Sept. 28, 2022

Ricky Cool interview

Ricky Cool joins me on episode 70. Ricky hails from the Birmingham area of the UK, and drew great inspiration asa teenager from the American folk festivals which brought some harmonica greats to the city. Under his alter ego Ricky Cool, he went on to lead several successful rhythm and blues band, with Jamaican music also brought into the set. He also played harmonica in a band with Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant! Ricky played harmonica and saxophone in most of these bands and this combinat...

Ricky Cool joins me on episode 70.

Ricky hails from the Birmingham area of the UK, and drew great inspiration asa teenager from the American folk festivals which brought some harmonica greats to the city. Under his alter ego Ricky Cool, he went on to lead several successful rhythm and blues band, with Jamaican music also brought into the set. He also played harmonica in a band with Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant!

Ricky played harmonica and saxophone in most of these bands and this combination of instruments has led to his recent series of excellent YouTube videos called ‘Mississippi Saxophone’. In these videos he picks out some great horn lines and shows how to play them on harmonica.

Links:

Ricky Cool and the In Crowd:
https://www.rickycoolandtheincrowd.co.uk/

Videos:

Mississippi saxophone YouTube series of tutorial videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-ssuQxsIvn_NJy1A12hVyiq4Xb09ZXPj

Ricky’s YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/rickycool100

Ricky Cool and The Icebergs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX4akPiV0Wo

Playing at NHL festival in 1988:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-Wf6X-erO4

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/

Support the show

01:30 - Cool is a stage name

01:40 - Ricky is from Birmingham in the UK

01:56 - Became interested in blues music through the Rolling Stones and Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis and rock ’n roll

03:00 - Discovered the original blues musicians of the songs the Rolling Stones were covering

03:47 - Started playing guitar at 13, and harmonica at 15

03:57 - American Blues Festivals came to Birmingham, allowing Ricky to see some of the blues greats, including Walter Horton

04:27 - Sonny Terry was the first harmonica player to influence Ricky

05:12 - Sonny Boy Williamson II was another big influence, who Ricky has a shrine to

06:28 - Hoodoo Man Blues album by Junior Wells

06:44 - Mick Jagger’s harmonica playing wasn’t the inspiration to start playing harp, it was the American artists

07:20 - Jazz concerts were held in Birmingham in the 1960s too

08:04 - Ricky was compere at Colne Blues Festival

08:34 - Played harp and guitar on a rack at local folk clubs

09:13 - Started playing saxophone age 27 but harmonica still Ricky’s main axe

10:08 - Ricky Cool and The Icebergs was first band with whom enjoyed success

12:32 - The Ricky Cool alter ego and confidence this gave him to perform

15:21 - Ricky Cool and the Rialtos, which led to Ricky playing in a band called Honeydrippers with Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant in 1981

17:42 - Robert Plant was the one who got Ricky started on amplified harmonica, giving him a JT30

18:08 - Didn’t play any Led Zeppelin songs in band with Robert Plant

18:56 - Ricky’s next band was The Big Town Playboys, which were influenced by The Fabulous Thunderbirds

20:13 - Ricky is a teacher in his day job

21:43 - Harmonica became less included in Big Town Playboys as saxophones took prominence

22:20 - Top Rankin band, playing some reggae

23:25 - Current band is Ricky Cool and The In Crowd which plays a combination of rhythm and blues and Jamaican (ska, bluebeat and reggae)

23:50 - Bringing more harmonica into the songs as one of sax players left the band

24:41 - Decided to concentrate on harmonica again during pandemic and feature it more in the band

25:44 - Story behind the line ‘How does the milk get into a coconut?’

27:02 - Songs using different harmonica, including a Seydel Fanfare tremolo

27:55 - Solo tuned harmonica used on some State I’m In

28:35 - Mississippi saxophone series of YouTube tutorials

29:27 - Where Ricky took inspiration to make this series of videos

30:11 - Little Walter was influenced by horn players and trying to emulate their sound

30:42 - Ricky’s road trip to Memphis in 2008

31:23 - Stayed in a hotel in same room Sonny Boy Williamson II stayed

33:36 - Back to the Mississippi saxophone series of YouTube tutorials

34:05 - Lee Morgan’s trumpet part on Moanin’ is the latest video

34:38 - What is difference between learning from horn lines and from other harmonica players?

36:36 - What made Little Walter sound like a horn

38:50 - Hip Couple sax line

39:51 - Kidney Stew song on alto sax

40:21 - Blue Gene sax song

41:47 - The sax series is a good way to discover different saxophone players

42:10 - Louis Jordan sax solo on Early In The Morning

43:14 - Horace Silver song Jody Grind and why in third position

43:39 - Sax solos are typically in unusual keys for harmonica, so Ricky plays them on more common harp keys

44:19 - Saxes you can only blow so creates natural gaps in the lines, which isn’t always the case on harmonica

45:10 - Learning to play phrases from sax players

45:47 - Lucille sax solo

45:57 - Ricky’s favourite sax solo from the series so far

47:17 - Ricky’s YouTube channel has other tutorial material besides the Mississippi saxophone range

47:30 - Has Mississippi Saxophone study videos changed the way Ricky plays the harmonica now?

47:39 - Playing more Jamaican music at the moment and blues in a duo

48:13 - 10 minute question

49:24 - Applying licks to backing track is good practise

49:52 - Ricky is a singer

50:44 - Re-arranging harmonicas is a trick Brownie McGhee used to play on Sonny Terry

51:07 - Ricky has often appeared at UK NHL festivals

51:23 - Harmonicas of choice

51:48 - Been playing some custom harmonicas recently from Andrew Zajac

52:13 - Does some self maintenance but customised harmonicas are worth it

53:15 - Overblows

53:46 - Different tunings and Reggae on Lee Oskar Melody Maker

54:46 - Mainly plays 2nd position and some 3rd when playing sax licks

55:13 - Chromatic

55:41 - Uses diatonic for sax lines and not the more typical chromatic for jazz playing

56:11 - Embouchre

56:51 - Amps

57:24 - Plays through an Ultimate 58 mic

57:51 - Effects

58:15 - Upcoming gigs and more Mississippi saxophone (and trumpet videos to come)

WEBVTT

00:00:00.162 --> 00:00:02.104
Ricky Cool joins me in episode 70.

00:00:02.585 --> 00:00:11.361
Ricky hails from the Birmingham area of the UK and drew great inspiration as a teenager from the American folk festivals which brought some harmonica greats to the city.

00:00:11.961 --> 00:00:19.635
Under his alter ego Ricky Cool, he went on to lead several successful rhythm and blues bands, with Jamaican music also brought into the set.

