Happy Hour Harmonica Podcast
The podcast is sponsored by Seydel harmonicas. Check out their great range of products at www.seydel1847.com.
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Happy Hour Harmonica Podcast
Joe Powers interview
Joe Powers joins me on episode 65.
Joe started out playing diatonic harmonica along with blues records as a teenager, before deciding to study music composition at college, taking up the chromatic there.
Joe’s passion for dancing led him to Argentina and tango music, where he has become the current leading exponent on harmonica. He believes the chromatic harmonica is the perfect instrument for tango music, and talks us through how to play this captivating genre.
Although known as the ‘tango harmonica guy’, Joe also loves to play many other styles of music on the harmonica, as demonstrated across his albums and live performances, including classical pieces with full orchestras. And other the pandemic Joe has put together his very own teaching platform.
Links:
Joe’s website:
https://www.joepowers.com
Email Joe at:
joe@joepowers.com
Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/Joepowersmusic/
Buy Joe’s music here:
https://www.joepowers.com/music
Harmonica Path teaching:
https://www.joepowers.com/the-harmonica-path
Suzuki Bass Chromatic:
https://suzukimusic-global.com/products_single.php?parent_cate_cd=1&products_cate_cd=3&products_cd=119
Sennheiser Wireless system:
https://en-uk.sennheiser.com/wireless-microphone-system-voice-vocal-instrument-presentation
TC Helicon Mic Mechanic 2 pedal:
https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0DDW
Videos:
Joe’s YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/joepowersmusic/videos
Takes a dance while playing with the orchestra:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RZg5oACUiE
Threnody from Gordon Jacob harmonica Suite, performed in Japan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBf31rvIKGs
With Jamie Cullum in Tokyo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJL3ewLnpaI
Playing diatonic overblows with Japense guitarist Yosuke Onuma:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PJjqDA9gL4
Quarantine session with Mexican violinist Arianda Lozano:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cE1hRRXhQQ
Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com
Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB
Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ
Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.
Joel Powers joins me on episode 65. Joel started out playing diatonic harmonica along with blues records as a teenager, before deciding to study music composition at college, taking up the chromatic there. Joel's passion for dancing led him to Argentina and tango music, where he has become the current leading exponent in harmonica. He believes the chromatic harmonica is the perfect instrument for tango music, and talks us through how to play this captivating genre. Although known as the tango harmonica guy, Joe also loves to play many other styles of music on the harmonica, as demonstrated across his albums and live performances, including classical pieces with full orchestras. And over the pandemic, Joe has put together his very own teaching platform. This podcast is sponsored by Seidel Harmonicas. Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Seidel Harmonicas. hello joe powers and welcome to the podcast
SPEAKER_01:yes hello neil a pleasure to be here
SPEAKER_00:Thanks so much for joining. So you are currently touring Europe at the moment, which we'll get into later, but you're talking to us from Berlin, yeah?
SPEAKER_01:That's right. Wie geht's?
SPEAKER_00:You're from the U.S., from Portland in Oregon, in the northwest of the U.S., yeah?
SPEAKER_01:That's right.
SPEAKER_00:So what's the music scene like around Portland?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, we've got a great music scene. Any flavor of music that you might enjoy, including excellent tango scene. Good place to be for musicians, for sure.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, fantastic. So what got you into playing the harmonica up in Portland now?
SPEAKER_01:I've been playing harmonica basically my whole life. I got one when I was really little. My dad played harmonica. Still plays. He hasn't progressed too much. I originally kind of just tooted on it for a while and then had my first lessons when I was about 13 or 14 with a local harmonica player in Portland named Arthur Fresh Air Moore. Of course, we also had Paul DeLay in town and I wish I would have had a chance to study with him because he was a real inspiration.
SPEAKER_00:Great. So he was from Portland, was he?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, he was.
SPEAKER_00:Did you get to see him play? I
SPEAKER_01:did. Yeah, I had lots of opportunities to hear him. And yeah, I was always very inspired, not only by his harmonica playing, but by his songwriting and just his tasty music. Anyway, so yeah, I grew up playing blues and rock and that kind of stuff, mostly by ear. I was really fortunate because my mom had an excellent collection of vinyl records with all the blues harmonica greats. So, you know, I listened to both Sonny Boy Williamson's and Little Walter, of course, and Sonny Terry and, you know, Muddy Waters, plenty of Muddy Waters records and such. So I listened to that stuff a lot and was very inspired. Kind of grew up with the harmonica playing in rock bands, blues bands throughout middle school, high school. Towards the end of high school, I decided that I wanted to study music in college. I got I got accepted into the University of Oregon in the music program there. And when I was going away to college, one of my mom's friends gave me a chromatic harmonica. And up until then, I only played diatonic. I didn't really have any clue how it worked, but I brought it with me to college. As I was learning the ins and outs of music theory, how to read music, sight singing, and piano keyboard skills and such, I was also learning how to play chromatic.
SPEAKER_00:So you were playing diatonic as a youth until you went to college and, as you say, you picked up the chromatic then. So you were all diatonic before then?
SPEAKER_01:Exactly, yeah. In fact, I didn't even know about the chromatic really until I was about 18 or so and I got one from my mom's friend. It turned out to be a pretty important gift.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because I think it's fair to say you're probably more of a chromatic player. Although you definitely play both, you probably play the chromatic more now. Is that true to say?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's definitely true. I do enjoy playing both in. instruments, but I principally play the chromatic I'd say.
