A harp instructor once told me that many people who come for lessons don't really want to learn how
to play harmonica; they just want a good time every week -- a guaranteed jam session -- a harmonica gigolo.
I had to laugh. It's true: harp, like banjo, is often thought of as just a "happy time" instrument,
but I continue to learn more and more about its amazing variety and depth. It can moan the blues,
make jazz swing, percussively convince you you're listening to an engine labor down the tracks, and
just generally put the jump back in your step. Then, when you're done, you can tuck it back into
your pocket and get on down the line. That versatility, low cost, and portability are probably what
kept it alive over the decades, and certainly were good reasons a young Tom Ball found one in his pocket.
Los Angeles, California native, Tom Ball, was born on October 24, 1950 ("Sonny Terry's birthday!").
He grew up in West L.A.; began playing guitar at age 11; and got "caught up in the big folk scare of
the '60s." He was doing pretty well on guitar at age 14 when he picked up harmonica. Drawn into
playing music with a high school band, the "Yerba Buena Blues Band" ("Let's you know where we were
at!"), he soon realized it was far easier to get a gig as a harp player than a guitarist. "Everybody
I knew played guitar." Harp also translated well to either acoustic or electric music, so he started
concentrating on it. Like others in the folk revival era, Tom's early mentors were the "Kingston Trio"
and the "Brothers Four," but soon he heard people playing guitar and playing harp through a rack.
Eric Anderson and Bob Dylan offered a new take on harp. "Then I heard Sonny Terry," laughed Tom,
"and it was all down hill from there. 'WOW,' I thought -- this is WAY more interesting than 'The Weavers'!"
The popular "Yerba Buena Blues Band" played before very large audiences, at all the clubs on the
Sunset Strip, and even the "love in" at Elysian Park, before life stepped in. Car accidents, the
draft, and encounters with the law (oh happy hippie days) removed members one by one. Tom decided
it might be an excellent time to indulge his wanderlust. So in 1969 he left for Europe; traveled to
South America in '72; and ended up spending most of his 20s in Asia. He saw the world; married;
divorced; busked in Paris for tips; joined the "Swayambhu Swamp Stompers" band in Katmandu, Nepal;
and finally came back to California in 1978 to settle down. By then Santa Monica seemed too developed,
so he moved up the coast to Santa Barbara.
A "notice" on a music store bulletin board there immediately landed Tom in a band that turned out to
be "a little too electric," so he knocked around with solo gigs, playing both guitar and harp. He
soon ran across Kenny Sultan's name in the newspaper as someone who played "ragtime finger style
guitar" and made a note to check him out. So one night when they were both playing clubs around the
corner from each other, he sent his girlfriend (now wife) over in his stead. "She took notes. Kenny
thought she was from the IRS or something." She came back with a glowing report about his playing,
his sense of humor, and mentioned that he liked Heineken beer. "Heineken and Blind Blake -- my two best
hobbies -- I figured I should meet him!"
Sultan, also a southern Californian, developed a love for blues via his brother's record collection,
and spent a lot of time at the famous Ash Grove club catching the rich diversity of acts that played
there. He played electric guitar in high school bands, and then set out for Chicago to experience
the blues scene first-hand. He moved west once more to earn a degree in Music/Ethnomusicology from
the University of California in Santa Barbara where he also taught guitar. Shortly after the two met,
Sultan asked Ball to appear on the local university radio station to plug his guitar classes. Tom
went and a local club called in asking to book them. "Fifteen bucks, pizza & beer! We basically
stole every Brownie & Sonny piece we could think of to play that gig."
They've been together as a duo for 23 years now; released seven duo albums; four solo CDs; taught
guitar, harp, and music at public workshops and at the university; done session work on over 150 CDs;
published numerous instruction books and videotapes; and regularly have a GOOD time touring both in
the U.S. and Europe. Tom took the literature plunge once again recently with the release of his first
work of fiction, "The Marty Graw Book" (see http://www.booklocker.com/books/1023 html for more details).
I suspect the secret of their success goes beyond their obvious love of blues to the fact that they
nurture a variety of creative outlets separately, and share it all with a health sense of humor.
"Fortunately for me, Kenny and I get along real good," Tom laughed when asked for the secret of their
longevity.
