Reviews

Once Lay a King - Colour of Light An album review by Sophia Ramirez, Editorial Team

Once Lay a King is the latest album by Colour of Light, a contemporary five-piece band who sing as well as play guitar, banjo, ukulele, double bass, and harmonica. Jon Burr plays the diatonic harmonica throughout the album; winner in the diatonic blues/ rock category of a 1994 National Harmonica League competition, Burr has been playing for over 30 years, experimenting with, and mastering all sorts of styles, from blues to calypso, rock to jazz to folk. In Once Lay a King, Burr explores a new way of playing the harmonica – as a third voice in harmonies. The singers Emily Levy and Paul Naylor voice the album’s stories about loss, perspective, and unity. In accompanying their lyrics, Jon Burr and the rest of the band blend together blues harmonica with folk and country influences, creating a pure and heartfelt sound. And while the singers’ beautiful lyrics are needed to put the album’s themes of heartbreak and hope to words, Burr’s energetic playing, too, truly expresses the emotions of the songs. The title song Once Lay a King, for instance, starts slow, with the short wail of harmonica punctuating the end of each verse. Then it grows into a harmonica solo that pulls no punches, forceful and exciting and perfectly capturing the revolutionary sentiment of lyrics like ‘yeah, step aside while we change your rules’. Similarly, the soft-sung track Colour of Light enjoys the bright and hopeful sound of the harmonica joining in with Levy and Naylor’s light harmonies, evoking the feeling of spring and change. In the end, with songs delving into both future and past, dream and history, Once Lay a King is an album constantly rising and falling from quiet to loud, vibrant to serious (often in the same track), its themes tied together by a powerful story-telling style.

Intimate Expressions of Great Masterpieces - Sorarmonica Duo An album review by David Beer

Here is news of a new CD release from our friends from Slovenia – Sorarmonica. This time it is a collection of duet arrangements (played by Simona and Vladimir) of popular classical pieces (SaintSaens’ The Swan, Strauss’ Blue Danube, Franck Panis’ Angelicus, along with pieces by Elgar, Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, and Paganini, plus Summertime by Gerschwin and Amazing Grace). There are 18 tracks in all, and there are some lovely things on here. The playing is very good, as you would expect, and the recording is crystal clear. This is a must for those who like to hear what is possible stylistically and technically on the instrument, using the classical repertoire. Amazing Grace is haunting and at a lovely slow tempo. The faster, more rhythmic pieces are my favourites, though, as they show off the playing skill so well: the Coucou works really well with two harmonicas and the playing here is so clear. I also like Badinerie, where the melody playing is also very skilled. Humoreska, Blue Danube and Flight of the Bumblebee are great fun and the interplay between the two instruments is excellent. The album finishes with the jazz standard Summertime: there is a tongued rhythmic chordal accompaniment under a beautifully phrased melody, with some subtle jazzy inflections. This lends itself very well to the harmonica. It is lovely to hear so many well-known tunes played in this way, and so cleverly arranged. The CD is available from Vladimir at vladimir.hrovat1@gmail.com

Roll On - Harpface and the Heydays (Fuego 3093) An album review by Pat Missin

Long-term readers with good long-term memories will recall that I’ve reviewed several recordings from Rainer ‘Harpface’ Söchting over the years, and I am very pleased to be able to review another one. This is his second album with The Heydays and whilst the first, Pearls, was comprised of covers of classic tunes, this one has a baker’s dozen of blues rock originals. The band are even tighter

than on their debut, and although Harpface’s harp is a little less in your face than on previous recordings, he still delivers plenty to interest even the most jaded ears, blasting his way through seven positions on standard diatonic, plus a couple of altered tunings and some extra tasty twelfth position work on a low E TurboSlide. Available on CD from all the usual places, plus streaming audio on Spotify and Apple Music.

Exploring the Diminished Harmonica - Jason Rogers A book review by Pat Missin

In the interest of full disclosure, I should begin by mentioning that although I wrote the foreword to this book and offered encouragement to the author, I have no financial interest in any proceeds of sales. There are several diminished tunings for the harmonica, and this book deals with the most useful one for the diatonic player – a retuned diatonic where the draw notes are two semitones higher than the corresponding blow notes and adjacent notes are tuned a minor third apart. This presents two very attractive features for the player. The first is that a chromatic scale can be played with just blow notes, draw notes and single semitone draw bends – no deep bends, blow bends, overblows or overdraws are required for full chromaticity. The second key feature is that any lick, phrase or scale can be played in all twelve keys by learning just three patterns. Once you learn to play a phrase in C, then you can use that same pattern to play the phrase in Eb, F# and A, just by starting on a different hole. Learning the phrase in C# means that you can use that pattern to play in E, G and Bb. Ditto for D, F, Ab and B. With such a flexible tuning, any guide to its use will only be able to scratch the surface of what can be done, but with this book, Jason Rogers carves some pretty deep notches, with clear explanations and musical examples drawn from a wide range of sources, presented in standard notation and tab. If you are curious about this tuning, or if you have been playing it for a while already, I guarantee that you will find plenty of useful information in these pages.