Harmonica players of all styles have recorded many great renditions of seasonal Christmas music. Here are some collections of music played on many types of harmonica.
Chromatic Harmonicas at Christmas – Seasonal Christmas music played by chromatic harmonica artists. Robert Bonfiglio, Sigmund Groven, Chris Bauer, Tommy Morgan, Jacob Venndt, Tommy Reilly and Charlie McCoy.
Blues Harps at Christmas – Blues harmonica players and their bands performing songs about Christmas. Carey Bell, Paul Oscher, Paul Butterfield, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Little Charlie and the Nightcats, G Love, Sonny Boy Williamson, Canned Heat, Richard Sleigh, Eddie C Campbell, Mark Doyle and the Maniacs.
Harmonica Groups at Christmas – Seasonal Christmas music played by Harmonica Groups – chromatic, chord and bass harmonicas – The Harmonica Men, The New Don Les Harmonicats, Harmonicas International (James Hughes/Rob Janssen), Chris Bauer, Charlie McCoy and Pete Pedersen.
Jazzy Harmonica Arrangements at Christmas – Arrangements of Seasonal Christmas Music featuring harmonica players, Toots Thielemans, Jason Keene, Stevie Wonder, Tommy Morgan, Norton Buffalo, Rob Paparozzi, Tollack Ollestad and Chris Bauer.
Harmonica Christmas Stocking Fillers – This extra Collection is made up of contributions sent in by artists like Will Galison, Madcat Ruth, Mike Caldwell, A J Fedor… and recordings that did not quite make it into the earlier Collections. As the title suggests, it covers many styles and even a bit of tremolo. It should have a few surprises just like a Christmas stocking for a harmonica lover. Stay with it to the end – variety is the spice of life.
HarmonicaUK started life as a Hohner marketing activity in 1935 and remained so until it was handed over to the members in 1981. It was first called the Hohner National Song Band League(SBL), then the National Harmonica League (NHL) in 1982 and finally HarmonicaUK in 2021.
Hohner’s final attempt to keep the organisation going
The decline in Hohner’s financial and marketing support for harmonicas and accordions in the UK came to a head with the breaking of links with the NAO, the National Accordion Organisation, and the halt to the production of the magazine “Accordion Times incorporating Harmonica News”, in 1974. From 1959 the NAO and the magazine had been the “home” for the National Harmonica League (NHL). It included a harmonica competition in its annual Accordion Day. Now there was no harmonica magazine to capture its history.
In 1974, the Accordion Day was held in Brighton. The harmonica competition was mainly for chromatic players and the winner was 16 year old Ivan Richards from West Heath, Birmingham, a pupil of Jim Hughes. In 1975 the event was held in Scarborough and the Larry Adler Challenge Cup was again won by Ivan, only this time he was the only contestant. Interest was waning.
Later that year, Hohner invited several blues harp players to take part in a competition sponsored by Hohner and “Sounds” magazine in the Kings Road Theatre, Chelsea which was judged by Steve Rye and Judd Proctor. Six were chosen and asked to travel as a team to the World Championships in Offenburg, Germany. They were the first blues harp players to take part in the World Championships. They included Steve Smith, Paul Lamb and Chris Turner and they won the Group Contest. Chris also won the diatonic competition. The other member of the British team was Ivan Richards and he won the Chromatic competition at the age of 17. He had been fourth in Ypres, Belgium in 1973.
Here is an image of “The Magnificent Seven” who took part in the Championship.
Britain’s harmonica heroes
(from left): Chris Taylor (winner of Diatonic Harmonica Championship, Antony Grant, Paul Lamb, Spitfire” Andrew Walton, Peter Hopewell. Centre: Ivan Richards (winner of Chromatic Harmonica Championship). Front: Steve Smith. Except Ivan Richards, all players formed a new harp group called “Blowjob” which also came away with the top prize in their group section (Sounds)
There is little information from 1976 but there was a chromatic championship in Weston-Super-Mare, which was won by Paul Templar. He had been a performer in the 1960s and was recovering from a serious lung disease.
He released a four track EP, Harmonica Magic.
Hohner’s last throw of the dice
At the end of 1976, Derek Kirk was Marketing Manager at Hohner under their Managing Director, Dirk Kommer. With their PR man, Les Stewart, he invited John Tyler, a headmaster from Essex, to become the Director of a relaunched NHL organisation which would be supported by Hohner. John had been a prominent member of the NHL and an accomplished chromatic player since the end of the 1950s. He accepted the challenge and set about opening up the organisation to all styles of harmonica, especially the popular blues harmonica players.
