Originally from Minneapolis, now living in Pittsburg, but most of his music career spent around the twin cities of St Paul and Minneapolis
First turned onto the harmonica when saw James Cotton playing with The Muddy Waters band
Started playing diatonic harmonica a few years later at age 17, and blues harmonica was Clint’s entry point
First learnt by playing by ear, along to records and had the Tony Glover harmonica book
Started playing in a duo in school
Picked up the chromatic from the advice of a bassist playing some piano to Clint
Was still mainly blues-based originals when Clint started playing the chromatic
In 1987 attended the Parsons Jazz and Contemporary Music Program in New York
Decided to become a musician after completing Art college, learning music theory and played a lot of guitar to get work in bands
Then transferred knowledge of guitar to the chromatic harmonica and started playing some jazz
Started teaching harmonica at a music school in Minneapolis, where he met a lot of musicians
Had lessons with Robert Bonfiglio while in New York
Tried to get some lessons with Toots Thielemans but that didn’t work out
Tried to apply Bonfiglio’s corner switching technique to Bebop, but couldn’t apply this too well to improvisation
Is corner switching more suited to music reading?
Mainly uses puckering when playing jazz on the chromatic and tongue blocking when playing diatonic
Clint took private lessons with Robert Bonfiglio as part of the jazz course as that didn’t have any harmonica tutors
Only studied on the jazz course in New York for one year due to the finances
Still plays guitar for composition and applying musical knowledge from that to the harmonica
The value of playing a chordal instrument when playing a mainly single note instrument like the harmonica
Also a great diatonic player where he was inspired to learn overblows after seeing Howard Levy perform
Clint chooses to play chromatic on most of jazz playing as likes the dedicated reed for each note
Uses diatonic in the jazz genre more for jazz blues and jazz soul
Still practises overblows on the diatonic and remains fascinated in transferring chromatic harmonica knowledge to the diatonic
Clint believes the chromatic can be as expressive as the chromatic, with great bending capability on the chromatic too
Spent a lot of time on developing expressiveness on chromatic, making it sound close to a diatonic
Hasn’t removed the wind savers to make the chromatic more bendable and plays a standard tuned chromatic in the key of C only, except for some recording purposes
Plays a range of different styles of music, from pre-war to modern jazz, to rock and pop
Some of Clint’s favourite harmonica players, starting with Les Thompson: the unheralded West coast version of Toots
Irish player Eddie Clarke and Clint played some Irish music at one point
Clint is a fan of pre-war harmonica and mentions Blues Birdhead, supposedly the first person to have recorded an overblow and played like a jazz trumpeter
Rhythm Willie is another favourite pre-war harmonica player of Clint’s
Clint played in a jug band (The Sugar Kings) where he recorded some pre-war style harmonica and got to a good level playing that
Horn players are a major source of inspiration for Clint and the Charlie Parker Omnibook
First album released in 1997: Dream of the Serpent Dog
Recorded an album before the one in 1997, with rock band The Fontanas in 1989 with that album eventually released in 2023
The Fontanas album has Clint’s hard driving chromatic harmonica featured strongly on the songs
The playing on the Fontanas album is pre-Blues Traveller, which has a similar sound
Plays hooks on the chromatic on the Fontanas songs
Overlaid saxophone and harp on the Fontanas songs
Why the Fontanas album has been released 34 years later
Dream of the Serpent Dog album, mainly acoustic jazz with some World Music too
Snake Oil song is in ‘second flat’ (as per the Howard Levy system)
Album with Bill Geezy & The Promise Breakers is more pop based
Clint is better known as a chromatic player but he has released a lot of recordings on diatonic
Album with Papa John Kolstad (who Mike Turk also recorded with)
Released album as a band leader: The Clint Hoover Trio
Two jazz albums with a band called Eastside, in 2009 and 2014
In 2021 played rock harmonica with a band called Jimmy Mac & The Attack after moving to Pittsburgh
Got into playing amplified harp and using effects in this band
This album recorded ‘live’ in the studio, bringing a freshness to the sound which Clint likes
About using the chromatic in a rock setting, which is not heard very often, and plays organ lines on the diatonic
Likes to use a Hohner CX12 for amplified chromatic playing
Done quite a lot of session work, including a TV news theme
Has recorded some material for harmonica instruction books but hasn’t released his own
Done a lot of teaching of harmonica and has own methodology
Practise regime includes lots of scale and arpeggio work, as well as transposing and practising repertoire
Still practises a lot, now at the age of 68 he thinks it keeps him young and what Dizzy Gillespie said about practising
Diatonic of choice is the Hohner Golden Melody, and has lots of customised ones in compromised tuning so chords sound good
Customisers he uses include Joe Spiers, Joel Andersson and Tom Halchak
Advantages of custom harps but still has to set offset to own liking due to playing style
Chromatics are high maintenance and a lot of that work has to be done by Clint himself
Has lots of different types of chromatic
Uses the older model of the Golden Melody and also likes the Hohner Rocket
Favourite chromatic is the Hohner 64X and has customised versions from Will’s Make
Uses CX12 for amplified work on chromatic
Uses a 12 hole more these days, previously using only 16 hole chromatics
When playing with The Fontanas used a Hohner CBH 16 hole chromatic with the slots on them making them good to use amplified
Has an Eastop brass comb chromatic and Suzuki Fabulous
Uses Richter tuned diatonics and standard tuned chromatics
Amplification: did play acoustically for a long time and the dynamic range of the diatonic
Returned to amplified playing in recent times once moved to Pittsburgh
Main amps of choice is a Fender Princeton Blackface Reverb
Has a custom Megatone amp
For jazz plays through a powered PA speaker through a cupped mic for a clean sound
Mics include an Audit Fireball and a Sennheiser 441, a Bulletini, but doesn’t use a lot of bullet mics
Future plans includes getting out playing around Pittsburgh, some teaching and is working on a follow-up album to Dream of the Serpent Dog