Peter "Madcat" Ruth, another national figure on the harmonica scene, described Ball as "One of the
few players who started for the same reason I did -- because he heard Sonny Terry." Tom's self-deprecating
modesty and humor garner good will wherever he goes, and the list of his accomplishments, both with
Kenny Sultan, and independently, are awesome (see the Tom Ball/Kenny Sultan homepage at:
http://www.tomballkennysultan.htm). Madcat summed up the general reaction I seem to get whenever
I mention Ball's name: "Oh, Tom Ball -- he's a FINE fellow!"
CATHI: Did you say that members of your family got musical AFTER you left home?
TOM: Yes! My brother became a banjo player and my father a drummer -- he's gigging with some Dixieland
jazz folks now.
CATHI: (Laughter.) You mean your mom doesn't sing torch songs in a nightclub?
TOM: (Laughs.) She should!
CATHI: I think people mainly think of you as a great harp player, but I really liked that solo guitar
tune you did on the live album. I was wondering if you (and Kenny) do much guitar duo stuff.
TOM: Well, we don't and I think part of that is just laziness. We each do a solo a night to give
each other a break (laughs). We used to do some duets, but in those days we played a lot of noisy
bars and it was too loud. Then when we got a concert or festival we were out of practice and butchered
them. We ought to explore it more I think.
CATHI: I know how it is in a duo -- you get in a role that works and after awhile trying something new
is sort of like accenting what you don't know.
TOM: Yeah...you're right -- well put.
CATHI: So when you were doing all that traveling around the world did you play guitar and harp?
TOM: Both. I'm pretty confident on guitar, although my skills aren't as versatile as they could be.
I mean I have areas I can play well and a lot I can't play at all (laughs), but back then, my playing
depended on the song. If it was finger style I guess my playing was more toward the prominent front
end, and if it was bluegrass or something else, I'd just play backup and sing or play harp or whatever.
CATHI: You described your career with Kenny as a "slow crawl?"
TOM: (Laughter.) It was pretty slow at first. We did local shows. There was a club here called
the "Bluebird Café" that we played every Thursday night for about a year and we did a few local
festivals. Then this local guy named Peter Feldman, who owns a record label called "SonyaTone Records"
asked us if we'd like to make a record. We made one in his bedroom in about one day (chuckles) and
it sold about a thousand copies, so we thought, "Hmmm…let's do another." So we clicked on with
Kicking Mule and from there to Flying Fish (record labels), and Flying Fish got bought by Rounder,
and one thing led to another.
CATHI: Were you writing songs all that time? I love the humor in your tunes.
TOM: Well, I don't really consider myself a songwriter. Usually Kenny does the music and I'll do
the words. It's about 90/10 back and forth.
CATHI: I appreciated your press kit's "zero platinum albums" description of your work.
TOM: (Laughs.) Zero nominations too!
CATHI: You apparently go over like crazy in live performance. I appreciate audience rapport. Is
that something that developed over the years or because you started so young -- audiences of over 15,000
when you were just a teen?
TOM: Hmm…you know, I don't know. That's a good question. I think we feed off the audience as much
as they feed off us. If we've got a bad one, we're not likely to start spinning yarns, getting loose,
and talking.
CATHI: Sonny Terry looms large in your legend. How about other influences?
TOM: Well, of course Little Walter, Big Walter, both Sonnyboys -- those are probably the main ones.
I was real lucky in the '60s. This club called the "Ash Grove" had literally everybody alive playing
there. You could go on Friday night and see Bukka White, the next night -- see Doc Watson and Merle
Travis, then Albert King…. I basically just lived there. I saw Brownie and Sonny a lot of times
in there.
CATHI: Did you get to know them?
TOM: Not really. I came to know Brownie a little bit after Sonny passed. We shared the stage a
bunch of times, but I wasn't really gigging back then. But they were very gracious. They would
always invite fans back into their dressing rooms. They were great, very helpful, funny, and friendly.
I don't think they got along with each other very well, but they were fine with the people.
CATHI: You do a lot of touring?
TOM: We go to Europe every year and usually back east once a year. We play a lot in the Western
states and usually go to Texas, Tennessee and Florida every couple of years, but we've never played
in New York City or in New England. Would love to get there.
CATHI: Are you a harp tech, Tom?
TOM: (Laughs.) I play Special 20s right out of the box. If something's stuck in there I'll clean
it out, but I don't re-tune the reeds or anything.