There was a strong membership drive with a small annual charge which included the new magazine – still called Harmonica News – and the circular NHL logo was born. The membership was about 1000 in 1977 and rose to over 2,500 by the end of 1979.
John’s big idea was to hold Get Together concerts in London, Birmingham and Manchester. The London ones were held in Cecil Sharp House in 1977 and 1979, and the other two were held in 1978. These concerts included many top players including Steve Smith, Harry Pitch, Paul Jones, Johnny Mars, Steve Rye, Paul Rowan, Jimmy Andrews, Carol Axford, Paul Templar, Brian Chaplin, Fred Southern …
If anyone has any programmes or tape recordings from these events, please let me know.
Alongside this activity the new “Harmonica News” (A4 size) was a huge improvement. Probably one of the best the NHL has produced.
It was full of topical news, articles, images and interviews with top touring players like Toots, Charlie McCoy and Sonny Terry as well as British artists.
By the end of 1979 it had become obvious that all this great work was not being rewarded by a growing and paying membership. The NHL had always had an international appeal and in 1980 they decided to make the magazine more colourful and broaden its appeal. It became the “International Harmonica Magazine incorporating Harmonica News”.
They published a couple of issues of the new magazine in 1980/81 before Hohner finally decided to call it a day. One of the main drivers, Derek Kirk, had moved on and John Tyler had done all he could.
I love to hear the harmonica adding some atmosphere to a film or TV show. Unfortunately the musician who plays the music is rarely credited.
The Alabama 3
I was watching an episode of a series on Channel 5 (British TV) called Finders Keepers and there in the background was that harmonica sound. I checked the website and wrote to the producer and he told me the music was by the Alabama 3, a group from Brixton, in London. Feeling pleased with myself, I watched the program again and saw that their name was on the opening credits…
I visited the Alabama 3 website and found out more about their harmonica player, Nick Reynolds.
Nick Reynolds
Nick was born in London in 1962 and his first band was in the Royal Navy in1979. In 1983, whilst serving in Navy Intelligence in Whitehall, he played with the reformed 60’s group The Pretty Things until 1985 when he went to Australia. On his return to London in 1989 he played in a series of groups – Les Grandes Branleurs, Backstreet Band, the Brit-pop band Octopus, and the experimental electro jazz band Blowpipe before becoming part of the Alabama 3 in 2001. There are more than 3 members and they don’t come from Alabama.
Woke up this morning
Alabama 3 were a new band to me and we don’t have any TV subscription channels. This may explain why when I started looking at their recordings I was unaware of the world wide fame they had achieved when their recording of Woke up this morning was used for the opening credits of The Sopranos. The bluesy rap song with influences from Howlin’ Wolf, Mississippi Fred McDowell and Muddy Waters.
From The Sopranos to The Simpsons
I went off in search of news of The Sopranos and found some great videos and parodies of the opening credits to the TV show.
The Sopranos opening credits
The Simpsons Parody
Alabama 3 in concert
Here are two performances of Woke up this morning by Alabama 3. The first one live in concert and a second small group acoustic one with more of Nick on harmonica.
Woke up this morning – Belladrum 2023
Work up this morning – Cigar Box Sessions 2015
More on Nick Reynolds, harmonica player, writer, sculptor, artist, composer and producer here.
My uploaded harmonica video archives can be found in several places.
YouTube – My first attempts at video production were to capture the annual National Harmonica League (NHL, now HarmonicaUK) concerts in the Folk House in Bristol, starting in 2001 until they were moved after 2018. I also began to digitise some earlier NHL concerts from VHS tapes and early camcorder tapes mainly from recordings by Victor Brooks. Around 230 videos can be viewed on my YouTube site.
Here is the video introduction for this channel.
Vimeo – I prefer the videos to be viewed without ads, and I like the control that a paid Vimeo account allows. The downloading and embedding of the videos can be specified and if a video needs updating or editing it can be uploaded over the original without affecting the original link/url.
My more recent harmonica videos have been uploaded to Vimeo where they can be linked to my websites like this blog. There are over 75. You can view them here
The videos are organised into Showcases where similar videos are grouped together.
