Yale Harmonica Bash '97

THIRD ANNUAL HARMONICA BLAST
AT THE YALE HOTEL

- by Gary Preston -
photos of Sherman & Gary by editor
Issue #47 - Cosmic Debris Musicians Magazine - Dec '97

Sherman D. / G. Preston x editor

Sherman 'Tank' Doucette's annual Harmonica Blast at the Yale Hotel in Vancouver is now a huge, well-established event, and every year it keeps getting better. On September 13, the joint was full (and then some) from 2:PM till 2:AM for the Third Annual Harmonica Blast.

Before this year's event, the all-time record day for bar sales at the Yale was the day of Harmonica Blast II in 1996. This year, a new record was set, and I'm not surprised. The day offered everything that any lover of blues, lover of music, or just plain lover of being-where-it's-all-happening could ask for... exciting high-quality music, variety, elbow-to-elbow denizens of downtown, and over a dozen great harmonica players.

Featured guests included Mark DuFresne, Jim McLaughlin, and one of harmonica's great innovators and bonafide international stars ... Lee Oskar.

The following morning, or rather early afternoon, several of us performers who had come from out-of-town gathered for a farewell brunch and a postmortem on the Blast before heading home to Seattle or Portland, or to the ferries. We fell into a number of discussions, one of the more serious being on "What is blues", and one of the more frivolous being when we all told our "How I Met Jim McLaughlin" stories. (Some of you readers may recall from last year's article on the Harp Blast how I tried to convey the good-hearted off-the-wall energy of that man.)

An American player named A.J., who reminded me of the mumbling Texan good ole'boy from the TV cartoon "King of the Hill", related a classic tale of phoning Jim because he'd been told that Jim was The Man to talk to if you love harp. As soon as Jim realized he was talking to another harp player, he disappeared from the line for a moment, then returned with an armful of harmonicas and commenced to playing all sorts of bizarre licks over the phone. "I thought I'd reached Dial-A-Harp!", A.J. said.

It was also A.J. who best summed up Harmonica Blast 97 from the players' perspective (once we figured out what he was saying) when he compared the Harp Blast to similar events in Washington, Oregon, and California: "This is the best one of the bunch," he said. "Everybody just wants to have fun, and make sure everybody else is having fun." (Actually he said: "Thissunsa bess, evabawdee juss wansa havva lil fohn - ya'll know whaddahm sayin? Ann makin' shor evabawdee ellsis too, ah'Il tellya wha.")

The fun-and-sharing philosophy of this event didn't happen by accident. It all starts at the top with Sherman Doucette, who organized it out of sheer love for the harmonica and for those who play. And Lee Oskar - who has the reputation and clout to strongly influence the atmosphere of any event he attends, turned out to be yet another kid who just loves the harp, loves other players, and just wants everybody to have the best time. So we did.

Each great act was followed by another as we were treated to the sounds of Dave Hoerl with The Twisters, Jack Hicklin, Elbore James, Andy Cook, Nigel Mack and his band, Gary Preston with Randy Waldie on guitar, John Fuhrmann, Dave Mathis, Christopher Allen, Rob Bracken, and more.

It was that same weekend that harmonica legend Jr. Wells' illness deepened, and he slipped into a coma, and most of us players heard about it at the Blast. Time and time again, players mentioned Junior, and dedicated songs to him. The overall effect was to add to the sense of respect and musical tradition that we all felt as we shared the stage.

This year, Sherman's band Incognito, was playing that evening at the Yale, too, so the afternoon flowed seamlessly into the evening with Lee Oskar and Mark DuFresne as special evening guests. But the fun and sharing just kept on happening, too. As the night progressed, I was up there along with Jim McLaughlin and Dave Mathis, jammin' with Lee, Mark, and Incognito. Maybe Ford isn't gonna make any more T-Birds, but we sure had fun, fun, fun.

I also had a good chance this year to witness the event through the eyes of the listeners and watchers. Several friends and a couple of my harmonica students were there, and I kept checking back with them to see how the day was unfolding for them.

The biggest comments I got back were about the unexpected variety - it wasn't all 12-bar electric blues (though there was plenty of that and it was all great).

Lee Oskar, of course, played with a sound, approach, attack and idea set that was completely his own, sculpting beautiful sonic pieces.

Mark DuFresne is a great multi-faceted talent who played chromatic harmonica, sang like an R&B angel, and finished off with a romp on diatonic harp.

There was also a totally hip rendition of Miles Davis' 'So What' on the chromatic by Keith Bennett, and there was Jim McLaughlin's s#!t kickin' version of 'Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette' as well as his heart-rending medley of 'Danny Boy' and 'Amazing Grace'.

Several of the players had arranged to get up with their own bands. This slowed the set changes down a bit, but the payback was in some interesting pieces with arrangements and more complex chord progressions.

Another highlight was Sherman "the Tank" himself running through the crowd playing through his wireless mike, blowing with inspiration and abandon on a tune dedicated to Jr. Wells.

Big thanks to the Yale Hotel, the sponsors, Tony for the sound (and great guitar playing), the crowd, the players, all the people who worked so hard to make this a great event... and a special thanks to Sherman Doucette for his vision of us all celebrating together.

See ya next year! - Gary Preston - 12/97

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