00:00:20.236 --> 00:00:23.722
He also played harmonica in a band with Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant.

00:00:24.257 --> 00:00:33.548
Ricky played harmonica and saxophone in most of these bands, and this combination of instruments has led to his recent series of excellent YouTube videos called Mississippi Saxophone.

00:00:34.009 --> 00:00:38.393
In these videos, he picks out some great horn lines and shows how to play them on harmonica.

00:00:39.634 --> 00:00:42.198
This podcast is sponsored by Seidel Harmonicas.

00:00:42.618 --> 00:00:51.649
Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Seidel Harmonicas.

00:01:19.170 --> 00:01:21.984
Hello,

00:01:25.424 --> 00:01:27.293
Ricky Cool, and welcome to the podcast.

00:01:27.650 --> 00:01:28.611
Thank you very much, Neil.

00:01:28.792 --> 00:01:30.034
It's a pleasure to be here.

00:01:30.516 --> 00:01:32.558
First of all, start with your name, Ricky Cool.

00:01:32.620 --> 00:01:34.242
So is that your real surname?

00:01:34.563 --> 00:01:35.144
No, it isn't.

00:01:35.204 --> 00:01:36.888
My real name is Richard Rogers.

00:01:37.569 --> 00:01:39.793
Oh, well, it's a cool stage name.

00:01:39.894 --> 00:01:40.093
Yeah.

00:01:40.334 --> 00:01:40.495
Right.

00:01:40.534 --> 00:01:43.219
So you're from Birmingham in the UK.

00:01:43.239 --> 00:01:43.561
Is that right?

00:01:43.581 --> 00:01:44.543
You're originally from Birmingham?

00:01:44.882 --> 00:01:45.284
That's correct.

00:01:45.564 --> 00:01:49.893
I was born in Hales, Owen, which is about eight miles from Birmingham.

00:01:50.233 --> 00:01:55.846
I've sort of been in and out of Birmingham and have now lived in Birmingham for a long time.

00:01:56.347 --> 00:02:00.805
So what got you into music around Birmingham and playing the harmonica in your youth?

00:02:01.186 --> 00:02:07.560
Up until the age of into my 20s, I was in Hales Owen and then lived in Kidderminster for a while.

00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:16.740
But when I was in Hales Owen, I got into the blues basically through the route which a lot of people have had, which was the Rolling Stones.

00:02:17.020 --> 00:02:36.735
Although having said that, I do remember at the age of six, being on holiday with my parents in Western Supermare and hearing Heartbreak Hotel on the jukebox at the hotel we were staying in and then taking money or asking for money from my parents and playing Heartbreak Hotel over and over and over again.

00:02:36.775 --> 00:02:39.639
So it must have resonated with me in some way.

00:02:39.679 --> 00:02:42.923
And I was heavily into rock and roll as a young child.

00:02:42.943 --> 00:02:44.485
I used to love Little Richard.

00:02:44.786 --> 00:02:50.774
When that sort of rock and roll started to get sanitised, I lost interest for a while.

00:02:51.105 --> 00:03:00.319
but then the Beatles, first of all, and then the Rolling Stones really turned me back on to music in a big way, particularly the Rolling Stones.

00:03:00.760 --> 00:03:11.037
And I was just fascinated by looking at some of the names of the people who were given songwriting credits on their singles and albums, those early ones when they were mainly doing covers.

00:03:11.717 --> 00:03:13.942
That was the pathway into the blues.

00:03:14.262 --> 00:03:22.092
And once I'd discovered the likes of Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, I was gone.

00:03:22.292 --> 00:03:33.262
From the age of about 13 through to 18, I was up in my bedroom every night and just devouring blues music wherever I could hear it from.

00:03:47.914 --> 00:03:56.883
I started playing guitar when I was 13 and then started fooling, I won't say playing, I'll say fooling around with the harmonica when I was 15.

00:03:57.425 --> 00:04:04.651
Luckily, every year at Birmingham Town Hall, they used to do the American Folk Blues Festival.

00:04:04.932 --> 00:04:08.036
I've got some of those DVDs from back then, yeah, some brilliant recordings, so yeah.

00:04:08.295 --> 00:04:12.681
The first one I went to was 1965 when I was 15.

00:04:12.700 --> 00:04:24.653
I think the harmonica player who was on that was Big Walter and certainly Big Mama Thornton I think was on that bill and she played harmonica and possibly Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee.

00:04:24.694 --> 00:04:31.201
I was exposed to some of the greats and it was really Sonny Terry at that time who just fascinated me.

00:04:31.240 --> 00:04:38.487
You know, just seeing him and Brownie McGee, seeing him sitting there and the way he used his hands and the whooping.

00:04:38.528 --> 00:04:43.994
I'd never seen that, obviously never seen anything like that in my life before or heard anything like that before.

00:04:49.360 --> 00:05:00.331
So I was hugely influenced by Sonny Terry, like so many other players.

00:05:00.952 --> 00:05:11.803
I loved Little Walter, but I just couldn't figure that out because the sound, the amplified sound, was something I just didn't have any idea how to achieve.

00:05:12.264 --> 00:05:43.351
So the other players, really big influence in those days was Sonny Boy Williamson number two and particularly a couple of albums he did I think on the Storyville label which I think he recorded in the 60s with Memphis Slim those albums which were very much a sort of an acoustic album I loved those albums and Sonny Boy of course did some solo harmonica numbers on those like Moving Downside the River of Rhine which was a particular favourite of mine and I learnt to play that

00:05:43.471 --> 00:05:49.519
Yeah, I

00:05:56.468 --> 00:06:02.295
see on your YouTube channel, you demonstrate you've got some sort of shrine to Sonny Boy in your house there.

00:06:02.776 --> 00:06:03.658
Well, yes, I have.

00:06:04.218 --> 00:06:04.819
You're quite right.

00:06:05.279 --> 00:06:06.341
The singer from...

00:06:06.754 --> 00:06:10.117
King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys, a British swing band.

00:06:10.377 --> 00:06:12.879
Mark Skirving is a wonderful artist.

00:06:13.579 --> 00:06:17.283
And I commissioned him to do a picture of Sonny Boy Williamson for me.

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So I've got that.

00:06:18.744 --> 00:06:21.927
It's surrounded with albums and EPs.

00:06:22.427 --> 00:06:26.411
Yeah, I have a painting done by a person that I knew of, Muddy Waters.

00:06:26.430 --> 00:06:28.153
So yeah, similarly, not quite a shrine.

00:06:28.273 --> 00:06:36.379
The other big album back in those days, sort of a bit later in the 60s, was Hoodoo Man Blues by Junior Wells.

00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:38.322
That was big album in the UK.

