I’ve always been a big fan of the song You Gotta Move by Reverend Gary Davis, and popularized by The Rolling Stones.
Today I discovered a harmonica talent that I had not previously been aware of, Paul Jones! He’s most famous, in the United States at least, for being the lead singer of Manfred Mann. He can sing, but he can also play the HECK out of the harmonica! Check it out…
I met Paul in the Green Room at Exeter University, Devon, UK, back in the 1990s when I sang in a 10-piece Soul Band backing Edwin Starr and he was with his own Paul Jones Blues Band. Such a wonderful talent and a very nice and friendly man. The way he plays and sings is EXACTLY how I would love to be able to play. I know, practice practice practice!
Hey @floorshakers welcome to the forum my friend. Glad you’ve decided to join us. That’s so cool! Yeah, he’s the man. You’ll be rocking and rolling before you know it! You got this.
Thanks Luke. I hear congratulations are in order? Well done you and your good lady.! Many thanks for your cool and calm instruction. Getting there - SLOWLY! lol
A bit more of Paul Jones. The main harp playing starts at around 3 minutes. You could skip to there if you wished but you’d miss some impressive guitar antics from Tom McGuiness if you did.
HOLY CRAP!!! Thank you SO MUCH for posting this @DavidW I knew that Paul Jones was a killer blues harp player, but I had NO IDEA that he’s this deep on the instrument. What a brilliant approach to a solo harp with drums thing!
I had it on in the background while I was doing other work and I was like, "oh he’s changing harps that’s cool. Let me go back and watch this. But he WASN’T chasing harps and I was like, hah?
And he pushes his 1st finger against the side of the harp a lot which is like is it chromatic? But I knew it wasn’t chromatic because of all the great bends and everything that we love about the diatonic harmonica.
I was thinking, is it a half-valved harp? And then I noticed the C key label on the side of the harp, and played along a bit, and what a brilliant idea I had never thought of doing something like this. Check this out @Slim and @Corky_Music , I know y’all will really appreciate this too:
He starts playing in 3:30 in 2nd position key of G
Then at 4:06 he changes to 1st position key of C
Then at 4:15 he changes to 3rd position key D.
Then at 4:25 he switches to 5th position key of E.
Then at 4:40 he switches to 12th position key of F!
Then at 5:04 back to 2nd position key of G.
Then at 5:15 to 4th position key of A.
Then at 5:31 he switches to fricken 6th position key of B (which I’ve never even tried before!)
Then at 5:47 back to 1st position key of C
Then at 5:55 back to 3rd position key of D where he quotes the Habanera Aria from Bizet’s opera Carmen (which I’m familiar with because of Sesamee Street’s singing orange.)
Then at 6:31 he’s back to shredding in 2nd position until the band re-enters at 9:20, and for the rest of the song.
And so he achieves the same kind of effect that the funk saxophone player Maceo Parker achieves sometimes on his live rendition of “Shake Everything you Got” where it’s just him and drums and every 8 bars he modulates up a half-step.
Of course with our limitation on harmonica we can’t do that exactly (unless we’re Howard Levy) but the same building of excitement that happens by moving up keys is achieved by strategically changing positions the way he does. It keeps building and building… BRILLIANT!
I also noticed he’s wearing a Rod Piazza t-shirt. 
I wouldn’t be surprised of Paul Jones isn’t the first person to do this sort of thing, but he’s the first person I’VE ever seen do it, and HE HAS INSPIRED ME to work on being able to do this live in a concert! And he has just elevated about 20 notches in my estimation of him as a harmonica player!!! 
@Corky_Music I know you’ve toured with Rod Piaza and all the other contemporary hotshots. Have you ever seen something like this done before?
Can we just acknowledge 6 minutes of solo harmonica and/or just harmonica/drums. Not toooo many people can pull that off and keep it engaging, right?
WOW! Game changer for me here. DEFINITELY motivates me to brush up on 4th, 5th, 12th positions more, and to try playing 6th position for the first time (never had a reason to consider it before!)
Best believe I’ll be making a separate post in the future detailing all of this and providing some tabs to some of the stand-out moments. Thanks again @DavidW!
If you can’t tell, this is probably the most inspirational thing I’ve happened upon on the harmonica in a minute, so thanks again @DavidW. It’s so FUN to be INSPIRED! 
Lord willing, you’ll definitely see me copping these ideas some time in the next few years! 
Wow! LOL! this is completely out of my league and above my pay scale. Paul Jones (amazing) interviewed me at the BBC when I was in London and I think he came to my symphony gig there. Great guy. Amazing playing.
For me, I’m Mr. One Position. I can’t even begin to grasp this stuff and my dyslexia (or is it lexdyxia) doesn’t help at all. LOL! Imagine my duet gigs with Howard. On our first harmonica duet of the night I would turn to Howard after the first 30 seconds and I’d say; “Howard, you’ve already used up all the notes!” LOL! But this is the world I live in. I’m still struggling with position 2.
And thanks Luke for linking me up. It was great to hear John Paul.
And congratulations on your new tiny harmonica player you’ve brought into this Earth plane.
Happy Happy Harpy New Year and may all your reeds sing true for you and your family, your students, and your friends.
Corky
Hello @Luke,
the game is super impressive, but the 
at the beginning and the 
also 
.
At first I thought Paul Jones played a C - Harp Golden Melody. But it doesn’t have a pitch label on the side.
I assume he plays on a Seydel Session Steel Orchestra 
.
In any case, he seems to have incorporated some short parts from other well-known songs into the song. He goes with the whole body including hip movement 
, only the shoulders are up. My father also liked to hunch his shoulders on the saxophone, especially on high notes.
Very interesting!
In any case, I stay listening and take my breath away…
I’m so glad you found it useful @Luke but credit where it’s due. When this topic was bumped a few days ago by @floorshakers I so liked the video I posted it in a Blues appreciation topic on Musical-U. One of my friends there, David Quinn, mentioned he really liked Paul Jones & he in turn posted this Flat Foot Same video, which was so good I brought it back here! A virtuous circle.
Hey Luke @Luke
That is really amazing !! I did not really think in detail about what Paul Jones was doing – I was too caught up in the terrific music he was giving us !
Now I need to go back and listen to all of those parts you so conveniently selected from the video. Thank you for the time and effort, Luke !! 
Regards,
– Slim
A little more Paul I just found - a short, but packed, solo.
Hey “Mr. One Position” @Corky_Music thanks for bringing us back to planet earth. To draw an illustration from the guitar world: whose a better guitar player, B.B. King or Joe Satriani? 
And what do the people really want to hear? The people want to hear the -45 trill!! And even more important than hearing, the people want to FEEL and that’s why I mention B.B. King all the time because he plays with SOUL. Just 1 note, and he’s got us in the palm of his hand.
Of course Paul Jones is playing with emotion and soul here as @Slim points out “didn’t have time to think about all your technical mumbo jumbo Luke because I was actually enjoying the music!” LOL. Well done @Slim!
@Corky_Music I would rather hear you play one note on harmonica than any other player play one million, and I’m just so grateful that you come and share your perspective with us regular folk here on the forum. 
@DavidW thanks for posting “Doo a Diddy.” What a great tune for one man banding. I’m adding that to the list for a future lesson as well!
ROCK ON Y’ALL! 