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United StatesAn astounding performance by a true master
Around 1992 I had the pleasure of hearing Howard Levy in a recording session with a small group of folk/jazz musicians. They'd convinced him to come down from the Chicago area to join them on two tracks of the album they were preparing. I'd never heard some amazing musicianship with a mouth harp before. And his contribution was entirely improvised, as far as I ever learned. Since then I've been a huge fan of his work. This album with Jeremy Kahn is a great example of Levy's work and it's beautifully recorded. Levy is front and center, Kahn a bit further back in their mix. The two make for a very nice partnership as they work their way through some nice tunes.
Description:
Title: Chicago Meeting
Artist(s): Jeremy Kahn, piano & Howard Levy, harmonica
Recording Info: Transferred from a IPI Master Tape
Producer: Jonathan Horwich Producer & Engineer
Date of Recording: March 2015
Venue: Chicago, IL
The harmonica in jazz is indeed a rare bird. Unusual in sound and difficult to play, it is almost never found on jazz records. Have you ever heard a harmonica on a Blue Note session? I think not. Yet, it is common in others genres of music, such as the blues (maybe because it portable and inexpensive). But, here we have a multiple Grammy winner and true master of the harmonica, Howard Levy, playing jazz on it like nobody’s business. Another master, the pianist, Jeremy Kahn, joins him. Both are at the top of their form and play gorgeous standards as only great musicians can. The mic-ing is minimal and gives a most natural perspective to the music. Specifically, the piano is mic’d with a KMF Audio custom-made tube, stereo microphone and the harmonica is mic’d with a Sennheiser dynamic 441, giving a warm and immediate sound to the harp. The presence of a harmonica in jazz as mentioned above is a rare occurrence, and even rarer in this case as you are hearing it on the best and seldom-used audio medium, analog tape.
Available as a Download Only
Digital re-mastering in DSD256 :
Merging Technology Editing software with the
Hapi Analog to Digital converter
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