SPEAKER_00:I think I read you received your first harmonica when you were 19 months old. Yes, that is true. That could make you the youngest player who started playing, so I'm quite interested in this idea that you started playing at 19 months. Did you carry on playing even at that young age, do you know? I
SPEAKER_01:don't think I really did. I mean, I think it was a Christmas present kind of thing that you'd give a child. Even that seems pretty young, but I do have a photo of me with a harmonica. It's not like I was, you know, taking lessons or practicing diligently at that age. But yeah, it wasn't really until I was around 13 or 14 that I started. I had some friends come up to me in our middle school, which is like around sixth grade or so here in the States. And they asked me if I could join their band as the singer. And so I did. And, you know, it was a typical kind of garage rock band. Yeah, I joined on as their singer. And then I also started playing harmonic with the band, too. And when I started, I was playing through the, we used to have these microphones that you would use to record a greeting onto your answering machine, like a tape answering machine for your phone. Anyway, I was playing through that connected to like a little boombox speaker. It was pretty awesome. That was my kind of my first band. Yeah. And I grew up playing diatonic with this band and then went on to high school and had some other some other kind of pop rock bands, was also kind of writing some of my own music and always singing as well.
SPEAKER_00:I do.
SPEAKER_01:Getting on then to
SPEAKER_00:when you went to study music. So you studied a degree in music composition in the university of oregon yeah that's right was it before then you started playing the chromatic or did you realize you needed you know the the sort of more musical capabilities and all the notes of the chromatic when you when you started the course
SPEAKER_01:so um i was really pretty clueless uh but by the time i i or right before i got to music school um actually the summer before i went to music school i studied really intensively with a private piano teacher and basically started to learn how to read music um i didn't read at all um so i didn't really understand understand much about, you know, all of the notes I need and such. Like I said, I mostly played by ear. I knew a lot about grab this harmonica if you wanted to play in this key. So yeah, I kind of really kind of crammed to take the entrance exam. I actually did pretty well in the entrance exam. And yeah, then I had this chromatic that my mom's friend had given to me right before college. I just started messing around with it. You a semitone. So I kind of started to learn that and then I figured out, oh, that's the chromatic scale. And then as I was, of course, in music school, I learned pretty quickly, you know, about all of the different keys and such. And I started doing that on my chromatic as well.
SPEAKER_00:Could you do the chromatic as your main instrument?
SPEAKER_01:I went in for the audition and I actually auditioned singing. I got accepted into the voice department. Yeah, they didn't, unfortunately, they didn't have a harmonica program and they kind of scoffed at me, you know, harmonica, that's not a real instrument. Ironically, years later, I went back and performed on the same stage where I had my audition to a totally sold out audience as part of a big Baroque music festival, the Organ Bach Festival. So I got the last laugh there.
SPEAKER_00:Great. So on the course then, they say you auditioned for singing. Is that what you did on the course or as well as harmonica or some piano?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So I started out studying. Everybody had to study the same stuff in the beginning, you know, the theory courses, keyboard skills, sight singing, this kind of stuff. But I was also part of a voice studio. So I was studying basically opera singing. It was pretty quickly after that, maybe after my first term or so, that I switched my major to music composition, which was actually kind of what I was more interested in anyway. I wanted to be able to know enough about music so that I could compose, you know, write my own music. And so, yeah, so I switched to music composition.
SPEAKER_00:Great. Yeah. And so one way Which instrument were you composing?
SPEAKER_01:Everyone studying composition had to have a basic proficiency with piano. And I would never consider myself a pianist by any stretch of the imagination. But I know how it works. I can compose with it, basically. So I don't really have the technique necessary to play anything that anyone would want to listen to on there. But yeah, I can compose with it.
SPEAKER_00:So great, so you completed then your music composition course, and then I think I read that you then went off to Argentina, is that right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so it was kind of my junior year in college. I got into ballroom dance, actually, so much so that I became the treasurer of the ballroom dance club. Actually, I think nobody wanted to be the treasurer, so they appointed me. But anyway, yeah, I was doing all of the typical kind of ballroom dances you might imagine, and some of the Latin ones as well. salsa and merengue. And then a teacher was offering an Argentine tango class. And I had already danced kind of the ballroom version of tango, which is kind of hilarious. It's kind of overly dramatic. So I didn't really know much about Argentine tango, but everybody was talking about it. And it seemed very interesting. So I joined the class. And when I heard the music, I was just totally blown away. It was just the most beautiful, passionate music that I that I'd ever heard, really. Of course, I continued with the dancing. I spent my senior year studying Spanish and also doing a language exchange with an Argentine woman. She wanted to practice her English. And of course, I wanted to practice my Spanish, but not just Spanish. I wanted to learn how they speak in Argentina, which is kind of a, it's a distinctive dialect. Anyway, so I spent my senior year doing that. And after I graduated, I went down to Argentina intending to to live there for a little while and just study dance. And I ended up staying for about a year and a half down there. And I did study dance. I did get a teaching certificate to teach Argentine tango. But also while I was there, a friend told me about a harmonica player, which many of your listeners I'm sure will have heard of, named Hugo Diaz. He died in 1977, but he left behind some amazing recordings. He was primarily a, what they call in Argentina, a folklore musician, or he played kind of Argentine folk music. But he did record four tango albums, and they are just amazing. I got a hold of some of those and was very inspired. And after leaving Argentina, when I went back home to Portland, Oregon, I started a tango band with some other friends, started playing tango and harmonica.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, fantastic. So like you say, Hugo Diaz there, he's the forerunner of tango and harmonica. He's what inspired you to play. Are there any other tango harmonicas around that you're aware of? There were a few others. Yeah, there was
SPEAKER_01:actually the first guy, Luis Saltos, recorded the first full-length tango album in 1973. And then that same year was when Hugo Diaz recorded the first of his four albums. 1973 was a big year for Tango Harmonica.
SPEAKER_00:Funnily enough, that's the year I was born. I don't play any tango harmonica, not yet. Not yet, not yet.