Playing the Thing – One group of the Vimeo videos is part of a project to reverse engineer a harmonica film from 1972 – ‘Playing the Thing‘ – directed by Chris Morphet. These are now embedded on a dedicated web site for this project which is recreating the original interviews which were edited to create the original film – Larry Adler, Sonny Terry, James Cotton, Cham-Ber Huang, Duster Bennet, Bill Dicey, Andy Paskas, Hohner’s Factory, Dutch Harmonica Championship … You can watch the original film here,
Chris Barber died 2 March 2021. Here he introduces some of the US blues performers who toured with his band in UK and Europe in the 1950s. Chris brought over a stream of American artists who helped to inspire the British Blues boom in the 1960s, through Cyril Davies and then youngsters like Paul Jones, Brian Jones and Mick Jagger. This is from the Chris Barber’ archive CD album, “Lost & Found Volume 2”, on Blues Legacy.
From CD “Lost & Found Volume 2”
Track list 1 – Intro Muddy Waters – Chris Barber 2 – Hoochie Coochie Man – Muddy Waters 3 – Intro Sonny Terry – Chris Barber 4 – Poor man Blues – Sonny Terry 5 – Intro Champion Jack Dupree – Chris Barber 6 – Merry Christmas Blues -Champion Jack Dupree
I received an email from my friend Colin Parratt asking if I knew anything about a bench which his friend Martin had come across. I had to confess it didn’t know anything about it so he sent Martin’s photo to me. Martin lives in Folkestone (UK) and was the drummer in the barn dance band Colin used to play in.
The image looked like a bench based on a 7 hole harmonica. Across the back of the seat there is an inscription “Where Souls Meet”. The back of the bench was a strange shape so I decided to find out more about it.
There was an inscription on the side of the bench so I asked Colin to send me a picture of it so we could see what it said.
When I received Colin’s photo things became clearer. The plaque on the side read,
In memory of Arikę
Musician, visual artist, teacher, therapist, inspirational blues harp player, father, grandfather and a proud black man.
At the bottom of the plaque was a QR code and when I scanned it it revealed a website – https://originsuntold.com
The website belongs to a charity, Origins Untold, a volunteer arts organisation presenting music, poetry, visual arts, fashion and food inspired and created by people of the African diaspora.
The website shows an event was held 12th June 2022, the second anniversary of Arike‘s death, to unveil. a Blues Harp bench, designed by Pete Phillips and made by Cut Once Woodworks. The group walked from the Bandstand on the Leas in Folkestone, down the Zig Zag path to the Lower Coastal Park, where the bench is situated.
Origins Untold was founded in 2015 by the late, great Arike (aka Stan Grant), who sadly passed away on 12 June 2020 after a tragic accident.
Arike’s vision for the organisation was to broaden and change the conversation about race and about members of the African diaspora. To honour this, it is committed to breaking stereotypes, making unseen connections and unearthing buried histories, acknowledging the contributions that Black people have made to the history of this region and to its present.
In memory of Arikẹ, founder of Origins Ontold – 1949-2020
“Whatever a Black man can do to remind himself that he is fully human, to do it and to keep doing it… I don’t think we need to do more than that…it is just to remind ourselves that we are fully human.”
One of the pleasures of being Chairman of the NHL (now HarmonicaUK) for a long time was that I was able to meet and become friends with the international harmonica players who travelled to our annual festivals via London. We live about 30 mins from Heathrow airport so we were able to provide the artists with accommodation for a couple of days to relax and get rid of jet-lag before driving them down to the festival in Bristol. They stayed in our spare bedroom, vacant since our children flew the nest and set up their own homes.
I took all this for granted until this humorous Facebook post by Rob Paparozzi brought it all back.
Many of the other artists who had stayed with us joined in with their comments. How I wish we had kept a visitors’ book, but this was all so informal and unplanned.
Two names missing from this virtual visitors’ book are Greg Szlapcynski (now Greg Zlap), and Rick Epping.
A mere 242 years after the American Revolution and my poor Heart has been captured under ‘British Rule’ I was forced to stay in the lovely home of Roger & Jo Trobridge and take walks in the stoic and quaint town of Maidenhead then made to eat large hearty and delicious home cooked meals. Forced to sleep in a bed previously shared by other Harmonica slouches like Adam Gussow, JoeFilisko, Antonio Serrano, Will Galison, Peter Madcat Ruth and some tall guy named Howard Levy! Then I had to succumb to and peruse a treasure trove of rare vintage videos, books, LPs amazing Harmonica and eclectic Music Memorabilia in their lovely home compiled by Roger who is one of the FINEST music/art archivists in the world. Even forced to sit down at Jo’s lovely Kawai Grand and play old Randy Newman songs.