CATHI: What about your attack? Windy? (Laughter.)
TOM: I don't know how to answer that question!
CATHI: Do you run through harps in a hurry?
TOM: Yeah, particularly the A's and Bb's. I burn them up in about a week or two, and then the
higher-keyed harps last way longer. Seems like the longer the reeds are the faster the metal fatigue
sets in. I really dig in when I play and if you're bending the crap out of the reeds metal fatigue
is going to set in! Then they get little microscopic cracks and stuff and go way flat. You can
re-tune 'em but then they only stay in tune for about 20 minutes and go flat again.
CATHI: Favor any special rig?
TOM: With Kenny I play acoustically so I just use the best vocal mic I can get my hands on -- sing
through the same mic. But in studio work where they want an electric sound I use an Astatic JT-30
mic and a Tweed DeLuxe for an amp and an outboard Fender reverb unit. Then I also have probably a
dozen different bullet mics that I'll bring to sessions -- test them all while I'm getting paid and let
them argue about it (laughter)!
CATHI: It's saying something that you've done this for a living so long. I expect that's because
your projects are so diversified.
TOM: Yes, every couple of years we make another record and we love Europe -- go every year. These last
couple of records have been solo CDs. Kenny's done two guitar solo records and I just finished my
second guitar solo record…mostly classical stuff. Then we both do a lot of instructional books.
Kenny's got three-four and I've got five I think.
CATHI: Man…you're something!
TOM: I just have a lot of time on my hands Cathi (laughter). It doesn't mean I can afford to go to
the dentist! I'd be in jail if I wasn't this busy.
CATHI: Classical music huh?
TOM: Yeah, I did the first one about 15 years ago and I got really interested in lute music -- Renaissance
and Baroque stuff. You can't play that in a blues bar, so I figured I'd do a solo album and Kicking
Mule (records) picked it up. Then they were bought by Fantasy and issued it, so I'm on the same label
as Credence Clearwater!
CATHI: (Laughter.) Hopefully owning your own songs, unlike them.
TOM: RIGHT.
CATHI: Tell me about these of session work.
TOM: Well, most of 'em aren't blues. Most of the time they just want what I'd call "campfire style"
harmonica behind a singer/songwriter.
CATHI: Wow…well, you must read of course.
TOM: Well, not really. I can read charts but I can't sight-read. When I do classical pieces I just
buy the music and sit down with a pencil, find the note, and change it to tablature. It's a huge
struggle, but once you get it, you've spent so much time with it that it makes sense in your mind.
Most of the session work is not guitar, it's harp. And most of the time they don't have a melody
line written out. If you are a person who really listens closely it helps. A lot of time people
know what they want but they can't articulate it. If you hear what the rest of the arrangements are
like, then you throw out a few ideas and by the time you've thrown out three or four, they are going
"yeah, yeah!"
CATHI: Do you think, like some folks do, that harp players get away with murder?
TOM: In a way, yeah. I've been in some sessions where everybody else was a sight-reader, like for
film sessions or TV. They'll be 15 people who can all sight-read in 9/8 and various changing modes,
and me. They are willing to take the time for me to catch up because whether we like it or not, I
think the perception is that harmonica players are a little bit more ignorant. A lot of people really
get steamed about that perception, and probably with good reason. But in my case it works out because
if they think I'm a bonehead in advance they're not going to get steamed at me for holding up the session.
CATHI: Oh I know…like the "you're so strong and I'm so weak" thing with women? That works for me.
TOM: (Laughter.) Can I carry your groceries for you?!
CATHI: (Laughter.) Do you get paid for the session and that's it, or do you ever get cake off the
production or what?
TOM: Usually not…usually flat out for the session.
CATHI: Well, you sound like you just plain have fun. Are you still enjoying it?
TOM: Yeah! And part of that, you know is I'm not qualified for anything else anyway. My mother
always told me, "This stuff is great, but you really should have something to fall back on."
(Laughs.) Well, I never listened to her anyway. I'm glad I didn't because if I'd had something to
fall back on, I would have fallen back on it! So I'm kind of glad I've been operating without a net.
(See Tom Ball and Kenny Sultan's Home Page for more information:
http://www.tomballkennysultan.com;
and Tom may be e-mailed directly at:
wttom@hotmail.com)
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