In response to my comment: > >Ears schooled in the blues become very > >accustomed to behind-the-beat and we often forget to mess with the other > >side of the tick.
Bill Price wrote: >Interesting thought, Ken, and one I might have taken another 20 years to >notice if you hadn't brought it to my attention.
I really like to use harp as a component of the rhythm section. If the other rhythm players are good, it's more fun than playing fills or even solos. I've found that when I can come up with a rhythm pattern that locks with the rest of the section, and then execute it so that it adds energy, well that's ecstatic.
And I don't know what others have experienced along these lines, but I've found that the harp can very subtly and effectively control the energy of the crowd by going a wee smidge ahead of the beat in its rhythm pattern. Must be used judiciously, but it can really be effective. During those numbers where you're building to the climax of the show you might want to use it more and more.
I used to sit in alot with a band that was active in NY in the late 60's called The King Biscuit Blues Band. They'd always call me up when the audience began flagging. We had three or four numbers worked out, and I was usually able to get the energy back in the room. First, because I hadn't been playing for the last two hours and was nice and fresh, and second because the audience was used to the band's behind-the-beat feel at that point, and I'd just jump way out in front of the beat and it was like throwing water in everyone's faces.
Again, use sparingly, figure out where it works best for you. It's a skill like any other.
By the way, if you've ever heard any of the performance recordings of The Band when they were still The Hawks, they seem to be ALL KINDS of ahead of the beat and the excitement pours off those muffled recordings. The effect is electric. They were much more sophisticated about these matters when they became the Band but they clearly knew exactly what they were doing with time when they were nightclub musicians.
One final example: The first album by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Full of that rushing kind of excitement, much of it because Jerome Arnold is north of the beat on the bass in the uptempo numbers (which makes it quite unique as a Chicago Blues album), but take note of how subtly ahead-of-beat the harmonica is in its first statement on Born In Chicago. He very quickly sinks back behind or on top of the beat for the rest of the tune, but when you first hear him in that tune, there's this lift in it... It's the first moment most of us heard him, and though he's never been my main man, that moment "announced" Paul Butterfield most effectively.
