Aloha and welcome. My name is Danilo Marrone, and I enjoy playing solo harmonica. My main influence is the great harmonica virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist, Peter "Madcat" Ruth. Inspiration comes from a wide variety of musical influences, so my recitals tend to cover several musical genres. A large part of my repertoire consists of original compositions.
Harmonica--A Personal Story
The reason why I became interested in learning the harmonica probably started with John Lennon’s incredibly melodic harmonica playing on the early Beatles records. I was (and will always be) a huge Beatles fan. The portability and versatility of the little harmonica always appealed to me. Another major influence was listening to Junior Wells playing and singing with Buddy Guy on the album Hoodoo Man Blues when I was a sophomore in college. That album changed my life. Junior Wells’ playing introduced me to other great blues icons Big Walter and Little Walter and, eventually, Sonny Boy Williamson II. I actually got to see Junior Wells play live at a small venue in Uppsala University in 1994; he smiled at me and patted me on the back as he got off stage.
On my 35th birthday, I decided that it was time to really try to learn to play the harmonica. I love jazz and decided that I would try to learn Watermelon Man by Herbie Hancock with solos by Freddy Hubbard on trumpet and the incredible Dexter Gordon on saxophone. Since the song is in the key of F, I purchased a diatonic harmonica in the key of Bb and started playing along with the recording in cross-harp (second position). It turned out that this project was a masterclass in improvisation, especially since I was learning the song by ear. To my amazement, I discovered that the harmonica is so versatile that it can sound both like a trumpet (Freddie Hubbard's first solo) and a saxophone (Dexter Gordon's second solo). After that, I purchased diatonic harmonicas in different keys in order to play along with other favorite songs. At this time, I also started writing songs on harmonica.
The next phase was finding a DVD by Peter “Madcat” Ruth entitled The Ins and Outs of Harmonica. That DVD really opened up a whole new world of the possibilities of playing solo harmonica. Peter "Madcat" Ruth is a complete master musician and one of my favorite players (see the YouTube link below).
Feel free to contact me at danilomarrone@gmail.com for more information.
Live performance at the Leeward Music Festival on April 13, 2019 (including a tribute to Peter "Madcat" Ruth).
The great Peter "Madcat" Ruth.
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