00:06:38.658 --> 00:06:47.786
Yeah so you mentioned obviously the Rolling Stones being a kind of gateway into discovering all the blues guys so did Mick Jagger's harmonica playing inspire you to pick up the harmonica or was it?

00:06:48.065 --> 00:07:09.564
I wouldn't have said so you know when I saw them on the television and seeing either him playing or you would see Brian Jones playing the harmonica you know the look of it was something I was interested in but it wasn't them that inspired me to play the harmonica or John Lennon in the Beatles it was actually seeing the American artists and hearing those records.

00:07:10.125 --> 00:07:13.369
I mean, the blues festivals were a really big thing for me.

00:07:13.850 --> 00:07:19.095
And a lot of the jazz concerts that used to come to Birmingham Town Hall in the 60s.

00:07:19.716 --> 00:07:26.762
I remember going to see Theolonious Monk when I was about 15 or 16, and I didn't understand a thing about what he was playing.

00:07:32.949 --> 00:07:32.990
So

00:07:36.225 --> 00:07:42.584
But it was just the whole thing about seeing these guys on a stage looking so cool.

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I was just wrapped up in the whole idea of seeing black musicians playing.

00:07:47.810 --> 00:07:51.052
No, it sounds like you're really in the right place at the right time together.

00:07:51.112 --> 00:07:52.533
So lucky to have all those guys coming across.

00:07:52.553 --> 00:07:53.595
It was a brilliant thing, wasn't it?

00:07:54.014 --> 00:07:57.939
I mean, where I grew up in the northwest of England, there were blues festivals at Colne and Burnley.

00:07:57.959 --> 00:08:03.903
So I did get to see those and some of the kind of older American musicians would come across, but it was more kind of British bands.

00:08:04.144 --> 00:08:08.307
Yes, I remember the Colne things very well because I was the compere.

00:08:08.767 --> 00:08:09.127
Oh, were you?

00:08:09.209 --> 00:08:16.355
On the international stage at the Municipal Hall in Colne throughout the 1990s and just into the turn of the century.

00:08:16.394 --> 00:08:17.555
Well, I probably saw you there, yeah.

00:08:17.576 --> 00:08:17.776
I remember

00:08:17.776 --> 00:08:19.754
Yes, I saw a lot of those guys.

00:08:20.055 --> 00:08:24.966
And of course, obviously the American white artists who'd been influenced by them.

00:08:25.026 --> 00:08:28.528
So I saw the fabulous Thunderbirds there, Mighty Flyers.

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And I was fortunate enough, of course, to be able to introduce them on stage.

00:08:33.072 --> 00:08:33.972
Yeah, fantastic.

00:08:33.993 --> 00:08:34.114
Yeah.

00:08:34.374 --> 00:08:40.119
So you then, I understand, started playing the saxophone and that's where you had your sort of formal music training, yeah?

00:08:40.139 --> 00:08:40.818
Yes, that's right.

00:08:40.839 --> 00:08:50.207
Well, as I said, I started playing harmonica when I was 15, although I actually never saw another harmonica player apart from at the folk blues festivals.

00:08:50.268 --> 00:09:01.879
I never saw a harmonica player to talk to about harmonica until I was probably 17, 18 and started what I'd kind of learned just from records, my bits of guitar.

00:09:02.019 --> 00:09:13.331
I started going to some folk clubs and playing guitar and harmonica on a rack, trying to do my best at playing some blues and I'd be playing Bob Dylan numbers as well and things like that at that time.

00:09:13.793 --> 00:09:27.788
In terms of the saxophone, I didn't actually start playing the saxophone until I was 27 and that was when I was a member of Ricky Cool and the Icebergs, the material we were doing, it seemed appropriate to have a second saxophone.

00:09:27.868 --> 00:09:30.951
We all thought it would be great to be able to do some saxophone harmonies.

00:09:31.390 --> 00:09:34.554
You know, that was what actually got me started on the saxophone.

00:09:34.615 --> 00:09:40.400
And then I did go through formal sort of training on that and went through all the grades.

00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:41.481
I took a diploma.

00:09:41.802 --> 00:09:50.652
But even so, in terms of being able to get up and improvise and sit in with people and whatever, the harmonica would be the, you know, my instrument of choice.

00:09:50.672 --> 00:09:51.273
We'll

00:09:51.293 --> 00:10:00.019
get on to the saxophone part later on in the podcast because you've done a fantastic series of YouTube videos called The Mississippi Saxophone.

00:10:00.581 --> 00:10:06.625
You talk about learning from saxophone solos and riffs and things like that, which is a great resource.

00:10:06.645 --> 00:10:07.706
So yeah, we'll get on to that shortly.

00:10:07.746 --> 00:10:13.392
But yeah, getting back onto the, you mentioned your Ricker Cool and the Icebergs, I think that was your first band.

00:10:19.437 --> 00:10:23.481
Did you ever wake up Yeah,

00:10:23.602 --> 00:10:29.312
Ricky Cool and the Icebergs was the first sort of band where it got a little bit serious, if you like.

00:10:29.933 --> 00:10:36.225
I did play in other bands before then with people who subsequently were members of Ricky Cool and the Icebergs.

00:10:36.325 --> 00:10:43.857
But I mean, when that band formed, like so many bands, it was really just a group of friends making music together and having a bit of fun.

00:10:44.162 --> 00:10:45.403
It was just one of those things.

00:10:45.702 --> 00:10:51.928
For about six months to a year when that band first started, everything just seemed to slot into place.

00:10:52.249 --> 00:10:56.952
We started a residency at a pub called The Barrel Organ in Birmingham.

00:10:57.253 --> 00:11:06.081
It just so happened that because of the nature of the music we were playing, which was rhythm and blues, we were playing some sort of country and western influence stuff.

00:11:06.461 --> 00:11:09.644
We'd discovered Louis Jordan, so we were playing a bit of swing.

00:11:09.683 --> 00:11:13.206
There was no one else in Birmingham doing anything like that at all.

00:11:13.246 --> 00:11:59.576
I suppose in way it was the Birmingham equivalent of what was happening in the London pub circuit because we were sort of totally unique in Birmingham with what we were doing in no time at all at the Barrel Organ we were drawing huge crowds people would queue up outside to on a Saturday night to see us play we would rehearse all afternoon go home and have some tea come back and do the evening show so that I mean it was a great grounding for the band within six months of starting that residency We did a half-hour TV special on Midland Regional TV, and as a result of that, we got seen by Mike Vernon, who asked us to go to his studios in Chipping Norton, where he did all his Blue Horizon recordings.

00:12:00.197 --> 00:12:01.859
He did some recording work with us.

