Inspired by Mr.Jia Yi He and Mr.Sulaiman Jamaal

Yup thatz a Harmonica? But it’s played like a flute, violin, clarinet, piano…WOW

“Wonderstruck”, were the audience at KYRA, Indiranagar, Bangalore. A little instrument which every body would have too-too-ed, in their child hood, took the stage this time, with Western Classics and Jazz played on it.(Apr 13th 09)

As Mr.Abe mentioned, it was indeed a double treat to listen to 2 great Harmonicists, Mr.Jia-Yi He & Mr.Sulaiman Jamaal.

The audience enjoyed every moment of the program, literally EVERYTHING, Harmonica by Mr.Jamaal, Songs by Ms.Priya, and the master performance of the day by Mr.Jia Yi He.

Ask if any of the THCB members were glued to their chairs? Nay… everybody was standing, with their retinas & lenses focused on the Master and his harmonica, and the earlobes acting as radars receiving and savoring the mousiqi, indeed it was truly a lifetime opportunity to watch the HARMONICA VIRTUOSO (everybody at the end of the program would have realized the meaning of the word ‘virtuoso’).

The Entertainer, Cherry pink, Clarinet Polka, Flight of the bumble bee, Czardas were amongst the classics played. With use of different techniques. Mr.He, in Chinglish, ‘u play on any other instrumentO, I play on harmoniCa’.

Displaying his mastery on the instruments, he showed how he can play in different styles,

~ as a piano “to play piano, 2 handsO, but harmonicao only 1 mouthO”, saying this he showed his technique mastery playing the harmonica just like a piano, with the lead on right corner of mouth and chords on the left corner.

~ Czardas, a classical masterpiece was played with 4 TREMOLO harmonicas (watch the video). Wow …

~ Amazing use of different techniques …

Mr.JiaYi-He, the harmonica virtuoso from China, is now settled in New York and is a Harmonica teacher at the Turtle Bay School of Music. Mr.He started playing harmonica at the age of 11 yrs inspired by his elder sister playing the harmonica. Apart from Harmonica he plays violin, piano, clarinet, and bassoon.

Thanks to Mr.Jamaal for arranging a meet up the next day, 4 lucky ones got to meet Mr.Jia Yi He. “it’s the greatness of Mr.He, that he shared many of the techniques with an open heart and with a willingness to teach… most of the people only keep it to themselves”, Mr.Jamaal said.

Though we had met Mr.Jamaal for the first time, we were so comfortable to discuss, learn, practice with him and Mr.He. Mr.He demonstrated the different types of harmonica and many techniques. Bending, the pucker, tonguing, tongue switching, trilling, breathing techniques, the fish embouchure etc…

“during my childhood, I always wanted to become a Christian boy, because my neighborhood boy got a harmonica as a Christmas gift from Santa” quoted Mr.Jamaal , when asked about how he got into playing harmonica.

the director saido, ‘u r no goodo, music fasto’, said Mr.He, while he was sharing with us the criticality of timing while recording music for a movie. Mr.He, narrated this incident about recording music for a movie when the director complained that there was a terrible mismatch in the scene and music and there was an issue out of it. And the reason was the MUSIC ended earlier than the movie scene. And the time gap was….1 second.

And the impromptu jamming of Mr.Jamaal on the lead harmonica and Mr.He on the Chords harmonica was wonderful, watch the video.

“India warmo, Indian people warmo… good placeo…”, “my childtime dream coming true by visiting India now”, expressed Mr.JiaYi He.

Thank u Mr.Abe, Bangalore School of Music, Kyra...

... INSPIRED...