birth of the shake
This is just out of curiosity, but I thought you might know.
I was listening to the early recordings of SBW1 (out of that compilation from Monument Records) with some attention the other day and noticed that he never used a shake on any song (at least on the first CD). I also noticed he repeatedly used the same fill over and over, but that's another story...
Was it just part of his style? Did other players used it at that time or did the shake came to be later on?
Thank you
Stef
Thank you Winslow! Si it couls have appeared in harmonica play around the late 1940's. Thant makes sense. I'll investigate on it a little more. I'll have a good listen to his later stuff. I also thought it could have been under the influence of other instruments (either piano or guitar, but also wood instruments such as clarinets and recorder). There were lots of big bands and jazz bands arount that era that probably had some influence on other genres.
In fact, it kinda surprised me that an iconic harp blues figure like Sonny Boy did not use an equally bluesy trademark of blues harp.
Brand of blues harp? The only things available back then were the Marine Band, the Old Standby, and one or two others. The "Blues Harp" model didn't appear until 1965, and back then (not true nowadays) it was just a Marine Band with different covers.
The Marine Band is still the iconic harmonica for blues, and that's what they used back then, too. Why would it not be bluesy?
When he was in England in the early 1960s, Sonny Boy used the Hohner Echo Vamper, which was again just a Marine Band with a different name stamped on it for the UK market.
Sorry I confused you, I was not talking about any harp model. although your historical knowledge always amazes me.
I was comparing the shake as a staple of blues harpin' that has been so widely used. Which is why I am surprised that SB1 did not use it at all on theses recordings.
Hard to say when the shake originated.
Little Walter happened on it sometime in the early 1950s and was very happy to find a way to hold a long note while also "doing" something. He referred to shakes as "quivers" - when you think of the quivering puslation it creates, it's a very apt term.
SBWII and Big Walter both played them, but recorded evidence that I'm aware of puts them roughly in the same timeframe as LW.
Now it could be that someone I haven't paid much attention to was doing them before that early '50s timeframe. If so and someone knows about it, I'd be glad to hear about it.
Piano players do it, and you'd think a harp player would have tried to imitate it.