00:12:02.360 --> 00:12:07.044
It didn't actually lead to anything, but we started going down to London.

00:12:07.524 --> 00:12:20.586
We were doing this on the coattails, really, of two other bands from the the premier band in Birmingham at that time and a band from Dudley called Little Acre.

00:12:20.927 --> 00:12:31.807
We then started going down to London and playing in various places and soon started having our own London following which continued forever in various subsequent bands after the Icebergs.

00:12:32.128 --> 00:12:33.490
So what were you playing in this band?

00:12:33.509 --> 00:12:34.409
You were the singer.

00:12:34.509 --> 00:12:35.892
Well, I was fronting it.

00:12:35.932 --> 00:12:47.802
The thing about Ricky Cool and the Icebergs, which I think appealed to a lot of people as well, the name Ricky Cool, when we first started the band, we called ourselves Tricky Dicky and the Wildcats.

00:12:48.602 --> 00:12:53.787
Now, Tricky Dicky was a nickname that I'd been given when I was working in a factory.

00:12:54.128 --> 00:13:14.115
Because my name's Richard, it came about because Richard Nixon was running against Hubert Humphrey for the American presidency and he'd been christened Tricky Dicky so I became Tricky Dicky so we had Tricky Dicky and the Wildcats We decided we needed to change that name because Marty Wild's band was called the Wildcats.

00:13:14.554 --> 00:13:20.941
And it just so happened that Steve Gibbons had released a single called Johnny Cool.

00:13:21.400 --> 00:13:23.423
So Ricky became Ricky Cool.

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I mean, I was a very shy folk club performer and a very shy member of bands.

00:13:30.208 --> 00:13:33.631
The amount of singers that have come in on here who said to me, I was very shy.

00:13:33.652 --> 00:13:35.033
It's quite amazing, isn't it?

00:13:35.312 --> 00:13:36.855
Yeah, you're absolutely right.

00:13:36.955 --> 00:13:38.576
But now I've got this name.

00:13:38.576 --> 00:13:39.976
name, Ricky Cool.

00:13:40.138 --> 00:13:44.221
So I couldn't just go to a microphone and sort of mumble, oh, thank you very much.

00:13:44.261 --> 00:13:45.624
And the next number is...

00:13:46.063 --> 00:13:46.825
That wouldn't work.

00:13:47.125 --> 00:13:48.986
I'd got to live up to this name.

00:13:49.027 --> 00:13:52.211
So I adopted an American persona.

00:13:52.691 --> 00:14:05.804
I used to weave stories about this character, Ricky Cool, who was actually American and had been virtually every important milestone in the history of popular music.

00:14:06.265 --> 00:14:06.926
I'd been there.

00:14:07.147 --> 00:14:18.759
I was the guy who was walking towards the Sun Studios when Elvis Presley turned up in his pickup truck and drove through a puddle which completely drenched my outfit.

00:14:19.219 --> 00:14:23.663
And so I was brushing myself off as he went in and recorded That's Alright Mama.

00:14:23.844 --> 00:14:30.350
So I used to tell these stories and the more ridiculous they became, the more people sort of wanted to believe them.

00:14:30.711 --> 00:14:36.518
And of course, I used to do it in a mock American accent, but it was part of what made the band popular.

00:14:36.697 --> 00:14:41.823
You know, you have to remember at that time, most Most bands were either rock bands or progressive.

00:14:42.183 --> 00:14:45.648
The punk thing and the pub rock thing was happening in London.

00:14:45.947 --> 00:14:49.412
But in Birmingham, it took a while for that to...

00:14:49.792 --> 00:14:52.455
There's no internet for people to watch or YouTube.

00:14:52.875 --> 00:14:54.918
Were you playing harmonica with the Icebergs?

00:14:55.337 --> 00:14:55.597
I was.

00:14:55.717 --> 00:15:02.385
I was playing harmonica in Ricky Coole and the Icebergs, playing quite a lot of harmonica in the early days of the band.

00:15:02.505 --> 00:15:09.894
But then once I started practicing the saxophone and got to a point where I could play a few melodies and things like that.

00:15:09.933 --> 00:15:20.605
The saxophone worked its way more into the band because we were veering more towards Louis Jordan type swing and Bob Wills type Western swing.

00:15:20.885 --> 00:15:23.448
And then you're in a band called Ricky Cool and the Rialtos.

00:15:24.350 --> 00:15:27.594
So Robert Plant had some involvement, Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin, of course.

00:15:27.693 --> 00:15:29.115
So what's the story there?

00:15:29.436 --> 00:15:34.162
Well, Ricky Cool and the Rialtos followed on immediately after the Icebergs finished.

00:15:34.658 --> 00:15:38.461
Most of the work we did was in London with that band.

00:15:39.162 --> 00:15:43.326
We became very established on the London sort of pub and club circuit.

00:15:43.525 --> 00:15:49.750
But the members of the band, some of them were from Dudley and had been in Little Acre.

00:15:49.971 --> 00:15:52.192
So it was kind of some members of Little Acre.

00:15:52.774 --> 00:16:03.442
And we also, after about six months of being together, recruited a wonderful guitarist and a real close friend of mine, Andy Sylvester.

00:16:03.842 --> 00:16:09.548
Now, Andy Sylvester Sylvester had played bass in Chicken Shack in the 1960s.

00:16:09.830 --> 00:16:18.438
He was the bass player on the big hit record they had, their version of Etta James' I'd Rather Be Blind, with Christine Perfect doing the vocals.

00:16:18.739 --> 00:16:26.807
Now, Andy came from Kidderminster, and that was the area Robert Plant, in his early days, he had a band as well.

00:16:27.227 --> 00:16:36.717
Andy knew about Robert, and Robert certainly knew about Andy, because Chicken Shack were a big band before any had happened for Robert Plant at all.

00:16:37.139 --> 00:16:39.640
So they kept that association going.

00:16:39.721 --> 00:16:45.287
So if we were playing anywhere around the Kidderminster area, sometimes Robert would come and see the band.

00:16:45.548 --> 00:16:49.312
This was just after the time when John Bonham had died.

00:16:49.371 --> 00:16:51.254
So I'm talking around about 1980, 81.

00:16:52.754 --> 00:16:56.519
So it was a difficult time for Robert and he was at a bit of a loose end.

00:16:56.720 --> 00:17:04.488
And I believe I'm correct in saying that Armut Ertegun at Atlantic Records had suggested that he should go back to his roots.

00:17:04.528 --> 00:17:05.969
go back to the blues.

00:17:06.289 --> 00:17:08.310
So Robert decided to do this.

00:17:08.672 --> 00:17:14.256
And as luck would have it for us, he asked if we would be interested in teaming up with him.