SPEAKER_01:But there were some others as well. They were just kind of the first to record albums. Some others who were a little lesser known. Paco Garrido was one of them, a guy named Jaco Zeller. There's many players now. There's a lot more than there used to be. So every year there's more, which is kind of exciting.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so are most of these guys based in South America or Argentina specifically?
SPEAKER_01:Most of them are, yes, yes, in Buenos Aires, yeah. But there are a few scattered around the world. As far as I know, I'm kind of the only professional tango harmonica player in the U.S. There could be another one, I don't know. Haven't met him yet, or her. But yeah, it's definitely kind of a rarity.¦
SPEAKER_00:Yeah well a unique selling point let's let's call it that so it's fantastic you're keeping up that tradition and as you say you're known as the tango harmonica player although you do play other other styles and genres yeah so we will we'll get on to those but let's start off on tango which is obviously what you're known for and as you say you've got a good history there of developing it so what is it about tango harmonica how would you describe the sort of style and how you approach playing it on the harmonica?
SPEAKER_01:Sure well maybe some of the listeners wouldn't know about the bandoneon. The bandoneon is kind of an accordion-like instrument. It has a very distinctive sound from the accordion, so it's kind of a bit more intense of a sound. The accordion's a bit smoother sounding. So the bandoneon can sound a little harsh. It's also tuned in octaves, so when you press a single button on the bandoneon, it produces octaves, so the reeds are in octaves. When I want to get a similar sound to the bandoneon, I'm not sure if I mentioned it. It's kind of the main, like when you think of tango music, it's kind of the principal instrument.
SPEAKER_00:And this is an Argentinian instrument, is it?
SPEAKER_01:It's actually, it's a German instrument. I actually wrote an article for Harmonica World. It was a while back to 2007, where I went into all of this. So the bandoneon was invented in the 1830s, named after its chief proponent, Heinrich Band. And originally, it was meant to be a portable Church organ. And it was brought over to South America on boats, most likely by sailors.
SPEAKER_00:As it's an accordion-like instrument and it's from Germany, do you know if Hohner originally manufactured it? Because of course they built accordions, didn't they, in that family of instruments?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I don't think that they did. But yeah, I'm actually not sure. But it's a really bizarre instrument. I think that Heinrich Band kind of cornered the market on bandonians, I believe. I don't know the whole history of the bandonian. But when it over to South America, it was used to play a lot of polkas and waltzes and mazurkas and this kind of thing. And eventually they started using it to play tango music around the beginning of the early 1900s. So the bandoneon has a very distinctive sound. The harmonica can also create a sound that's very similar to a bandoneon. Like I mentioned previously, the bandoneon has kind of a harsh sound. And the chromatic, I play the chromatic a lot in octaves by using tongue blocking. And I can create a pretty harsh sound when I need to. which kind of is reminiscent of a bandoneon. Of course, with the harmonica, we can also control the tone of the instrument. We can bend notes, and I can add the vibrato of my choice. I often use a throat vibrato, but sometimes I'll use a hand vibrato or even a tongue vibrato. Typical instruments in the tango are, of course, the bandoneon, the piano, violin, and double bass. And then you'd have maybe a vocalist join in on the songs occasionally. The harmonica, I kind of see it as like if you took the bandoneon, a violin, and a singer, and you kind of put them into one instrument. So it kind of fills that role, kind of melodic role sometimes. And it kind of has, you know, you've got this kind of timbre of the bandoneon. You have the vibrato of the voice, and you have portamento or the note bend of the violin, you know.
SPEAKER_00:this kind of thing. Yeah, great. So is there any particular scales used in tango music, anything like that musically?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it tends to be a lot more minor scales, harmonic minor, natural minor. You also have major scales as well, and there's a lot of chromaticism in the tango, but we're not using a bebop scale or blues scale in tango music. Although, you know, that said, I do like to create a fusion every now and then. So if it's more of a tradition tango sound, then you're not really going to use other scales outside of those. But if it's a fusion, let's say a jazz tango or a blues tango, then yeah, I would definitely incorporate other scales.
SPEAKER_00:So for anyone who might be interested in learning their first tango song, which might include myself, how would you approach it? You'd learn the melody first, and then do you improvise tango music then off the scales you talked about? Sure. A lot of
SPEAKER_01:playing tango on harmonica centers around in So you find a tango melody that interests you. The first thing to do is to just learn to play the melody. But then from there, you'll add on layers of, I guess you could say, complexity. The first thing to work on is your rubato. And this is where you're kind of slightly playing out of time. So sometimes you're playing a little faster. Sometimes you're playing a little slower. You know, if I have a song like, you know, Mary Had a Little Lamb, let's say. So if I just played it straight, it would be... If I wanted to add some rubato. I can start to play a little bit more with the rhythms. And this is the kind of thing that you do when you're playing tango. That's kind of the first step, is to work on the rubato. After that, you can start to add embellishments. The button on the chromatic is actually perfect for adding embellishments. I call them button embellishments, for lack of a better term. This sort of sound. You'd also learn to play it in octaves. You could add a vibrato. And you can see how it starts to become a tango song.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, it sounds great, doesn't it? And really effective. And particularly on the chromatic, it makes it sound really powerful, doesn't it? With those big octaves and everything.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. Yeah, the octaves really fill out the sound. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I think particularly with the chromatic, which can be quite a gentle sounding instrument, it's great to hear that, you know, it's singing out like that. And the tango seems to really suit it, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01:It really does. Yeah, I think the chromatic is very well suited for tango. I'm a little biased, but I think it's kind of the perfect tango instrument.
SPEAKER_00:So you never play diatonic when you're playing tango?
