In the harmonica world, musicians are represented by two separate but equally important groups: the blues players who dominate the limelight and the jazz players who settle for what they can get. This is the jazz players' story.
“I really just wanted to be a great saxophone player. So I practiced all the time on the harmonica, and, I think, instead I just became a really good harmonica player," says Damien Masterson, one of eight performers slated to blow his chromatic harmonica at the first annual West Coast Jazz Harmonica Summit Aug. 10 at the Digital Media Factory in Santa Cruz. “It's a very difficult instrument, and there aren't a lot of people who play it. I think most of the people who play it got bored with the blues harmonica and moved on to jazz, because it's more challenging and interesting."
Masterson's chromatic harmonica is the hallmark of the jazz harmonica clique and the only kind that will be featured at next week's summit. Long, fat and with a full range of octaves, it's a much different beast from its smaller, single-octave cousin, the diatonic, or blues harmonica. For Summit organizer Slim “Slide Man" Heilpern, it's a true musician's instrument, not just a noisemaker for jail cells and bayou porches.
“The chromatic harmonica is a very unique instrument," he says. “Some people really don't get it, and others just latch on to the style and go with it."
“I really just wanted to be a great saxophone player. So I practiced all the time on the harmonica, and, I think, instead I just became a really good harmonica player," says Damien Masterson, one of eight performers slated to blow his chromatic harmonica at the first annual West Coast Jazz Harmonica Summit Aug. 10 at the Digital Media Factory in Santa Cruz. “It's a very difficult instrument, and there aren't a lot of people who play it. I think most of the people who play it got bored with the blues harmonica and moved on to jazz, because it's more challenging and interesting."
Masterson's chromatic harmonica is the hallmark of the jazz harmonica clique and the only kind that will be featured at next week's summit. Long, fat and with a full range of octaves, it's a much different beast from its smaller, single-octave cousin, the diatonic, or blues harmonica. For Summit organizer Slim “Slide Man" Heilpern, it's a true musician's instrument, not just a noisemaker for jail cells and bayou porches.
“The chromatic harmonica is a very unique instrument," he says. “Some people really don't get it, and others just latch on to the style and go with it."
