Album Notes

just harmonica


Even though I consider the harmonica my instrument, I'm better known in the SF Bay Area as a vibes player and since there's more call for jazz vibes than jazz harmonica, vibes are what usually what I play. However, I try to manage one or two songs on harmonica at a gig. Often, on a break or after the gig, someone comes up to me to compliment the band and say that they "really liked the harmonica, do you have a CD or tape of just harmonica?"

Now I do. TALKIN' TO MYSELF is "just the harmonica" in a variety of settings from ballads to reggae. Three of the songs (In a Sentimental Mood, Dindi, and Bluesette) are "live" cuts with "Soul Sauce", the Latin-jazz group I co-lead with my friend, drummer Curt Moore. These songs are from a concert played in July, 2000 at Stanislaus State University. Although two of these songs (Dindi and In a Sentimental Mood) are on the Soul Sauce CD "Got Sauce?" the two presented here are "live" versions with a slightly different personnel. "Bluesette", the Toots Thielemans jazz standard waltz, is played as a mambo. My friend and musical cohort for many years, Grant Ewald played keyboards with me on "My Cherie Amour" and "When I Fall in Love".

The CD name comes from the rest of the tracks. It's just me, TALKIN'TO MYSELF, on harmonica, vibes, and synthesizers. I chose songs that aren't heard as much as they should be: "Close Your Eyes", "Estate", "Only Trust Your Heart", although not obscure songs, aren't heard as often as other "jazz" standards. "My Little Suede Shoes" is perhaps Charlie Parker's only "latin" tune and "Ruby, My Dear" is an example of Thelonious Monk's composing at it's most beautiful, yet it's a piece overshadowed by so many other great Monk compositions. "Reggae My Heart" is "Peg of My Heart". Not a jazz composition but one of the signature songs of The Harmonicats. This arrangement of "Peg" is my homage to the "Cats". Those familiar with their version will recognize pieces of their arrangement in this "reggae" version of their classic.

"Eriksen often mixes the vibe-marimba sounds in solo but he does not try to blow harp at the same time, although that's about all he doesn't accomplish. He's an imaginative and spirited performer..."
-Phil Elwood - San Francisco Chronicle

"As much as I enjoy his vibes playing, I'd gladly listen to a Soul Sauce CD that only featured his harmonica blowing. Like Toots, Eriksen is able to sing and emote through the instrument in a way that cuts straight to your heart."
- Dave Roberts "All About Jazz"