SPEAKER_01:I don't usually play diatonic when I'm playing tango. Recently, I've been kind of experimenting with a fusion of blues and tango. So I do have one song where I do use diatonic. It doesn't quite have the right sound that I want. A lot of it has to do with the button, specifically the button embellishments, but also the octaves, right? I mean, you can play some octaves on your diatonic, but on the chromatic... you can play anything in octaves, which is fantastic.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and you've never experimented with sort of different tunings or different sorts of harmonica or chromatics to, are you just playing standard ones when you're playing the tango?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm just playing standard chromatics. I like the four octave ones because it gives me that extra bass octave. But yeah, I'm pretty happy with the standard tuning for what I need. Yeah, I haven't really experimented with any of the other tunings.
SPEAKER_00:Well, that's great. That means, again, if people want to try it, they've got a chromatico ready, they don't have to do it anything different so that's a big advantage so again you know you've done very well out of tango we'll get into that and your world travels playing this music and other music but uh how is uh the chromatic harmonica received by the tango purist
SPEAKER_01:yeah well you know fortunately for me we have uh because of hugo diaz we have a precedent of tango harmonica since the 1970s so
UNKNOWN:¶¶
SPEAKER_01:So it isn't totally outlandish. But you're right, there are tango purists out there who maybe would prefer to hear a tango orchestra from the golden age of tango. But I would say, for the most part, I'm very well received by tango aficionados all over the world.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and you've played with some renowned tango masters, yeah? So I'll let you pronounce the names. But you've been received into the top echelons of the tango music.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yes, I've had the pleasure of playing with some fantastic musicians. And yeah, even some more contemporary groups that do tango fusion, electronic tango rock, things like this. It's great. There's so much happening with the tango right now. And there's a lot of new music. It's a very exciting time to be a tango musician.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And again, something I read about you is that you're very well traveled. So you're on tour now. You're able to travel around the world playing tango music everywhere because the there's always pockets of tango in various cities around the world, yeah?
SPEAKER_01:That's right. I mean, if there's tango in Eugene, Oregon, which I doubt most of your listeners have heard of, that's where I went to college, you can bet that there's tango in almost any city with over 100,000 people. You'll find tango in many of the cities that have fewer than 100,000 people. It's not uncommon for a festival to pop up as well in some of the smaller cities all over Europe, for example.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I mean, in every town, you know, has got dance classes, right? So it's perfect for that too, yeah, because, you know, lots of people are interested in dance, of course, yourself included, of course, and that's great. And to be able to play music with people so passionately dancing, that must be really satisfying to play to.
SPEAKER_01:It's very gratifying when you look out and you see everybody, you know, because you know they're listening. They're not just listening with their ears, they're listening with their whole body. It really is a special kind of communication between the musicians and the dancers.
SPEAKER_00:So you're still able to do the dances yourself, or is this something you still actively do? I
SPEAKER_01:do, yes. I love dancing and in a typical evening when I play a concert, a tango dance event, I'll dance a little bit and then I'll get up and I'll play a set and then I'll go dance
SPEAKER_00:some more. I've actually got a nice clip of you on YouTube where you're playing on stage and then there's two dancers on the stage with you and you take the place of the gentleman and dance with the lady and the crowd loves it. So there's a little clip of that. It's a nice moment. So is that a little party trick of yours? Oh yeah, well That was, you know, I was just having fun. Exactly. So next thing then, if people want to take up tango music on the harmonica, do you have to be able to do the dance as well to be able to play the music?
SPEAKER_01:It helps. It really does help because you understand more about the rhythms and things like that. But it's not a requirement. Yeah, I think anyone who's interested could definitely learn to play.
SPEAKER_00:But again, it is quite a seriously interesting point though, isn't it? Because like you say there, you know, as a dancer, You know, you're understanding the rhythm. So I don't think we've had many harmonica players who are great dancers on here, you know, as part of playing the harmonica. So it's quite interesting to think that it probably does give you another quite unique approach to playing the instrument.
SPEAKER_01:Well, it does, especially when you're playing dance music, right? You kind of know both sides of the equation. You know kind of what the dancers want and you can kind of play to that.
UNKNOWN:piano plays
SPEAKER_00:so we'll move on a little bit from the tango now that's obviously your main thing but you do play different genres right i've got here you've obviously played classical quite a lot and we'll get into that but you played classical orchestra pieces um uh and you played sort of more modern music and some blues of course on the diatonic and on the chromatic and um a bit of jazz and so so all sorts of stuff so you do play you know you're interested in playing lots of things
SPEAKER_01:yeah i i love playing all all kinds of music you know i i do love playing tango but my favorite kind of concert to do is a concert where i get to do tons of different styles of music um i just had the opportunity to play last week in Poland I gave a concert there where I played some blues and some jazz and some tango and some classical music I just like to mix it up and do a whole bunch of different styles of music
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And then, you know, again, interesting point, you know, how much do you think you have to, you know, sort of entrench yourself in the music to be able to play it really well? Because a bit like yourself, I do like to play different styles of music as well myself. But, you know, do you feel that, you know, you know, the tango really well, you know, it helps you play it. What about the other styles of music? How much do you think you have to really get into them to be able to play them well?
SPEAKER_01:Sure. I mean, I think, I think it helps. I think you can always go deeper into any of these things. I'm always trying to learn and trying to improve. And, you know, I It's a lifelong thing. I think anybody you would ask would say the same. There's always more to learn with music, right? And it's just great that we have all these different styles to learn about.
