March 19, 2024

Blissfest 2009

July 5, 2009
Blissfest 2009
By Rick Coates 7/6/09

For the past 29 years the Blissfest Music Festival has built its reputation by presenting innovative folk, roots and worldbeat musicians at their annual event held near Cross Village (between Harbor Springs and Mackinaw City). This year is no different as a collection of jam-band, bluegrass, Cajun, Celtic, folk, jazz, Latin and other ethnic music and dance groups come in for the three-day Festival July 10-12.
Much of the allure to Blissfest has been from musicians that fly under the radar of mainstream music. From time to time the Festival has brought forward a national headlining act, but for the most part these musicians are ones who do not review commercial airplay; these are musicians who build their following playing the best festivals around the country.
Blissfest has such a reputation -- it is among the best festivals in the country, and musicians seek out the opportunity to perform on one of its many entertainment stages. Despite its success and national acclaim, Fesitval organizers have remained loyal to local Northern Michigan musicians. Several musicians from the region will perform throughout the weekend.
In addition to the multiple entertainment stages, Blissfest offers workshop opportunities, a variety of concessions, and even a juried arts and craft show.

HOWARD LEVY
While the weekend is full of noteworthy musicians and artists, Howard Levy stands above the rest. A founding member of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Levy is a Grammy winner and an innovator by creating a new breathing technique for the harmonica that helped to bring the harp into the ranks of other instruments in a ‘respect’ perspective.
Described as a musician with no limits, Levy’s musical journeys have led him down many paths, including rock, pop, jazz folk, classical and blues. He has performed and recorded with Kenny Loggins, Styx, Dolly Parton, John Prine and Paul Simon, along with more than 100 others.
His musical talents go beyond the harmonica, as he is also accomplished on the piano, flute, mandolin and saxophone, among other instruments. He is also a respected composer.
Levy’s passion to expand musical boundaries started with his own education studying piano and theory at The Manhattan School of Music in N.Y. for four years, then studying pipe organ with Carl Lambert for two years. He attended Northwestern University in Evanston, IL for two years, playing in the jazz band.
After college he became a music educator and has taught hundreds of students privately, and has been a guest lecturer at Harvard, Berklee, Dartmouth College, Northwestern University, and Francis Parker School, giving jazz clinics at high schools. He has also given hundreds of performances of “Music from around the World,” a program of international music for children and adults. He also taught harmonica for seven summers at The Augusta Heritage Arts Workshop in Elkins, WV, and World Music in 1984 at The Omega Institute in New York.

GETTING NOTICED
Levy started performing publicly in the early ‘70s.
“I just tried to play harmonica or piano at every possible opportunity,” said Levy. “I would ask to sit in any place I was at and there were times where I just invited myself to sit in. Eventually I got noticed and opportunities started to come my way.”
His first big break came when he landed a full-time gig playing with folksinger Steve Goodman in 1976; eventually that led to touring and recording with John Prine. Thereafter, he launched his own jazz quartet and then the The Balkan Rhythm Band. In 1979 he joined Chévere, Chicago’s leading Latin/jazz/funk/blues band, mixing Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, jazz and blues. He remains with the band today.
“It has been a great experience being in Chévere and right after joining them it led to me sitting in on a regular basis with Tito Puente, eventually leading to a full time gig with Paquito D’Rivera,” said Levy. “I have always had a passion for Afro-Cuban and Brazilian music, so for the past 30 years Chévere has been a great outlet for this. We play around a dozen concerts a year, mostly in the Midwest.”

FLECKTONES CONNECTION
His most notable band gig was as an original and founding member of Bela Fleck & The Flecktones.
“I was at the Winnipeg Folk Festival in 1987 and a mutual friend was insistent that Bela and I meet. So we did and he came to my hotel room and we jammed till 7 a.m.,” said Levy. “Well, a year later Bela was asked to do a TV show and he needed to put together a band, so he called me and I joined him and Victor and Roy (Futureman) Wooten. The performance was such a hit that we decided to do a few gigs. Well, those few gigs led to us touring around the world.”
After three years of success with The Flecktones playing the piano and harmonica, Levy decided to pursue other opportunities.
“It was great and it made me well-known as a musician, but this type of music requires constant touring because that is where the money is, on the road. I think we were averaging 200 shows a year and I had a family, so I left,” said Levy. “I have a great relationship with the group and will tour with them this fall. Sort of a reunion tour of Europe and the east coast.”
So what inspired Levy to pick up the harmonica in the first place?
“I started taking piano lessons around eight years of age but it was frustrating trying to find a piano when you want to play music. A friend of mine was into Chicago blues and started playing the harmonica and I liked the idea of having a instrument that would fit in my pocket that I could play anytime and anywhere,” said Levy. “So for $2.25 I bought my first harmonica. It was a Hohner Marine Band model. I asked my friend to show me how to play, but he explained to me that he couldn’t because it was all inside your mouth. So I carried the harmonica everywhere and played for hours a day teaching myself. It was frustrating because as a piano player I noticed there were missing notes on the 10-hole diatonic harp.”

NEW TECHNIQUE
That frustration led to an obsession and Levy revolutionizing a harmonica technique.
“Basically I am a stubborn person and I found the missing six notes that allowed me to get a three-octave chromatic scale. Before I developed this technique you had to use a chromatic harmonica that has a whole different sound (it has the button on the end),” said Levy. “It amazes me that no one else had figured this out before. I was a student at Northwestern University at the time this happened and it really was the start of my musical journey because it has taken me more places than I ever imagined.”
That technique Levy developed is called “overbending” and has only been mastered by some of the best players in the world. It is a very difficult technique of “overblowing” and “overdrawing” to bend notes, this technique has allowed the diatonic harmonica to cross into genres such as jazz where, prior to this technique, this style of harmonica didn’t work.
The harmonica allows Levy to compose music anywhere.
“I compose a lot on the piano, but with the harmonica I can compose music while I am driving. It is the only instrument you can play while you’re driving,” said Levy. “With a harmonica there is this personal connection with each note, you are essential breathing each note, singing each note if you will.”
Levy will perform with folk guitar great Pat Donahue. The two are regulars on the “Prairie Home Companion” radio show. Donahue is one of the great fingerpickers on the circuit and is the previous National Fingerpicking Champion. The two will perform Saturday at 3 p.m. on the main stage with Levy giving a master harmonica workshop at 5 p.m. They will also perform on the main stage Sunday around 6 p.m.

For a complete schedule and to purchase tickets visit blissfest.org or call the box office 231-348-7047.



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