I worked with Toots Thielman, some say the greatest harmonica player of our time, and as a child my dad would take the whole family to see The Harmonicats whenever they were in town.
Also we’d always catch Johnny Puleo (a virtuoso midget harmonica player) when he would appear on TV. In my teenage years, working as a cowboy summers in Colorado I learned to play sitting around campfires at night.
It was after that I began to discover the wonders of Slim Harpo, Jimmy Reed, Little Walter, Larry Adler, Paul Butterfield and yes, the wonder of Stevie Wonder. I never got that good on the thing, never practiced enough. But I’ve always deeply appreciated the music that pours from these little “child toys” when handled by a virtuoso.
Word had it that Mindy Jostyn could also play that thang. I produced the last album of her too short life and towards the end one day she said, “Let’s put a little blues harp on this song”. I set up the mic, sat back in my producer’s chair and listened to her go to work.
This was a month before she left us and already she was so weak from coughing that she couldn’t sing, but could she ever blow. What came out of her that day was pure genius – a command of the instrument that shocked me, a gut wrenching bluesy funk that made me laugh and cry at the same time and a celebration of life that I will never forget.
She couldn’t sing anymore, so she sang through this “toy”. She joined the ranks that day in my book. I thought then, “Oh my God, I’m gonna study with her and learn what she knows”.
Too late.
Mindy mastered many instruments – guitar, piano, fiddle, her voice. Harmonica was her best. I know. I was there that day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~For more information about Peter Link and his company, Watchfire Music,
please visit us at Watchfire Music.com, or click on the blog entry's title and be automatically redirected to our website.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment