Buddha
2360 posts
Aug 20, 2010
7:09 AM
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after working with Jay Gaunt, Alex Paclin and Brandon Bailey my thoughts on Alex have changed. Todd Parrot is correct when he said there is much more to Alex than is shown on You Tube.
Alex is MUCH better than I thought. I really pushed him into uncomfortable conditions and he held up much better than I thought. He has the best chops of all the younglings.
Jay is still the best musician of the three. He handled everything I threw at him and played very well at the Jazz Jam. Alex did not fare well at the Jazz Jam at all and in fact after playing on chorus with Jay, Alex left the jam altogether and went back to the blues jam. Jay stayed and played jazz with me.
Brandon has his own sound now, yes I know he takes a lot from Son of Dave but Brandon has made what he does, his own and that something neither Jay nor Alex have done.
Jay has the best tone of the three.
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"All is bliss"
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toddlgreene
1684 posts
Aug 20, 2010
7:20 AM
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As a disclaimer, it should be noted that your opinions of these young bucks holds them to a very high standard of playing expertise, one that most of us that have been playing for many years(myself included)would probably fall short on. That's a huge compliment to to them, by the way.
Is there any video or audio footage of any of the events?
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Crescent City Harmonica Club
Todd L Greene, Co-Founder
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GermanHarpist
1706 posts
Aug 20, 2010
7:22 AM
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Let's see how long it takes them until they write posts about the oldlings...
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kudzurunner
1766 posts
Aug 20, 2010
8:24 AM
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Very interesting stuff, Chris. Video, please!
Brandon and I recorded his first album two weeks ago in Memphis--same studio Jay used, actually--and we look forward to mixing, mastering, and releasing it this fall. It is very impressive. Brandon did some old-school things (two Sonny Boy songs) on a big low harp that surprised the heck out of me. He's got old school and new school covered. As for tone: on that big low harp, Brandon's tone is the best that I've heard in a long time out of ANY player, much less the two younguns.
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ridge
73 posts
Aug 20, 2010
8:29 AM
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Very cool post, Buddah. I'd love to see/hear any of that SPAH stuff too!
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Buddha
2361 posts
Aug 20, 2010
8:37 AM
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@Adam
I can easily see where you think Brandon has the best tone. For blues, YES but overall acoustic tone in blues AND jazz, to my ears, Jay wins. Jay has a wider range of tone where Brandon's seems to be exclusive to the blues idiom.
He played some of his CD for me. It's going to be a MUST OWN for all harmonica players. I am proud to have had a hand in his development along with you Adam.
Jay, Brandon and Alex are the players for the next generation.
I don't have any video but I know Jay's mom has been videoing everything minus the jazz jam. I really wish that was recorded, there was some top notch playing by all.
I can't explain how odd it is for me to hear my influence on so many of the young players. It's bizzaro world for me.
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"All is bliss"
Last Edited by on Aug 20, 2010 8:39 AM
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Buddha
2362 posts
Aug 20, 2010
8:44 AM
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@germanharpist
younglings is a star wars reference. Younglings are children destined to become Jedi Knights. Yes, I'm a SW geek.
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"All is bliss"
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toddlgreene
1686 posts
Aug 20, 2010
8:48 AM
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You should call these three Padawans with high levels of Midi-chlorians, then...
Here's a link from...Wookiepedia.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Padawan
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Crescent City Harmonica Club
Todd L Greene, Co-Founder
Last Edited by on Aug 20, 2010 9:15 AM
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nacoran
2561 posts
Aug 20, 2010
11:06 AM
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Tod, I don't treat anything from the prequels as canon, so get your little force bugs out of here! ;)
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Nate
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Zhin
510 posts
Aug 20, 2010
11:09 AM
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Hey that's some great news Chris! I'm happy that everyone is progressing!
@tod/nac, Yeah seriously tod... epic fail with the prequel references.
Honestly a period that should be called "The Madness of King George... Lucas"
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http://www.youtube.com/harmonicazhin
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toddlgreene
1689 posts
Aug 20, 2010
11:22 AM
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Valid point on my prequel references...Allow me to redeem myself.
