FFWD Weekly
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| Music by Mary-Lynn McEwen Carlos del Junco For Carlos del Junco, it was love at first note. The sound of the harmonica was his siren call, awakening within him the desire for a relationship uniting himself and the instrument with musical excellence. "Harmonica has a compelling sound," he says. "The sound of somebody bending a note is incredibly compelling. It’s got a real human voice element and not very many other instruments really have that. In the wind instruments, it’s the only one you can play breathing in and out, which is unique. It’s really just the sound, though." And when he takes to the stage at Kaos later this week, del Junco will celebrate his instrumental romance with fans in a symphony of blues, jazz and a smattering of other musical forms like ska. Ask him about the show and his words fly out in tangled excitement like an animated train wreck. "It definitely makes your feet move, although it can get eclectic, it sort of hits everyone on all levels of show and pizzazz as well as emotions. Everything from up-tempo blues to a quiet waltz, a token ska tune, an African blues in 5/4. There’s the best of your drinking blues music with your thinking person’s.... Oh, my girlfriend’s laughing at this," he confesses, taking a moment to compose himself. "Well, the music can be both guttural and intelligent." Kim Ratcliffe, who plays guitar with Holly Cole, will share the stage with drummer Geoff Arsenault and Henry Hellig, playing upright electric bass, to round out del Junco’s band. Del Junco tends to play with many different musicians, so he’s happy he could entice these particular talents – with Canada Council’s support – into flying west so they can complete their 10-day tour. While the lack of regular musicians to work with keeps del Junco fresh, it can be a challenge when it come to songwriting. "I don’t write anything down on paper; I’m playing with the melody. Since I’m sort of a self-employed guy who has musicians working for me who change quite regularly, I sometimes will use the aid of a computer program or something just to sort of generate some tracks. Or I’ll have a melody in my head and I’ll tell the band about it. Most of the songs are contributions from other local musicians. I’m not so much of a writer as an interpreter, I guess." Because he runs his own record label, Big Reed Records, finding time to write and practice is an ongoing theme in del Junco’s day. "I’m lucky if I get to practice because I spend most of the day with my business hat on and spend time on the telephone being a bandleader, being a record company owner, being a record distributor... and it’s a lot of work. I probably spend 75 per cent of my time with my business hat on, applying for grants, telling the band where the next gig is, rehearsing a new guy. Most frustrating is not having enough time to practice and be creative, to get into a roll rather than practicing scales." But these sacrifices have paid off with the release of Big Boy, his fourth album on his own label. The songs showcase the recently mastered overblow technique he learned from jazz player Howard Levy on a 10-hole diatonic harmonica. The 13 songs tend to stray from del Junco’s traditional pasture of the blues. "The first thing I was trying to play on the harmonica was blues, so I’ve always had a strong foundation in that, but every record I make seems to get farther and farther away. There’s not one Chicago blues in the traditional sense on the Big Boy CD, but half of it’s definitely very bluesy. As well, the jazzy stuff is accessible to people who don’t generally listen to jazz because it’s not like a huge long opus. It’s accessible." Indeed, it is so important to del Junco that his music is accessible to listeners and players alike that, in a reverse of the classic guitar player ploy of playing with one’s back to the audience so no one can steal your licks, del Junco has included information about technique and key for every song on the Big Boy album. "There’s nothing to hide – it’s all there for the learning for anyone who spends the time doing it. I think to do anything well you have to spend a lot of time with it. I want to share it with people as well; it also saves me the time of having to respond to e-mail that says, ‘What key was that harmonica in on the record?’" |
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