00:17:14.656 --> 00:17:18.160
And this was the original Honey Drippers lineup.

00:17:18.380 --> 00:17:23.223
So the Honey Drippers lineup was basically the Rialtos plus Robbie Blunt and Robert.

00:17:23.503 --> 00:17:28.689
And we started doing clubs and colleges up and down the country as the Honey Drippers.

00:17:28.969 --> 00:17:29.869
Robert Plant was singing

00:17:30.089 --> 00:17:30.691
though, and not you in

00:17:30.711 --> 00:17:30.790
this.

00:17:30.931 --> 00:17:32.271
Oh no, Robert was singing, yeah.

00:17:32.531 --> 00:17:35.799
I was playing some saxophone And I was playing harmonica.

00:17:36.401 --> 00:17:36.642
Great.

00:17:36.662 --> 00:17:38.746
So you have played harmonica with Robert Plan.

00:17:38.925 --> 00:17:40.909
Well, that's a great claim to fame there,

00:17:40.929 --> 00:17:41.029
Ricky.

00:17:41.049 --> 00:17:41.691
Oh, yes, I have.

00:17:41.750 --> 00:17:41.911
Yeah.

00:17:42.311 --> 00:17:48.122
It was actually Robert who helped me get started on playing amplified harmonica.

00:17:48.423 --> 00:17:51.508
He gave me a JT-30, which I've still got.

00:17:52.148 --> 00:17:57.117
Some of the people who were working with the band rigged me up with a Fender Princeton harmonica.

00:17:57.218 --> 00:17:57.557
amp.

00:17:58.019 --> 00:18:05.467
So when I was doing the Honey Drippers gigs and playing harmonica, I was playing through a JT-30 running through a Fender Princeton.

00:18:05.867 --> 00:18:06.208
That was it.

00:18:06.248 --> 00:18:07.750
Yes, I played harmonica with Robert.

00:18:08.150 --> 00:18:08.951
Well, amazing.

00:18:08.971 --> 00:18:09.152
Yeah.

00:18:09.211 --> 00:18:10.853
Did you ever do any Led Zeppelin songs?

00:18:12.494 --> 00:18:12.715
No.

00:18:12.756 --> 00:18:13.777
It's interesting.

00:18:13.817 --> 00:18:17.881
He deliberately didn't want to do anything Led Zeppelin at all.

00:18:18.201 --> 00:18:56.050
And of course, a lot of the places we were playing, people were wanting to hear Led Zeppelin songs and there were a couple of occasions I remember one I think it was at Leeds University where he actually stopped the show and talked to the audience and tried to explain to them why he was doing the stuff he was doing and that it was just too raw for him to even think about doing Zeppelin numbers this soon after John Bonham dying I mean once he'd done that the audiences were fine but yeah we did have occasions where People were shouting out for a particular Zeppelin number.

00:18:56.692 --> 00:19:03.785
So after the Rialtos, you then were in a band called the Big Town Playboys, which again was quite a successful band.

00:19:03.825 --> 00:19:05.949
I certainly was aware of them when they were playing.

00:19:06.470 --> 00:19:12.961
Yes, I mean, the formation of the Playboys was really down to myself and Andy Sylvester.

00:19:13.185 --> 00:19:23.381
After the Rialtos finished, we initially really wanted to try and form an authentic Chicago-style blues band.

00:19:24.061 --> 00:19:31.594
And one of the reasons for that, and I think it's worth mentioning, the impact that the fabulous Thunderbirds had in this country.

00:19:31.894 --> 00:19:40.105
When they came over, they supported The Clash on a number of gigs in the UK and Europe and came over after that on their own.

00:19:40.246 --> 00:19:42.509
The Thunderbirds played at the Barrel Organ in Birmingham.

00:19:42.753 --> 00:19:44.837
And this would be around about 81.

00:19:45.137 --> 00:20:00.486
Really, it was through people like myself and other players seeing the Thunderbirds at that time that got us to understand there was a big difference between an authentic style blues band and the sort of blues bands which were around in the UK.

00:20:00.738 --> 00:20:05.593
So Andy and I really wanted to try and get an authentic sounding band together.

00:20:05.712 --> 00:20:09.625
We went to see various people to see if we thought they'd be interested.

00:20:09.704 --> 00:20:19.648
But what actually swung it in the end was the fact that through a lot of my musical career, I've also, alongside that, been a teacher in schools.

00:20:20.069 --> 00:20:25.940
And it just so happened that I was the teacher of Mike Sanchez and Ian Jennings.

00:20:26.561 --> 00:20:32.491
So I suggested to Andy, because I knew that Mike and Ian had a little rockabilly band together called The Rockets.

00:20:33.012 --> 00:20:38.102
I said, well, why don't we go and see Mike and Ian and see if they'd be interested in tagging along with us?

00:20:38.433 --> 00:20:39.935
So that's what we did.

00:20:39.955 --> 00:20:40.876
And they did.

00:20:40.916 --> 00:20:42.740
They were up for the idea.

00:20:43.099 --> 00:20:47.405
We recruited a drummer that I'd worked with in Ricky Cool and the Icebergs.

00:20:47.786 --> 00:20:50.750
And that was the original Big Town Playboys lineup.

00:20:50.810 --> 00:20:53.493
So you're playing plenty of harmonica in this band and much more blues.

00:20:53.673 --> 00:20:54.955
Well, I was initially.

00:20:55.175 --> 00:20:59.803
But again, Andy and I, and also Mike, we were like musical sponges.

00:20:59.883 --> 00:21:04.788
We were all through this time with the Icebergs, the Rialtos and the Playboys.

00:21:05.109 --> 00:21:08.394
We were on a sort of voyage of musical discovery as well.

00:21:08.897 --> 00:21:22.875
Andy and I discovered all of the fabulous sort of West Coast blues musicians, people like Tiny Grimes, Roy Milton, obviously T-Bone Walker, all of those sort of people.

00:21:23.115 --> 00:21:31.965
And that influence started coming into the Big Town Playboys and in a way started to push out the Chicago community.

00:21:32.066 --> 00:21:33.208
blues influences.

00:21:33.588 --> 00:21:37.013
We were taking more and more influences from those musicians.

00:21:37.295 --> 00:21:42.784
I mean, people like Amos Milburn, he was a huge influence on the big town playboys.

00:21:43.224 --> 00:21:48.032
So the harmonica started taking a bit of a backseat to the saxophone.

00:21:48.534 --> 00:21:55.645
Although we did retain harmonica numbers in the set, like for instance, Shaky Hips, the Slim Harpo.

00:22:11.074 --> 00:22:13.415
some George Smith numbers we used to do.