Picture this. Jay Gaunt is in the driver's seat(sportin' a permit, no doubt, as he's probably still too young to drive alone)of a rental LandSpee-ummm, Cruiser. Buddha is riding shotgun with Alex and Brandon in the back, practicing overblows, no doubt.. They pull up to a SPAH parking attendant, who stops them and asks for 5 dollars. Buddha speaks up in a rather nasal fake English accent and waves his monkey paw simultaneously, 'These aren't the harmonica players you are looking for'... You know the rest.
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Crescent City Harmonica Club
Todd L Greene, Co-Founder
Last Edited by on Aug 20, 2010 11:54 AM
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Zhin
512 posts
Aug 20, 2010
5:07 PM
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@tod, lol good save. XD
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http://www.youtube.com/harmonicazhin
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Joch230
292 posts
Aug 20, 2010
6:41 PM
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Well, for what it's worth, here's my take on the blow-off event where Chris graciously shared the stage with the three young guns mentioned above. Before I go there, Chris also shared the stage and brought up a Polish phenom named Bart Leczycki. He's 30 years old so he not really in the same age bracket as the Young Guns...but man did this guy have chops! I'm not going to claim any winner amongst the Young Guns but even Jay told me that in the blues part of the jam, he cut all their heads. Anyhow, the jam also included a funk/fusion meets Michael Jackson section. I was wondering if Brandon could "hang" with the other young guns as I had never really heard him play any of this type of music before. Let me just say that he did well...in fact, all three of them really could stand proud at the end. And talk about pressure...when Chris introduced them saying..."be prepared to be amazed"!
I agree with Chris, that Alex has just an amazing range of chops. Jay's tone, I felt, was getting to sound like the nice horn tone that Chris also gets. So I could understand him liking Jays tone the best. But I did hear Brandon this afternoon in the electric jam session and he has a super blues tone...very full. And he played really well, even having Will Scarlett holding a camera right in his face the whole time. Alex often plays fairly quietly acoustically using less air but still sounding good. All and all, there are no winners or losers here...I was the winner for being able to listen them all. I got to hang with Alex and Todd Parrot quite a bit which was really cool. Oh yeah...Jay has a great tongue warble! He told me to practice it on a Special 20 to save my tongue some grief. Anyhow, I'll write more on SPAH at a later time...still a full day to go. This afternoon I got to hang and play with Dennis Gruenling. Even shared my stash of snacks with him...talk about cool! I told him I got two new Buddha harps. He joked to make sure you don't do any tongue blocking on them or they might explode or something!
-John
Last Edited by on Aug 20, 2010 7:28 PM
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superchucker77
289 posts
Aug 20, 2010
7:26 PM
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I'm having a blast here at SPAH. Hanging with Jay,Chris,Alex,Todd Parrot,Buckweed, Dennis,Filisko, and Ronnie Shellist has been great. Lots of great players and music here. It's an awesome experience.
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Brandon O. Bailey
Official Website of Superchucker
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nacoran
2581 posts
Aug 20, 2010
7:38 PM
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Hey Buddha, I saw this article an thought of you!
http://www.wired.com/playbook/2010/08/mallakhamb-extreme-gymnastics/
As for harmonica content at at 1:05 the lyrics say 'harmonica pilates', although I have no idea what that means in what I am guessing is Hindi.
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Nate
Facebook
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Joch230
293 posts
Aug 20, 2010
7:39 PM
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I got to play with Brandon (just playing some background stuff on a low D harp) while he beat-boxed a tune with Brendon Powers and Alex and Mike Fugazzi which was a lot of fun. Brandon mentions Buckweed above. He was playing with everyone..on stand-up and regular bass, sousaphone, and he even had a bass harp. He was such a crowd favorite, being able to follow almost anything with no rehearsal. I heard someone say that the real star of this years SPAH wasn't even a harmonica player...it was Todd (Buckweed..formally of Jason Ricci's band).