Then, shuffled off to the historic town in the Southwest of Britain, Bristol and made to perform with consummate pros and then hang around with the nicest warmest blokes and ladies in the country, while staying at a 5 star hotel.
Finally, having to endure 1st class upgrades and hot roasted nuts while in flight to and from the USA. How much torture can a man endure? Help! I’ve been captured (and I loved it). But I think the Queen has found out about all this mess and has had quite enough of this ‘Paparozzi dude’, so today I will be shipped back to the States.
Kidding aside. Thank You Roger Trobridge, Jo, the National Harmonica League, Ben Hewlett, David Hambley, Dave Taylor, Phil Leiwy, Shirish, oops almost forgot Walter John Davies and all the others I forgot to mention and of course it’s lovely membership and my friend Peter Hewitt for making me feel so at home in the UK and inviting me to share music and SMILES with you all this past week.
until next time … – Rob Paparozzi – (The Italian-American Prisoner of Love)
• Joe Filisko – Slouch I am!
• Robbie Kondor – Well deserved treatment, even as traitors go.
• Tony Perry – The Jersey Boy!
• Mary Ellen O’Neil Davis – Well if anyone can endure such torture you can do it. Glad they got sick of you & sent you back
• Walter John Davies – We can reveal that the NHL is actually funded by the British Secret Service as part of a covert charm offensive against you ungrateful colonials. Didn’t think it strange that we had a trusty American political prisoner working on the reception desk? We’ll get you all back serving the monarch yet.
◦ Rob Paparozzi – it all comes back! Thanks Walter!
• Richard Hunter – Clearly a case for the International Criminal Court. Thank God you were able to survive, escape, and squeeze in a big performance!
• John Posada – You poor guy…I don’t know how you can even stand it.
• Max Morden – That’s awesome…
• Greg Heumann – Sorry for your troubles, Rob. I’m sure things will look up soon.
◦ Rob Paparozzi – Woe is me.
• Nicholas Coppola – I am having them load the plane with cash to pay the ransom….. Don’t worry we will have you out of there soon……lol it sure is beautiful when a plan comes together
• William Galison – to you and Roger & Jo. I found their village and the walks around it, one of the most pleasant moments of my my life. Sorry about the bed I slept in. I hope it had time to air out!
• Peter Madcat Ruth – I was “forced” to stay there too…
◦ Rob Paparozzi – Ahhh I knew I’d forget another Major Dude!,-)
• Howard Levy – England swings like a pendulum do…
• Adam Gussow – I didn’t realize that we’d all shared that same bed, but I’m happy to know that I’m in that sort of elite company! I love Roger and Jo.
• Roger Trobridge – You are making it sound like a house of ill repute – we take in everyone. Antonio Serrano Dalmas also stayed with us. I wish I had taped you all playing in the music room…….
• Houndog Mc Gateley – The playing in the bar at the hotel till the wee small hours on Sunday night was always a treat for me, some great guys and memories. Can’t say I missed it this year, my wife would kill me, we spent the time in a London for our 50th Anniversary!!!
◦ Rob Paparozzi – We missed you Houndog but Family comes 1st and that is a major celebration my friend! Big Congrats and Many more
◦ Houndog Mc Gateley – Rob Paparozzi thanks Rob, next time eh
• Antonio Serrano Dalmas – I remember transcribing Larry´s Gavotte in that room!!
• John Valent – Enjoy the magic!
• Richard Smith – Nice tribute Rob Paparozzi. I think it`s true that Roger is the only member of the NHL who has never played a harmonica….. LOL
I met up with some friends in Ealing, West London, last week for a post-Covid meeting of Vinyl Addicts Anonymous. After a nice lunch in the Kings Arms we wandered down to the Oxfam Charity Shop, which specialises in second hand music recordings and books. We wanted to test our ability to fight the temptation to buy more vinyl and failed miserably. My wife tries to enforce a strict “one out, one in“” policy but when I saw the new box full of records from a collector of traditional jazz (mainly British) my resistance crumbled. I resisted buying over 20 recordings including 78rpm discs by Bessie Smith and Mead Lux Lewis but could not resist 4 10″ LPs which were a part of my music education in the mid 1950s.
The first was “King Joe” (Columbia 33S 1065) by the King Oliver Band (1923) with a young Louis Armstrong on cornet. Great blues tunes like “Dippermouth Blues” but unfortunately not “Canal Street Blues“, the two sides of one of my early 78s.