00:22:13.435 --> 00:22:15.298
We used to do one called Rockin'.

00:22:15.617 --> 00:22:23.505
So, yeah, so showing your, you know, like you say, you're into a musical sponge and then you started getting into reggae and you're in a band called Top Ranking.

00:22:23.684 --> 00:22:24.885
That was quite a bit later.

00:22:24.925 --> 00:22:29.309
Top Ranking was towards the end of the 1990s into the 2000s.

00:22:29.710 --> 00:22:45.464
I was already a fan of reggae, but being part of that band, all of whom, apart from myself and another saxophone player who I've played with for a number of years, Ted Bundy, All of the other musicians were schooled reggae musicians.

00:22:45.865 --> 00:22:54.554
We had a singer who'd actually come over to this country via somewhat dubious means from Kingston.

00:22:54.934 --> 00:23:00.861
And we never knew his proper name, but we christened him George Nightingale because he was such a great singer.

00:23:01.101 --> 00:23:03.984
So we had George in front of the band.

00:23:04.164 --> 00:23:06.326
He could sing Delroy Wilson.

00:23:06.727 --> 00:23:10.991
He could sing Gregory Isaacs, all of those great reggae singers.

00:23:10.991 --> 00:23:13.433
singers and he could do it so well.

00:23:13.775 --> 00:23:25.145
In top ranking, it was wonderful because it just gave me the chance to really immerse myself with reggae musicians and sort of pursue my love of reggae music as well.

00:23:25.665 --> 00:23:29.169
Then you carried this on into your current band, which is called Rikikool and the Ink Crowd.

00:23:29.269 --> 00:23:29.630
Absolutely.

00:23:29.650 --> 00:23:33.653
So in this, you've got, you know, you've got Rhythm and Blues and Jamaican sort of ska, reggae and...

00:23:34.074 --> 00:23:43.134
Yes, there's a lot of ska influences, Rocksteady, very early reggae, and also going back to Mento.

00:23:43.494 --> 00:23:48.968
Tracks like my composition, The Coconut Question, are heavily influenced by

00:23:49.067 --> 00:23:49.528
Mento.

00:23:50.082 --> 00:23:50.561
Great.

00:23:50.642 --> 00:23:57.107
And so with these, you were playing quite a lot of saxophone, but recently I understand one of the members of your band had to leave.

00:23:57.147 --> 00:23:59.809
So you're bringing more harmonica into this band again.

00:23:59.829 --> 00:23:59.951
That's

00:23:59.971 --> 00:24:00.191
correct.

00:24:00.230 --> 00:24:00.411
Yeah.

00:24:00.431 --> 00:24:14.583
Well, during the COVID period, the other saxophone player, Ted, who I mentioned earlier, he moved house and he now lives too far away really to make it viable for him to continue with the band.

00:24:15.084 --> 00:24:18.406
I made the decision really that we should try and continue as a five piece.

00:24:18.547 --> 00:24:55.836
And this was again, one of the things that happened during covid was i decided i really needed to get back and do some serious harmonica playing because having been self-taught and having in those early days not actually seen any other harmonica players to talk to nobody who could mentor me in any way you know i'd obviously i've learned quite a bit of technique but i've learned a lot of mistakes as well so i decided i was going to get back and really do some serious study which which i did and have done yeah continue to do yeah i decided i'd really like to get the harmonica to be much more of a feature in Ricky Cool in the in crowd which has happened

00:24:56.097 --> 00:25:14.544
picking out a couple of the songs first of all one of the songs is the coconut question It's quite melodic playing, isn't it?

00:25:14.564 --> 00:25:15.825
You're dueting with a flute.

00:25:15.884 --> 00:25:19.208
Is that your approach to the kind of reggae, you know, Jamaican style of music?

00:25:19.268 --> 00:25:21.569
Well, it just suits that number.

00:25:21.630 --> 00:25:25.252
So I'm playing in first position, I think on an E flat.

00:25:25.613 --> 00:25:28.816
I'm playing diatonic harmonica, but I'm playing first position.

00:25:29.215 --> 00:25:38.904
And on the version that we released on the Flamingo Nights album, I duet with Ted, who also plays flute as well as saxophone.

00:25:39.244 --> 00:25:41.666
It just really suits that mento feel.

00:25:41.987 --> 00:25:45.891
So what I want to know about this song is how does the milk get into a coconut

00:25:46.551 --> 00:26:18.385
Ricky yeah I always ask that question when we're doing this as a gig there is a story behind that song it goes back to when I was an apprentice at an engineering company near Hales Owen there was a guy who worked at this factory who was a sort of a maintenance engineer used to do sort of like building maintenance around the factory site and his name was Albert Stackhouse which is a great black country name what One of his things was whenever you'd see him around the factory and you say, oh, hi, Albert, how you doing?

00:26:18.665 --> 00:26:24.653
He'd always just come back and quote poetry at you, whether it was accurate poetry or just something he'd made up.

00:26:24.712 --> 00:26:25.614
I've no idea.

00:26:25.753 --> 00:26:28.497
Basic thing is he would just talk nonsense back to you.

00:26:28.977 --> 00:26:36.625
So one day there was another guy in the factory who I overheard asking him how he should go about doing some crazy paving at his house.

00:26:37.026 --> 00:26:40.189
And Albert's reply was, how does the milk get in a coconut?

00:26:41.510 --> 00:26:42.672
So that stuck with me.

00:26:42.672 --> 00:27:01.432
with me i mean i was what 18 when that happened 17 maybe and it's just stuck in my head it's a great line yeah in the in crowd when we were you know i just had this mento idea running in my head with the punch line being how does the milk get into a coconut the rest of the song got composed around that

00:27:01.711 --> 00:27:14.288
and so and then a couple of new songs which haven't yet released yet you sent through to me yeah yeah you're playing a song called contactless which is based on a jamaican musician roy richards playing a song called contact so you're using a idle fanfare tremolo on this

00:27:14.488 --> 00:27:15.069
that's correct

00:27:29.963 --> 00:27:30.585
so

00:27:33.473 --> 00:27:47.106
Yeah, I mean, I love the fanfare tremolo, but that's probably because I'm not really a tremolo player and the layout of the fanfare is exactly the same as a solo-tuned diatonic or, well, or a chromatic.

00:27:47.507 --> 00:27:54.473
So I can kind of get my way around the fanfare because of being familiar with chromatic and solo-tuned harmonicas.

00:27:55.194 --> 00:28:02.942
Yeah, and you've got another, you've got a solo-tuned harmonica and a song called Stamina as well, another new one you're bringing into the band.

00:28:04.385 --> 00:28:15.188
Yeah, the state I'm in.

