find they're expensive, but...

00:46:15.280 --> 00:46:16.360
They give me what I need.

00:46:16.581 --> 00:46:23.228
I used to use a Horner a lot, but the model that I used to use years ago was black.

00:46:23.329 --> 00:46:26.313
But I find that I don't make them anymore anyway.

00:46:26.612 --> 00:46:30.978

Jim Zeller interview

Listen On

Featured Episodes

Diatonic harmonica Episodes

Chromatic harmonica Episodes

Blues harmonica Episodes

Recent Episodes

Diatonic harmonica Episodes

Chromatic harmonica Episodes

Blues harmonica Episodes

Retrospectives Episodes

Female harmonica player Episodes

Chromatic blues Episodes

Classical chromatic Episodes

Classical diatonic Episodes

Browse episodes by category

Support On

Featured episodes

Annie Raines interview

Paul deLay retrospective with Grant Dermody, Ross Garren and Pete Dam…

Mike Turk interview