SPEAKER_00:Because I'm always torn somewhat between, you know, because if you look at some, you know, some virtual, so classical player or some, you know, some fantastic jazz player, you know, they probably do sort of only play more or less those genres of music, don't they? And then they become brilliant at them and then probably don't cross over too much. Not saying that, you know, what you're doing is wrong, of course, but yeah, you know, there is this kind of thing, isn't it? But, you know, the kind of pinnacle of being a classical or jazz musician, for example, you know, you have to completely devote your life to it. And so it's quite interesting to think that should you be playing different genres Sure. Yeah, I
SPEAKER_01:guess it's definitely open for debate. My personal belief is that it can only help you. I guess it depends on the genre of music that you're playing. If you're focused on only playing classical music, then probably playing jazz isn't going to be that beneficial. It might be a hindrance. But yeah, I would certainly think that going the other direction could be very helpful, that learning classical chops and then playing jazz could be very interesting. You could do some very interesting things with it. that
SPEAKER_00:so let's go into your albums then and we can cover some of the different genres that you play so sure what sort of year was it when you did form your you know you went back to oregon formed your own tango band what sort of year we're talking then
SPEAKER_01:that must have been around 2003 or so
SPEAKER_00:yeah so so it wasn't long after that in 2005 you released your first album world of songs with a with a guitarist called lewis charles is that that's a duo album between the two of you is it
SPEAKER_01:That's right, yeah, that was my very first album, and you can still kind of find it through my webpage. The idea was to have every track be a different kind of music and to really kind of take a trip around the world with harmonica and guitar, and Lewis also sings on there. I also sing on a track on there as well. That was a lot of fun to put together.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so as you say, lots of different styles. You've got some blues on there. You've got blues with a feeling. I see you playing some diatonic blues.¶¶ You've got a Congolese folk song, I think it is, called Banana, is it? It's called Banaha, Banaha.
SPEAKER_03:And
SPEAKER_00:then you've got a Japanese medley on there as well, which is interesting. So yeah, all sorts of different styles on there.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. That's right. Yeah. And followed up several years later with another release that was kind of in the similar vein. That one was from 2005. And in 2012, I released an album called Just Duet. And the concept behind the album was that every track would be both a duet with a different instrument and also a different style of music. So I've got a whole large variety of things on there. And that was tons of fun to put together. I do want to do a follow-up album at some point. But yeah, on that album, I have a duet with a koto player, the Japanese koto, which is kind of like a Japanese harp. Beautiful sounding instrument. There's a duo with the Arhu. I'm not sure if I'm saying it correctly. Kind of a Chinese violin. It has only two strings. Very beautiful sounding instrument. I have a duet with Hammond B3 organ. George on my mind. There's a tango duet with a bandoneon. There's, I mean, there's all kinds of stuff. There's banjo duet. There's a pipe organ duet. I even do a duet with harmonica and tuba. The maple leaf rag, an arrangement for harmonica and tuba.
SPEAKER_02:I
SPEAKER_01:have Chardas on there with piano. There's a vibraphone duet. I just tried to include a whole bunch of different things on there because I just love it. I love all the variety.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, fantastic. So how did
SPEAKER_01:you get all these different musicians then onto your album? fun project.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, fantastic. Like you say, really showing a great diverse range, all different instruments and genres. So yeah, definitely not old tango stuff, although there is tango music on there. And then after this, you did the Amor de Tango, which is old tangos on that album.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so I kind of jumped ahead. My second album and my first kind of, in quotation marks, solo album, I guess this would be kind of my first kind of big album as an artist, I guess you could say, was Amor de Tango. I released it in 2007. So I flew down to Argentina. I hadn't been there for years, and I really lucked out. I had some amazing musicians back me up on this one. Latin Grammy nominee pianist Nicolas Ledesma joined me. I had one of the top bass players, Horacio Cabargos, and I had a very talented guitar player, Raul Lusi, as well. And we... We recorded this album in two days. I think we did like 10 tracks in one day and four in the next. And I'm really happy with how it came out. This is all traditional tango. The tango has three rhythms to it. There's the tango rhythm, which is kind of a march, you know, jump, jump, jump, jump, this sort of sound. There's a waltz rhythm, which tangueros call waltz, with a V, waltz. And it's, you know, as you expect, it's in three rhythms. and this sort of thing. And then there's another one called Mi Longa, which is a bit more bouncy. The bass line is kind of like this kind of sound. And I have all of these different dance rhythms on there. That was an amazing experience to go down there, record in an excellent studio, and have some really amazing musicians come in and play with me. It was kind of a dream come true.
UNKNOWN:so so
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, fantastic. Yeah, it sounds like, is that the album you're most proud of then?
SPEAKER_01:Well, it's hard to say that, you know, they're all my children. So I think it was a very important album for me, because it was kind of, I don't know, I was in kind of, I was probably about 26 or so. And this was kind of my first time saying, hey, world, you know, this is me, this is what I do.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So it was, it was important. A few years later, though, in 2011, I recorded an album with a new age pianist, a British Grammy nominated composer named Michael Hoppe. And we recorded this beautiful album, which was originally called Melancholy, but later the name was changed to Nostalgie. And these are all his original compositions. And it was something totally different from the Tango album. And then I followed that with the Just Duet album, which I already told you about. And then I released another Tango album in 2015. Actually, I released two Tango albums in 2015, but only one of them is on my website.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And this is the Apasionado, is it? That's pretty good. That's not too bad. Yeah. It's Apasionado.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Great. So again, this is another entirely tango album. You recorded this one also in Buenos Aires.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. I went back to Buenos Aires and I worked with some different musicians. Again, I got really lucky and had some amazing players join me. The idea of this album was to have half of the tracks be my own original compositions and the other half are very famous tangos.
SPEAKER_00:Great. So which one is one of your own compositions?
SPEAKER_01:Well, the title track, Apasionado, is my own composition, for example. It's very much in the style of Pugliese. He's an Argentine composer.
UNKNOWN:Pugliese
SPEAKER_01:I dedicated this album to one of my friends who passed away, an amazing pianist named Octavio Brunetti. And actually, the final track on the album is a recording of Astor Piazzolla's famous, famous piece called Oblivion of the two of us playing. We're playing it live. And if you remember before, I told you how I played a concert, a sold out concert at my school on the same stage where I auditioned. That was recorded that night, actually, on that stage. It was a very magical moment for me. And it was the last time I got to play with my friend Octavia.