00:28:15.528 --> 00:28:26.190
Yeah, and the reason for that, throughout that number when I'm playing harmonica, I play in octaves and it's just kind of a bit easier on a 10-hole size diatonic to play the octaves.

00:28:26.561 --> 00:28:31.846
So I got Seidel to make me one up using the configurator on the website.

00:28:32.267 --> 00:28:33.327
Yeah, that was great stuff.

00:28:33.367 --> 00:28:35.108
Yeah, and so using a variety of harmonicas.

00:28:35.349 --> 00:28:40.193
So if we can now, we'll move on to your Mississippi Sax YouTube series.

00:28:40.634 --> 00:28:40.854
Yes.

00:28:41.095 --> 00:28:49.721
So as I mentioned at the beginning, you've done this great series of videos, which I definitely recommend people to check out, and I'll put some links to some of them on your YouTube channel and everything onto the podcast page.

00:28:49.922 --> 00:28:56.307
So the idea of this is you're taking some great saxophone riffs or just parts of solos, just usually little quiet...

00:28:56.528 --> 00:29:27.381
sort of sections of solos and you're basically adapting them to harmonica and then you know playing them a harmonica so it's it's a great resource because someone like yourself who plays saxophone like you say you love that music you listen to lots of saxophone music you know we're forever forever hearing people talk about how harmonica players try to sound like a horn you know and and this kind of thing so it's a great way to really dive into that and obviously you've spent a lot of time really are trying to sound like a horn and specifically trying to emulate horn lines yeah so um tell us how you you know where you came up you know the ideas Well,

00:29:27.421 --> 00:29:35.755
the idea came about really because on YouTube, there is a great saxophone player, Randy Hunter.

00:29:36.095 --> 00:29:38.638
I followed a lot of his YouTube videos.

00:29:38.778 --> 00:29:43.646
He just did a little series called Great Blues Motifs for Saxophone.

00:29:43.907 --> 00:29:45.450
That's what sparked the idea.

00:29:45.690 --> 00:29:52.902
There's some fabulous little bits of saxophone, which are really bluesy, which I'm sure would be great to play on the harmonica.

00:29:53.185 --> 00:29:55.708
So I started going through my collection.

00:29:56.068 --> 00:30:07.979
And obviously, with my sort of rhythm and blues background, particularly the West Coast stuff, I was aware of some of those great players who played rhythm and blues rather than jazz.

00:30:08.259 --> 00:30:11.182
So that kind of, in a way, was a starting point for me.

00:30:11.281 --> 00:30:13.644
But really, it's just the idea.

00:30:13.683 --> 00:30:22.971
We all know, because we've heard the story countless times, how little Walter was heavily influenced by the other sax players he saw in and around Chicago.

00:30:23.152 --> 00:30:25.394
That's how the idea came about.

00:30:25.674 --> 00:30:35.765
All I wanted to do and all I want to do with this really is show people who tune into my channel in one of those videos is that there are influences all around.

00:30:35.806 --> 00:30:37.968
It doesn't necessarily have to be a saxophone.

00:30:38.428 --> 00:30:41.672
It's just the fact that they call the harmonica the Mississippi saxophone.

00:30:41.751 --> 00:30:49.339
Yeah, just on that name, it's funny because the third episode in a row now, the place of Mississippi is featured quite heavily in the last few episodes.

00:30:49.380 --> 00:30:51.041
So I don't know if you know anything about that.

00:30:51.082 --> 00:30:54.404
I guess it's just because that's where the blues kind originated from and uh

00:30:54.746 --> 00:31:29.103
well all i can tell you about that is that in 2008 i did a road trip in the states from memphis and my and my next stop on the on my journey was clarksdale being in clarksdale and the surrounding areas the atmosphere it's just when you're in clarksdale and you walk you're walking along one of the streets and you see john lee hooker avenue it's just sort of oozes the blues yeah i've When I stayed in Clarksdale, I stayed at a hotel called the Riverside Motel.

00:31:29.123 --> 00:31:33.426
And the Riverside Motel had at one time been a hospital.

00:31:33.446 --> 00:31:36.309
And it was the hospital where Bessie Smith died.

00:31:36.851 --> 00:31:41.155
Since it had become a motel, it had been in this one family for years.

00:31:41.776 --> 00:31:46.761
And I pulled up outside the motel and it looked really ramshackle from the outside.

00:31:47.041 --> 00:31:54.208
outside the hotel was a plaque about the Bessie Smith story, part of the Mississippi Blues Trail.

00:31:54.248 --> 00:32:00.334
So I was reading this and a guy came out of the hotel and he said, oh, he said, what are you looking at?

00:32:00.413 --> 00:32:01.494
I said, I was reading this.

00:32:01.535 --> 00:32:03.715
He said, are you looking for a place to stay?

00:32:03.757 --> 00:32:07.359
And I said, well, yeah, I was thinking of maybe staying here.

00:32:07.380 --> 00:32:10.982
I was sort of taking my courage in my hands.

00:32:11.022 --> 00:32:12.963
He said, come on in and look around.

00:32:13.005 --> 00:32:15.287
It turned out it was the owner of the hotel.

00:32:15.307 --> 00:32:19.636
It was immaculate in But it was like a time warp.

00:32:19.676 --> 00:32:23.087
All of the furniture was from the 1940s and 50s.

00:32:23.690 --> 00:32:24.413
And so he said...

00:32:24.865 --> 00:32:26.548
Well, which room do you want?

00:32:26.567 --> 00:32:27.308
And I said, well, I don't know.

00:32:27.328 --> 00:32:31.752
He said, well, this one, this is the room where John Lee Hooker would stay when he was passing through.

00:32:31.792 --> 00:32:35.356
The one down at the end here, Muddy used that room a lot.

00:32:35.798 --> 00:32:39.602
This one here, this was Sonny Boy Williamson's room of choice.

00:32:40.061 --> 00:32:41.203
So which one do you want?

00:32:41.584 --> 00:32:44.747
So I ended up, I said, well, I'm a harmonica player.

00:32:44.787 --> 00:32:47.670
I'll have to stay in Sonny Boy Williamson's room.

00:32:47.690 --> 00:32:50.973
So there I was in the room that Sonny Boy Williamson had.

00:32:51.074 --> 00:32:53.478
So the man was telling me, stayed in.

00:32:53.959 --> 00:33:05.958
And once I'd got settled, he took me on a tour around Clarksdale and took me to a little jam session that was going on, introduced me to everybody and said, oh, this is a harmonica player from the UK, Ricky Cool.

00:33:06.659 --> 00:33:08.281
It was then, oh, come on and play.

00:33:08.962 --> 00:33:13.630
I sat in with so many people while I was doing this road trip.