Dippermouth Blues
The second was a solo piano recording by Jelly Roll Morton (1939) on Vogue L.D.E 080. One of the founders of jazz, he recorded many tracks by his band “Jelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot Peppers“. Here he shows the range of his own compositions including blues. He was ill when these recordings were made for the Library of Congress and he died two years later.
Mamie’s Blues
Josh White was thought by serious blues collectors to be unauthentic but his more sophisticated vocal and guitar style was more appreciated by mainstream British listeners. This collection “Josh White – Ballads and Blues” (Brunswick LA 8562) was recorded in 1949 and released in Britain in 1952 also features a track with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee.
Sometimes
The final 10″ LP was “New Orleans Joys” by the new Chris Barber Jazz Band, with Pat Halcox on trumpet. It was issued in 1954 and it contains two tracks by the Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group – Rock Island Line and John Henry. Lonnie was the band’s banjo player and they played during the band’s concerts. Trad Jazz had taken off and the Skiffle boom was about to start.
Chimes Blues
This is where harmonica starts to come into my story. You can read more about this in my blog about Cyril Davies
Today’s harmonica world is the result of the pioneering activities of manufacturers, composers, performers and amateur players.
A lot has happened in the last 100 years but it is not very well documented or understood.
These books provide some of the backgound to the artists and the way the music developed.
Author
Book Title
#1
Louis Delin
Backstage Harmonica – Autobiography
#2
Larry Adler
It Ain’t Neccessarily So – Autobiography
#3
Larry Adler
Me and my Big Mouth – more autobiography
#4
Al Smith
Confessions of Harmonica Addicts – A History of American Ensembles
#5
Jane Rodack
Be of Good Cheer – Memories of Harmonica Legend, Pete Pedersen
#6
Kim Field
Harmonicas, Harps and Heavy Breathers – Interviews and stories
#7
Albert Raisner
Le Livre de l’Harmonica – History of The Harmonica to 1960
#8
Ray Grieve
A Band in a Waistcoat Pocket – The Story of Harmonica in Australia
#9
Ray Grieve
Boomerangs and Crackerjacks – The Harmonica in Australia, 1825-1960
#10
Jerry Adler
Living from Hand to Mouth – Larry Adler’s Younger Brother
#11
Max Geldray
Gone With The Wind – Autobiography of a Dutchman in England
#12
Peter Krampert
The Encyclopedia of the Harmonica – Short Bios ofHarmonica Players
#13
Kurt Roessler
Sie Spiel(t)en Mundharmonika – Harmonica Players
#14
Fabrizio Poggi
Il soffio dell’anima: armoniche e armonicisti blues
#15
Martin Haeffner
Harmonica Makers of Germany and Austria
#16
Martin Haeffner
Harmonicas – The Story of Hohner Brands
#17
Christoph Wagner
Die Mundharmonika – ein musikalischer globetrotter
#18
Martin Haeffner
Made in Germany – Played in the USA
#19
Martin Haeffner
“Hohner The Living Legend” – 150th Anniversary
#20
Zong Xiaohua
Chinese Made Harmonica Illustrations
#21
Editors
Seventy Years of Hong Kong Harmonica (2004),
#22
CMA, NUS
Harmonicist’s Handbook, 1991, Singapore
#23
Gian Pasquinelli
Soffiando e Risoffiando – by Armonauti Trio (Italian)
#24
Bruno Kowalczyk
The Harmonica and Traditional Québécois Music
#25
Charlie McCoy
50 Cents and a Box Top
#26
Jean Labre
Musique en bouche
You can read more information about these books and where you might be able to find them on Pat Missin’s fantastic web site about all aspects of harmonicas.
Pat Missin has created the best harmonica site on the internet. Everyone ought to visit it at least once so they are aware of the vast amount of knowledge he has assembled on all aspects of harmonica.
One web page contains a selection of vintage harmonica performances recorded between 1904 and 1940. It includes recordings and historical information about Pete Hampton, Professor Dickens, Arthur Turelly, H. J. Woodall, Henry Whitter, Borrah Minevitch, Moore and Freed, Sandlin Brothers, William Haussler, Haussler and Coutlee , W.V. Robinson, W.W. MacBeth, Gwen Foster, Willie “Red” Newman, John Sebastian and Rhythm Willie.
Here are the main sections of Pat’s website – www.patmissin.com – The main index page.