SPEAKER_00:And then you recorded an album, I think 2019, is that the last album you put out?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's the most recent. We intended to release it in 2020. Of course, the pandemic put everything on hold. I went to Madrid actually to play with a pianist who I work with there. His name is Guglielmo Fofani. Yeah, while I was there, he was like, hey, let's record an album. I was like, okay, let's do it. So we went into the studio on my last day in Madrid and we just recorded the whole album in one day. It's called Con Ojos Nuevos, which means with new eyes. And actually, you know, it seemed kind of appropriate to release it after the pandemic, because we're kind of all seeing the world with new eyes. And the very first song is actually one of the classic tangos by Carlos Gardel, who's maybe one of the most famous, iconic tango singers. This piece is called Volver, and it means to return. So it seemed kind of very appropriate to start the album with that piece since we were coming back after the pandemic.
UNKNOWN:Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:And how about that recording an album in a day? Do you think that works well? I guess pluses and minuses to every way you approach it.
SPEAKER_01:As far as I'm concerned, it's the only way to do it. My Tango albums were all recorded in a day. The Just Duet, it would have been too logistically difficult. I recorded Just Duet over a month. It was my first foray into recording myself. So I bought all of the gear and recorded the whole album myself and actually mixed it myself. Then I sent it off to be mastered by someone who knew what they were doing. The other albums I recorded basically in a day. Conojos Nuevos, the most recent one, recorded entirely in a day. My other two Tango albums were basically done in two days. I really think it's a great way to do it. You have everybody there, and you just focus, and you just get all the music out there. And it's a very good, strong, intense energy, which translates well into the Tango music, I think.
UNKNOWN:Tango music
SPEAKER_00:Have you got any more albums lined up to come out soon? It's been since 2019 since your last one. I
SPEAKER_01:don't have one exactly worked out yet, but I would like to record one probably next year in Buenos Aires. Maybe I'll go down and record another tango album. I think it's about time. I've been composing a lot of music and I'd like to release a new one.
SPEAKER_00:So you're living the dream, Joe. You're traveling the world, playing the harmonica. It sounds fantastic. I'm very envious of you. And you've done lots of great live performances as a part of this show. You played all around the world and you played the Gordon Jacob harmonica suites in Japan.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. Yeah, I played that one in Japan. I played it in Barcelona. I also played it in Oregon. I also played the Villa Lobos Harmonica Concerto with the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, which was an amazing experience. Very challenging piece. I really admire and respect Robert Bonfilio. I had the opportunity to study with him a couple of times, take a couple of lessons with him. Of course, he just owns that piece. It's amazing. But yeah, I did play that piece as well.
SPEAKER_00:So there's some challenging classical pieces yeah so but how did you get that up to speed to be able to play it with an orchestra that must be very daunting experience
SPEAKER_01:yeah it was it was a lot of work I think I spent about a year practicing that one I also hired a pianist to accompany me so I could practice it more in a kind of a live performance setting just a lot of work a lot of practice yeah
SPEAKER_00:how do you get a gig then when you were you invited to play with an orchestra
SPEAKER_01:well it's the same way you get any gig really you either contact the orchestra and send them your material or you make a personal connection that leads to the performance or if you're lucky enough to be part of an agency or something like that that can find gigs for you or if you have a manager or of course also organizers will contact you so these are all of the possibilities certainly all of them are true for me once you've played for someone one time for an organizer once then it's very likely that you'll go back again as well
SPEAKER_00:yeah no fantastic It must be amazing playing with an orchestra.
SPEAKER_01:It is. I think it's one of the most powerful things to be accompanied by that many musicians. It's really incredible.
SPEAKER_00:And as well as this, you've played with various other artists in the UK. Jamie Cullum's a famous jazz kind of pop artist. You played with him.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's kind of a crazy story, but he came to Portland and I didn't really know much about his music, but I was kind of curious. So I went to his concert. I don't know what possessed me, but I had my harmonica with me. And there was a moment in the concert where he came off stage I mean he was playing with a bass player and I happened to be seated like basically right next to where he was standing so I you know I like this was in the middle of his concert I pulled out my harmonica and I started jamming along he was playing nature boy the jazz standard at first like his eyes kind of popped out he kind of looked at me and then he started listening and then he handed me the microphone I took a solo and then he's like he's like take another one man this is great take another one and so I took another solo yeah after the after that he invited me backstage and we We hung out and, you know, and then I ended up playing with him five more times, played with him in Europe and I played with him in Japan. So yeah,
SPEAKER_00:it
SPEAKER_01:was pretty cool. is just really spot on. I just kind of went and sat in with him and that was a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_00:And so as well as obviously all the playing and all the touring you're doing, you also teach and you've got on your website, you've got an online harmonica teaching portal called Harmonica Path. You want to tell us about that?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. So I kind of mentioned to you, I think a lot of harmonica players are in a similar situation. I started harmonica playing totally by ear, you know, and I just didn't know anything about music theory. Later on when I when I finally kind of learned about music theory it just totally changed my musical world kind of opened up all of these new horizons for me I feel very strongly about harmonica players of all varieties whether they play diatonic chromatic tremolo whatever I feel like everybody should learn to read music so what I've done is I've developed and I'm continuing to develop a harmonica course that does just that it teaches harmonica players from the very beginning to read music and I try to make it as painless as possible I'm into the intermediate module now. So the beginning module is totally complete. And people, if people are curious about that, they can go to my webpage, which is just JoePowers.com and they can, they can check it out. It's called the Harmonica Path.
SPEAKER_00:Do you also teach face-to-face or Skype or anything like that?