00:33:13.851 --> 00:33:18.397
I mean, the harmonica was such a great little entree to make this happen.

00:33:18.498 --> 00:33:19.739
trip so memorable.

00:33:20.259 --> 00:33:21.059
Fantastic, yeah.

00:33:21.160 --> 00:33:25.003
That sounds like it's definitely a road trip we should all do as harmonica players, yeah.

00:33:25.344 --> 00:33:35.472
Yes, I mean, if you're into blues, you really, you know, if you get the opportunity, you really should sort of travel around those areas that we've all read about and heard about in songs.

00:33:35.932 --> 00:33:41.897
So, yeah, so the Mississippi Sax one, again, it sounds like you focus more on the kind of blues, rhythm and blues end than...

00:33:42.378 --> 00:33:43.519
Well, not necessarily.

00:33:43.539 --> 00:33:43.619
Bits

00:33:44.019 --> 00:33:45.421
of jazz as well, isn't there in there, yeah.

00:33:45.801 --> 00:33:57.872
Yes, and particularly I've found really because I'm a big fan of it, that period of jazz when blue note records really came into prominence, you know, the late 50s and through into the early 60s.

00:33:58.452 --> 00:34:02.076
There's so much bluesy saxophone on those records.

00:34:02.556 --> 00:34:04.597
It's a wonderful resource.

00:34:05.278 --> 00:34:25.559
The very latest video that I've put on in that series is actually a trumpet, a little bit of trumpet from Lee Morgan on the classic track Moaning, the Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers track Because the opening few notes, the little motifs that Lee Morgan plays on that are just stunning.

00:34:26.300 --> 00:34:36.766
And they're great for third position blues harmonica.

00:34:38.465 --> 00:34:40.347
So that's a question.

00:34:40.967 --> 00:34:44.610
We'll start looking to some of the specific songs you cover, but that's a question.

00:34:45.711 --> 00:34:52.338
What really is the difference between these horn lines and playing them on harmonica and learning from other harmonica players?

00:34:52.898 --> 00:34:55.420
What do you think you're learning differently from that?

00:34:55.641 --> 00:34:57.402
Obviously, it's a different instrument for one thing, isn't

00:34:57.862 --> 00:34:57.902
it?

00:34:57.922 --> 00:34:59.503
Well, different instrument for one thing.

00:34:59.523 --> 00:35:30.978
And because all instruments have their own nuances and things like that, as we know, but there are things that obviously saxophone players will do which maybe a harmonica player wouldn't naturally sort of think of because particularly if your main influence is coming from other harmonica players but with a little bit of investigation and a little bit of experimentation you can find that these ideas actually you know, even if it's not exact, work really, really well.

00:35:30.998 --> 00:35:42.532
And what I'm trying to get across is that as a player, really, when you get up and play, you want to try and sound like yourself, not like your heroes or this, that and the other.

00:35:42.871 --> 00:35:56.639
So the more little things that you can pick up from other places and put into your bank of resources, ultimately, it's going to give you a more individual sound and give you your own voice, if you like.

00:35:56.998 --> 00:35:59.061
I mean, it's a tried and tested technique.

00:35:59.380 --> 00:36:04.545
You know, you pick up all your influences from other people and then eventually you get your own sound.

00:36:04.846 --> 00:36:06.106
Yeah, and I think you approach it very well.

00:36:06.126 --> 00:36:10.630
You choose quite a short section of a solo from various different great players.

00:36:11.210 --> 00:36:17.677
And then, you know, you sort of, you say, you tab it out for the harmonica and you sort of demonstrate playing it on the harmonica.

00:36:17.717 --> 00:36:27.586
And then you sort of play it with a backing track and then you sort of, you know, loosen it up a little bit bit of saying you don't obviously you don't have to play exactly the riff you know you can adapt it and use little ideas from it so you know I think you work that through really well

00:36:27.867 --> 00:36:35.635
yeah that's it I'm just really all I'm trying to do is just show people a doorway open it a little bit and hope that they'll go through

00:36:36.255 --> 00:36:54.715
yeah so I mean one thing obviously with little Walter probably being the most famous of someone who you know would sound like a horn I think part of that is the fact that he amplified the harmonica you know allegedly first maybe other people first but that was a big part of it you know it was the sound wasn't it it was getting which was more sax-like, as well as the lines he was playing as well.

00:36:54.735 --> 00:36:55.856
So, you know, I mean, what do you think?

00:36:56.097 --> 00:36:57.057
You know, is it a bit of both?

00:36:57.297 --> 00:36:59.460
No, I think you're absolutely right.

00:36:59.481 --> 00:37:01.503
I mean, it is that amplified sound.

00:37:01.722 --> 00:37:10.251
I've been to the chess studios and seen the room and talked to somebody who said, well, I used to do things like this and that and the other.

00:37:10.693 --> 00:37:13.315
The sound of those little Walter recordings.

00:37:13.916 --> 00:37:23.246
I think the other thing as well that makes little Walter stand out from all the rest is actually the quality of the songs and the quality of the instrumentals when he's doing those.

00:37:23.525 --> 00:37:33.257
You know, there are other great players, you know, Big Walter, James Cotton, whatever, but it's the quality of Little Walter's material that makes him stand out.

00:37:33.556 --> 00:37:36.039
It's consistently such a high standard.

00:37:36.340 --> 00:37:42.666
Yeah, and I think definitely it's some of his, like you touched on it there, it's his instrumentals which do have horn-like lines, don't they?

00:37:42.686 --> 00:37:46.931
They're kind of long weaving lines which are, you know, something like rollercoaster or something.

00:37:46.951 --> 00:37:51.215
You definitely get that kind of saxophone approach, yeah.

00:37:51.215 --> 00:38:07.326
Thank you.

00:38:08.449 --> 00:38:17.059
And, I mean, for instance, if you listen to his solo on My Bay, I mean, the opening of that solo is very kind of saxophone-influenced.

00:38:17.119 --> 00:38:19.842
You could hear a saxophone player playing that.

00:38:34.657 --> 00:38:34.878
MUSIC PLAYS

00:38:37.505 --> 00:38:38.166
Yeah, absolutely.

00:38:38.226 --> 00:38:41.971
So you've done 19 videos so far in total.

00:38:42.231 --> 00:38:44.652
And as you said, the last one you've done is actually a trumpet.

00:38:44.672 --> 00:38:46.054
I think all the others are saxophones.

00:38:46.094 --> 00:38:47.036
They are, yeah.

00:38:47.056 --> 00:38:49.077
Generally alto and tenor saxophones.

00:38:49.097 --> 00:38:49.458

Ricky Cool interview

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