This chapter contains case studies of three leading harmonica players of ITDM in two sections, firstly Brendan Power and brothers Pip and John Murphy in part two. The focus is on exclusively the playing styles and techniques of each player and their contribution to ITDM.
BRENDAN POWER
Brendan Power was born in New Zealand from Irish descendents and now lives in Canterbury, England. He started playing harmonica in 1976 after hearing blues legends Sonny Terry and Brownie Mc Ghee play in Christchurch, New Zealand. Totally self-taught technician he learned how to play and read music to become one of the world’s leading harmonica players.
Since relocating to England from New Zealand, Brendan has become an internationally renowned Irish traditional music player. In 1993, playing chromatic harmonica, he won an All Ireland medal in Fleadh Cheoil Na hÉireann in the miscellaneous instrument category. He toured the world for 3 years as a member of the Riverdance orchestra. The release of his own album New Irish Harmonica was a turning point for his career. This album arguably redefined the role of the harmonica in traditional Irish music, winning widespread acclaim. It was picked as a top album in 1994 by Folk Roots magazine and Rock n’ Reel revered it stating, “simply superb…probably the best instrumental album this year.” The Irish Times described it as a “masterpiece” and “electrifying.” It was so successful that he subsequently had a busy schedule of recording and performing with Irish artists. Brendan Power recorded sessions with John Williams, Altan, Artie Mc Glynn, Mary Black, Sting, Van Morrison, Paul Young, James Galway, and was involved with various Hollywood movies and TV work.23
With 18 instrumental albums recorded and released to his credit, Brendan still continues with a busy schedule and is involved in various recordings and projects. Brendan Power also customises harmonicas for professional players and sells CDs, books and custom harps online. He has self-published two books for advanced players: Play Irish Music on the Blues Harp24 in 2000 and Play Irish Music on the Chromatic Harmonica25 in 2008. These books teach and demonstrate the repertoire and style he has mastered.
Technically, he is particularly interested in tunings for the harmonica and its construction. He works for the Suzuki Musical Instrument Company, which adopted one of his ideas, the ‘Power Reed Valve System.’ This idea is a simple system of tiny strips of light plastic or valves attached to the rivet of the reed which acts as a wind stopper or ‘wind-saver.’ A wind saver improves instrument response by focusing the wind on the reed. It allows for single reed glissando rather than dual reed glissando and is known as a ‘valve bend’. Valves allow all reeds to bend and so access previously unattainable notes:
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Fig 11 A picture showing light wafer thin strips of plastic or valves.
However, a wind saver prevents interaction with the corresponding reed within the chamber of the comb. This prevents normal glissando were notes are unattainable where valves are attached. One must carefully consider where to attach valves.
When wet with suction, the valves tend to stick, creating a punchy popping sound and matted surface on the valve helps prevent it sticking to the reed plate. A valve system by Brendan Power is incorporated into Suzuki’s top-of-the-line Promaster harp.
STYLE
Brendan Power is a stylistic harmonica player with an eclectic taste in music. He uses a varied amount of styles and genres and is equally adept at playing Irish traditional music as Blues or Bulgarian music, such as his composition on track 10 Sweet Bulgarity from his album Tradish2. He infuses different elements of styles such as blues, bluegrass, jazz and Bulgarian methods into original composition and arrangements for Irish traditional music, as heard on track 10 called Jig Jazz from his album ‘Jig Jazz’.3 His repertoire is traditional Irish music played in a very modern format. This is typical of modern artists recording Irish music that employ a wide variety of instruments and effects in the treatment of traditional material. Brendan Power also plays jazz, blues and Eastern European music. These influences are heard in his style of playing.
He does not play tremolo diatonic harmonica like old style players as Noel Battle play, preferring to play both the diatonic and the chromatic harmonicas models. Using self customized harmonicas tuned to ‘Paddy Richter’ tuning where the fifth reed or note in the third blow hole or chamber of a blues diatonic harmonica is tuned up a whole tone. This and his mastery of technique and style give him a unique personal panache on both chromatic and diatonic instruments.
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Fig 12 A page from Brendan Power’s book describing the ‘Jaw
Flick.’5
By listening closely to the playing of the Murphy brothers on their album Trip to Cullenstown, he figured out and coined the words ‘The Jaw Flick’ to describe John and Pip Murphy’s technique. He adapted the jaw flick method and style of the Murphy brothers John and Pip to his diatonic and chromatic style of playing with effect. The jaw flick, used for cuts and ornamentation, is described and notated in an excerpt from Brendan Power’s book, harmonica tabs is included to convey the jaw flick.
In his books, Brendan Power isolates where and when to use this technique with taste and harmony. The adjacent notes on the harmonica are a harmonious third apart except in holes 7-8 on the draw where it is a tone apart, the note E to F sharp on a G chromatic, on the blow it is a fourth.
He also singles out types of triplets used through jaw flicks. Jaw flick triplets are similar to slide activated triplets on a chromatic harmonica in that they rise in tone from the melodic note and are played snappily. It will sound in tune as they rise from the tonic or home key. This leaves the player with a choice of decoration, which is decided based on taste and variation, which determines stylistic attributes of the player. The effect caused by flicking your jaw to achieve triplets and cuts is quite effective and suits Irish music in that they are common features. It does not take long to master them and once mastered are employed very naturally to the music and create an elegant style.
Brendan Power furthers his style and investigation and applies the jaw flick to achieve cuts too. In his book, he sets out clearly how to do this by singling out exercises and technique used to improve style. A cut is the adjacent hole on the harmonica or button on a accordion, played briskly before playing the melodic note, as shown in the example below, in which I wrote on a Sibelius notation program:
Fig 13 ‘The Jaw Cut’ notated.
The example above shows cuts on the third note in bar 1, the first note in bar 2, the second note in bar 3 and again on the first note in bar 4, best achieved by flicking the jaw to the left or right depending on which note is preferred.
CONCLUSION
Harmonica playing styles suits solo, duet or trio ensemble ideally due to the nature and volume of the instrument. This lends itself to the Irish traditional music of solo and duet playing, which is viewed by many as the best way to play and listen to Irish music. Brendan Power includes elements of assorted genres such as Blues into his melody playing giving it lift and swing. On track 2 of New Irish Harmonica he treats the old tune Jolly Beggerman to some Blues harmonica vamping and Blues licks before playing the melody with Blue notes and bends6. This is a style he believes, will be an acceptable route forward in Irish harmonica playing:
Players should not simply try and mimic traditional instruments, but create something new from the harmonica itself, especially its expressive ‘bluesy’ quality. That’s how it will truly get its own voice and niche in the tradition.
Brendan Power is developing custom tunings on harmonicas and makes use of their “bendable” features. This view of the future direction in ITDM may be at odds with traditional Irish musicians or who play the tremolo exclusively or perhaps John and Pip Murphy and other stalwarts in the tradition such as tremolo player Noel Battle or perhaps maybe not at all!
Cathal Johnson is service repairer for All-Ireland for Hohner.