SPEAKER_01:I haven't been doing any face-to-face actually since the pandemic started, but I am doing online. I've got lots of online students. So yeah, if people are interested in lessons, they can reach out to me through the contact form on my webpage, or they can just email me Joe at JoePowers.com. pretty easy to remember
SPEAKER_00:i'll put that on the on the podcast page as well yeah so great and uh yeah i'd say all styles but obviously particularly uh if people want to get into playing tango and then that's the way to do it i think was it right you won uh one of the competitions at trottingham in in 2005 uh
SPEAKER_01:actually i came in fourth place so i didn't exactly win yeah um but yeah i mean you know hey not bad um fourth in the world let's see that was the year um that philip jares was there so you know i really didn't have a chance he's fantastic i tried to I competed in as many of them as I could. I did a couple of chromatic competitions and I did a diatonic one. And yeah, it was a great experience.
SPEAKER_00:And you did win the Belgian Crystal Harmonica Award in the classical division.
SPEAKER_01:That's right, I did. Yes, that was pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00:So how did you enter a Belgian or how did you get a Belgian award?
SPEAKER_01:It was an online competition. People voted for the players. Somehow I was voted as the classical person that year.
SPEAKER_00:But again, classical, right? So, you know, we talked about all the different styles you've played, obviously majoring in tango. So, but, you know, you've got to be pretty good technically to be able to play classical well, yeah?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, it's all about playing very precisely when you're doing classical. Of course, you want to play emotionally as well. But yeah, you want to be technically precise, exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so obviously as well, you're reading classical music, I take it, when you're playing it, at least to learn it in the first place. So that is something you've become much better at than initially when you said you didn't read at all.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, since I graduated from music school, I can read music, you know, no problem. Of course, I could always improve, as could anybody, I suppose. That's how I learn all my music now. Unless it's not written down, in which case, you know, I'll listen to it and oftentimes I'll transcribe the music.
SPEAKER_00:So one question I ask each time, Joe, is if you had 10 minutes to practice, what would you spend that 10 minutes doing?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, recently, I've been spending a lot of time kind of working on bebop improvisation. So that's, I mean, that's what I personally would do. I'd probably kind of work on some rhythm changes you know improvising over rhythm changes or some standards some bebop stuff
SPEAKER_00:sure yeah so does that mean you're you know you're getting more into jazz obviously you already play jazz yeah but uh yeah you're focusing more on jazz at the moment
SPEAKER_01:i think i'm always working on improvisation because i just love it whenever i get a chance i'm always working on jazz improvisation but yeah um if i'm on a if i'm on a tour playing tango music sometimes i get pretty busy and i don't i don't always have time to work on it so
SPEAKER_00:yeah
SPEAKER_01:but yeah it's it's always it's always what i like to go to and work on. I just love improvising.
SPEAKER_00:And so we'll get on to talking about Guianan in the last section. So first of all, you're a Suzuki endorser, I think? That's right,
SPEAKER_01:yes.
SPEAKER_00:So harmonica-wise, chromatics, are you playing the Sirius, is it?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm playing the Sirius 64, exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Do you always play the 16-hole, or do you also play 12?
SPEAKER_01:You know, if they came out with a five-octave chromatic, then I would use that. In fact, they just came out with that excellent bass chromatic. I don't know if you've tried that, but it is awesome. Have you tried that?
SPEAKER_00:I haven't tried it. I have talked about it with people on here and I would love to get one. But yeah, I haven't quite made the plunge to pay for it yet. But yeah, you've got one there.
SPEAKER_01:I just got one a couple of months ago and I love it. It's really cool to be able to play that low and quickly. So yeah, I play the serious mainly and I love having the extra octaves. So I really don't understand why anybody would want to play anything other than a four octave chromatic. I just don't understand it.
SPEAKER_00:So have you always played the 16 hole then because I think it's switching between the 12 and the 16 because personally I do play a 12 hole because I find the 16 harder to navigate so obviously if you're used to it I get that you know it's fine but
SPEAKER_01:yeah I mean I think I've played a 16 hole for years my first chromatic was probably a 12 hole yeah I mean after I started playing 16 hole basically I never went back to a 12 hole
SPEAKER_00:yeah great and diatonic wise
SPEAKER_01:I play the Suzuki pure harp which is an all rosewood harmonica a very a very fine instrument. It's very nice for overblowing, just right out of the box.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I noticed listening that you do play overblows, yeah? Yes, yes, I do, definitely.
UNKNOWN:.
SPEAKER_00:Is that something you did from early on or did you pick it up later in your playing?
SPEAKER_01:Well, back when I was a teenager, nobody was really talking about overblows. It's something that I started doing in my 20s, continue to do. I try to play the C diatonic in all 12 keys and also try to improvise in all 12 keys on C diatonic and read music and all of that. I try to treat it like a fully chromatic instrument, but it's quite challenging.
SPEAKER_00:It's interesting because people like myself included, I do play diatonic a lot as well, but I don't play really overblows a little bit. But, you know, because I play chromatic, I think, well, I've got all the notes on the chromatic, so why do I need to play overblows on the diatonic? But, you know, so what is it you like about the overblows on the diatonic that you choose to play that instead of playing the chromatic?
SPEAKER_01:The diatonic has a very particular sound. The tone is very particular, but you can also, there's a lot more control over the tone. You know, I don't know how well it comes through here, but I don't really have to tell you and your listeners that you can get a very deep tone with the diatonic because you can get so much of her hands around the instrument.
