Harmonious Wail provided five workshops for Fergus Falls High School and Secondary Band, Orchestra, ALC and Choir (3 different choirs) students prior to their concert at Fergus Falls A Center for the Arts . The of topics and demonstrations ranged from improve, composition, business, inspiration for songs, practice techniques, improvisation and copyright laws. The students were receptive and fascinated. One teacher commented that in one hour the students learned more than an entire semester because of the way Harmonious Wail involved the students and talked with them. Sims, Maggie & Jeffo you changed lives that day!
Michael Burgraff
Executive Director
……each member’s intense playing and sense of purpose never wavers….. It is definitely an uplifting, mind-altering experience.
…no one does it any better than the Madison, Wisconsin based group Harmonious Wail.
You’ll be smiling from the moment this CD starts to play…It is strangely reminiscent of Frank Zappa’s celebrated and just-as-jazzy Mothers of Invention … As a matter of fact, if this CD doesn’t set your toe to tapping and a smile on your face, you should probably get medication.
As a trend setter, Django Reinhardt gave birth to many “gypsy jazz” combos, one of the best being the quartet, Harmonious Wail…The group has stepped off of the edge with no net.
..we were playing at a pub in Waterford, Ireland to a packed house. We were almost finished with our first set when I looked down and saw this group furiously taking notes. Intrigued, the band approached the group during break and struck up a friendly conversation. As it turns out, these fans were actually a Harmonious Wail cover band. We couldn’t believe it.
A consistent presence in the livestream scene, Harmonious Wail marks their 14th (!) consecutive Friday evening performance .
Harmonius Wail arrives ……..The bouncy rhythm, the delicate music arrangement and good musicianship have made Harmonious Wail, one of the few outstanding bands that combines Eastern European folk songs and American jazz music.
…popping-hot, double-roasted … the Wail write a new page in the folk-jazz idiom.
….the group takes their love of Reinhardt’s Quinette du Hot Club de France and fuses it with their appreciation of other artists such as Tom Waits and The Velvet Underground. The result, interestingly enough, sounds like a blend of Badly Drawn Boy, Edith Piaf and Yann Tiersen’s soundtrack to Amélie.
…Maggie Delaney-Potthoff delivers the goods with sensuous obtuseness, leaving just enough room for you to wonder if her seduction is sincere or if she is merely playing with you.
…Maggie’s jazzy vocals. They lithely bop in English or Russian, speed-scat for instrumental riffs or find themselves backed up by tight harmonizing from the group. Add Eastern European Czardas numbers, made-over America Jazz standard and what you arrive at is a Manouche-inspired but otherwise eclectic goulash of various spicy musical strains including the romantically old-fashioned musette and swing valse..
Harmonious Wail — standard-bearers for Americana-infused gypsy jazz/swing music in Madison and beyond for 30 years