-John
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Jay Gaunt
10 posts
Aug 20, 2010
7:45 PM
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Yeah man, SPAH 2010 is the best one I've ever been to, hands down. The talent is as amazing as always and, due to a smaller group of attendees, it has by default become more exclusive, with a higher concentration of talented players than in previous years. Also, the manufacturers' booths are more interesting due to the fact that (I suspect in reaction to the B-Radical) some of the major harmonica manufacturers have stepped up their games. For instance, Hering has developed a custom shop which is producing some incredible harmonicas, with relatively low price tags. Also, as Brandon noted, we've been able to hang out with some great players. I'll post another message when it is all over to recap everything in greater detail.
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Zhin
515 posts
Aug 21, 2010
6:48 AM
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I was on webcam with Brandon for a short moment and Buck Weed walked in, said a bunch of random cool stuff and then walks out saying
"I'm gonna go now and prove to those guys you CAN play jazz with a tuba"
LOL
What an epic dude.
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http://www.youtube.com/harmonicazhin
Last Edited by on Aug 21, 2010 6:49 AM
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Buddha
2363 posts
Aug 21, 2010
7:16 AM
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It would have been nice to see Todd rock the tuba at the jazz jam but Randy Singer went into asshole mode and wouldn't let him up.
Howard Levy just blew a nice solo on a tune and I walked up after to say what I had to say and in mid solo Randy cut me off and told the band to go to the head.
Randy told me that it was disrespectful to walk up after Howard. Hmmmmm EVERYBODY told me when I walked off stage they like what little I played better than what Howard had just played. Needless to say I was shredding that tune and Randy couldn't handle it. This is the world of jazz guys, huge egos that are held together by glass and bandaids. I can't figure out what's up with Randy but that dude is broken inside.
I got pissed and had it in my head to shred the fuck out of Randy on stage during the next tune but instead I walked away.
Later I found myself jamming with Jimmy Lee with Todd Parrot, Jay Gaunt, Alex Paclin and Howard Levy...that was much more fun than cutting someones head at a jam.
Alex is definitely the lesser musician to Jay and Brandon but he does have very good chops when he figures out how to really play music, the kids is going to be scary. Right now, Alex is very much lick based. Jay and Brandon have those moments too but to a lesser degree than Alex.
Brandon needs more work in learning how to deal with ambiguous situations but he's going to get there. He's an incredibly dedicated and hard worker who simply needs to reprocess and apply information in his own way.
There was another youngling in Kaleena Hutchins. She's very raw, but she has that "it" thing to her. If she had some confidence she might be the one to surpass everybody musicially. I taught her how to channel emotions and she did it... she got into that zone on the very first try and was reduced to tears... it was an amazing moment for everybody at the table. She's good!
The hotel absolutely sucks and I truly feel sorry for those that do not have a car but overall this has been a very good SPAH.
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"All is bliss"
Last Edited by on Aug 21, 2010 7:20 AM
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Andrew
1135 posts
Aug 21, 2010
8:42 AM
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I saw Star Wars once. It was OK if you liked science fiction. I haven't seen any of the sequels though.
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Andrew,
gentleman of leisure,
noodler extraordinaire.
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AlexPaclin
15 posts
Aug 23, 2010
3:10 PM
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I'm still so excited about the thing that i have been at SPAH, was hanging out and talkin to all these people who I knew only in absentia before. It was fun to hang out with Jay, Brendon and both Todds. These guys are really cool. I'll try to get in the United States next summer again and go to SPAH 2011.
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LittleJoeSamson
421 posts
Aug 23, 2010
4:57 PM
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"Let's see how long it takes them until they write posts about the oldlings... " GH
GH...Can I use that as the name of a band ?
"The Oldlings" ? Sounds cool.
We have a Surf band out here of (now) older dudes , that call themselves "The Dentures".
I can maybe get Merrell Fankhauser ( "Wipeout" ), who I know and jam with to do something neat with. He'd get a kick out of a name like that !
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bonedog569
69 posts
Aug 23, 2010
5:42 PM
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Buddha:
"Later I found myself jamming with Jimmy Lee with Todd Parrot, Jay Gaunt, Alex Paclin and Howard Levy..."
I sure hope someone caught that little session on tape - YIKES!
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