SPEAKER_02:You
SPEAKER_01:could get all kinds of nice hand wah and stuff like that with the diatonic. You could kind of do that with the chromatic, but it's not quite the same because the harmonica is a little bit bigger, right? So the sounds that you could create and just the fact that it's so small. And also the diatonic, it was my first instrument and it will always be a very important part of my musical experience. I'm very connected to the diatonic. You know, both instruments have their capabilities and I just wouldn't want to have to choose one over the other
SPEAKER_00:yeah no absolutely yeah what about your um your embouchure what do you like to use and do you use the same on both instruments
SPEAKER_01:uh diatonic i use almost uh exclusively pucker um unless i'm playing like octaves or if i'm um you know playing harmonies but yeah i'll mostly play pucker i don't i really don't know how anyone can do um overblows and overdraws uh with with tongue blocking i know it's possible but i i have no idea how they do it because it just seems Sounds like so much of your tongue has to be used when you're doing that. And then on the chromatic, I use both quite a bit. I do a lot of corner switching, switching my tongue from left to right when I'm playing. this sort of thing. And then, you know, so I, that gives me kind of one sound. And of course the octave playing gives me one sound, but when, whenever I want to dig in and I want to get some bent notes, I feel much more comfortable playing that with pucker. Yeah. So yeah, I use both embouchures on the chromatic.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. With your tongue switching, I really noticed it's like you almost like having a bass accompaniment with yourself, almost like a piano. You're able to just jump down and give yourself a bass accompaniment and then go straight back up to the high notes. That sounded really effective. Exactly. And equipment wise, and again, obviously you like to travel the world and travel light, so I'm guessing you don't take much with you, but what about, you know, what equipment are you using amplifier wise?
SPEAKER_01:This is kind of something that I'm a little too obsessed with, traveling as light as possible. I travel with just one backpack. I never want to check my bag, so I don't check my bag anymore. So when I'm traveling with my backpack, I have all of my sound equipment. I've got my performance attire and I also have my albums and they all manage to fit into my backpack. I'm using a Blows Me Away Ultimate 57 microphone. I also have this Sennheiser wireless microphone system called the XSW. It's really small and portable and it's It just clips on the end of the Ultimate 57.
SPEAKER_00:Do you normally then use a wireless microphone?
SPEAKER_01:I normally use a wireless microphone because anyone who's ever seen me play would know I don't like to stand still. I like to kind of jump down into the audience and kind of get up in people's faces. And, you know, I really like to interact with the audience. And dance, of course. And sometimes I'll dance around. So, yeah, I just can't stand still. I like to jump around. And, yeah, I absolutely have to be wireless. I do not like playing with a microphone stand. Of course, sometimes I'll also use a lavalier mic depending on the type of music that I'm playing. But for tango music, blues, jazz, I prefer the handheld Ultimate 57.
SPEAKER_00:Is there any particular reason you like the 57 or the 58?
SPEAKER_01:I like the 57 because I can get some hand wah. There's a proximity effect. I find that the 58 has a little bit less proximity effect. For me, it's like if you can't get that proximity effect, it's like you're missing this whole aspect to playing harmonica that i just love do you use any effects at all we're lucky as harmonica players because we can create a lot of effects on our own right without any fancy pedals distortion tremolo vibratos you know tonal changes and note bending we could do all those with our instrument so yeah i i don't really use uh effects pedals the only thing that i do bring with me is a little uh stompbox made by tc helicon it's called the mic mechanic 2 it has a reverb that works pretty well. I like it because it's the smallest possible form factor I could find that has an XLR input and output on it. It fits into my backpack.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and you're playing through PA pretty much all the time, aren't you?
SPEAKER_01:I'm always playing through PA, and yeah, this mic mechanic can kind of improve the sound on almost anything. I've occasionally played it through a guitar amp. It does a great job.
SPEAKER_00:So now I'm wondering where you put all your clothes, because obviously seeing you play quite a lot, you're wearing suits and everything. This is some sort of magic backpack you have. It's a magic
SPEAKER_01:backpack. Maybe you haven't learned about the wonders of packing cubes. If you use a packing cube, you can squish a lot of clothes together. If you learn how to fold your clothes in the right way, you can eliminate wrinkles. Of course, if you buy wrinkle-resistant clothing as well, it's a whole art, a traveling light. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you've got it down to fine art. Yeah, fantastic. Yeah. You've been touring Europe, and unfortunately, I'm really sad that I missed you playing in the UK at the start of this tour. So I know you did meet Pete Hewitt, the head of Harmonica UK here in the UK, and you've been touring around Europe. You've got three dates remaining, I think, haven't you? One in Austria, two in Denmark, before you head back to the US.
SPEAKER_01:No, I actually have a couple of new dates that have just been added. I've got one more tomorrow night here in Berlin, and then I'll be in Budapest next week. I've just got a date in Bratislava, which I'm very excited about, Yugoslavia. And then I'll play in Vienna, I'll play in Copenhagen, and also a small village near there called I'm probably saying it wrong. And then I'll head back home to Portland.
SPEAKER_00:They had a great time touring around Europe this summer.
SPEAKER_01:It's been amazing. It's been so nice to be back after three years. Yeah. Yeah, it's been really fun.
SPEAKER_00:And you survived the pandemic okay, did you? I'm
SPEAKER_01:still here. I'm still here. And the big thing for me from the pandemic was this harmonica course. I kind of taught myself, you know, some basics of coding, kind of created this harmonica course from scratch. And there's kind of play along recordings and there's videos and, you know, there's all kinds of stuff in there.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. I mean, you did some quarantine concerts as well. I've got one with a violinist that you did. That's right. I did that as well. Yes. Yeah. So thanks so much for joining me today, Joel Powers. Thanks so much, Neil. This has been a real pleasure talking with you. Thanks to Zydle for sponsoring the podcast. And be sure to check out their great range of harmonicas and products at www.zydle1847.com. Thanks so much to Joe for joining us. What a great player he is. If you're excited to learn some tango on the harmonica, be sure to check out his website and teaching resources. And also please check out the podcast website and Spotify playlist, all linked from the podcast page. I'm off to play some tango myself now. Take it away, Joe.
UNKNOWN:Tango
SPEAKER_02:so