Category: Videos

Gerry Ezard – chromatic harmonica player and teacher

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Gerry Ezard as a friend and organiser

A personal tribute from Roger Trobridge – former Chairman of HarmonicaUK.

Gerry was living in London as a child and studied accordion at the Hohner run, “British College of Accordionists“. He preferred harmonica and ended up being very successful in the National Harmonica League (NHL) UK Championships in the 1950s.

This led to him being asked to join the Morton Fraser Harmonica Gang, a professional variety act. Gerry decided it was not what he wanted and after his National Service he established a business in his beloved Wales.

It was a big success and when he retired, he left it to his family and returned to the harmonica.

Gerry demonstrating the chromatic harmonica

This was about the time I took over as Chairman of the National Harmonica League (now HarmonicaUK) in October 2000. We met up through the forum on my website and he immediately joined the committee, where his business and musical experience was invaluable.

Gerry was very involved with the transfer of the annual festival to the Folk House in Bristol in 2001.Ben Hewlett was teaching a blues class for musicians there and he thought it would be a great venue.

He took a back seat around 2010 but continued to support the Chromatic Weekend festival which he had set up in 2006.

Gerry had other interests and he became leader of the Mid Glamorgan Accordion Band, still playing his chromatic harmonica. He also enjoyed writing and the research that went into it. When we met up earlier this year he was about to visit Scotland to check out the background for his latest novel.

You can learn out more from Gerry himself in this 60 mins video based on a talk he gave to the Porthcawl U3A about his life as a harmonica player entitled “Remember when you got your first harmonica“.

Gerry Ezard, performer, musician and author

Gerry has recorded two CDS, (“Just My Stuff” and “More of My Stuff”) and is also an author (Gerald Ezard) of a self produced book, “Mar$”, available through Amazon.

When Gerry performed on stage he would always dress for the occasion. It was part of the performance. His playing was of the highest standard, something he tried to pass on to anyone wishing to learn. From the time he joined the NHL in 2001, he ran workshops on all aspects of playing the chromatic harmonica. In 2006 he set up the Chromatic Weekend Festival, in Birmingham, along with Steve Dooley, which resulted in an increased awareness and uptake of the chromatic harmonica.

Gerry was always happy on stage and would always have something to say. As the following examples will show, he loved to act out stories, often in the style of the characters from the stories of Mickey Spillane and Damon Runyon – gumshoes, gangsters and gamblers. Like Larry Adler – no opportunity was missed to make it a better story.

Bach in the Bar

with apologies to
Mickey Spilane

Harmonica World
Dec-Jan 2005

It was quiet, too quiet, when I crossed the reception at Jurys. The blond behind the desk wasn’t giving anything away through those baby blue peepers.

The lights were low and the noise of the gang drowned out the background music when I hit the bar. Wheels sat in his usual place eyeing the crowd, Babs, his doll, glanced up as I sashayed in hoping they wouldn’t notice the bulge of cold metal under my armpit.

I knew something was going down, but as long as it wasn’t me in a cement overcoat I was too tired to
care. I flung myself into a chair in the shadows. They were all there – Babyface Jamie, Fast Eddie, and
Fingers Lee and his Ma, Lady C.

Lady C slid the paper over to Wheels and his eyes narrowed as he glanced it over. ‘Hey Jamie, you handle this stuff?’ he breathed. Babyface sidled over, casual like, and the bar went silent as he slowly pulled out a silver 48. Yeah, “Wheels”, he nodded, ‘I can fix it’. Everyone’s hands were in the open, I kept mine there too, and smiled like I knew too much.

Wheels raked the room with his eyes, nobody looked up, ‘Any of youse guys ready to roll’ he queried. The question hung in the air like a harmonic minor. The dame nodded ‘I’m in’ she drawled, ‘Me too’ added Fast Eddie, both producing mean looking 48s.

I shrunk into the shadows but it was too late, Wheels fixed me with his eyes. A long moment passed, ‘You’re in Pops’, he announced, and I knew there was no backing out. I was glad I’d packed my big 56 because this little number was going to be a doozy.

Then Fingers began to tinkle the ivories and Wheels began to play. Lady C narrowed her eyes and joined in with Babyface alongside. Me, I was with Fast Eddie, and we all watched each other to see what went down.

Well it went something like that after the festival concert, when, at 1am in Jurys lounge, five chromatic players. Carol Axford, Gerry Ezard, Jamie Dolan, Eddie Ong and Douglas Tate played Bach’s Double Violin Concerto, with Lee Axford at the piano. The bar was still crowded with hotel guests, and there were a few surprised looks as the elegant music silenced the conversation.

It was one of those magic moments, and Douglas, with his wife Barbara at his side, had somehow managed to raise us all from our post festival day stupor to enjoy playing Bach in the early hours of the morning.

I’m glad I was there. We will remember Douglas by playing this again one day.

Gerry (Pops) Ezard

Repeat performance at Douglas Tate’s Memorial Service (21 April 2006)

Here is a video of a repeat performance of the music that was played in the bar at Jurys Hotel in Bristol, on that Saturday night. Again Gerry Ezard is the narrator and a performer alongside Colin Mort, Philip Achille, Eddie Ong and Jamie Dolan. The 9 mins recording is taken from Douglas Tate’s Memorial service in Olney Parish Church, which added its own reverb to the chromatic harmonicas.

Gerry Ezard in Concert

Gerry played in many NHL/HarmonicaUK concerts and Chromatic Weekends. He loved the film music and Light Music of his youth. Here he plays two arrangements by Tommy Reilly from the Festival Concert in 2011 and also demonstrates his sartorial elegance.

Tribute from HarmonicaUK

It was with sadness and heavy hearts that we learned of Gerry’s passing. Everyone who had the pleasure of meeting him will miss him greatly.

Gerry played a major role in rebuilding HarmonicaUK and the teaching and promotion of his beloved chromatic harmonica.

A professional performer on stage – off stage he was warm and generous with an impish sense of humour.

The Gerry Ezard Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) Tribute Fund

There is a Gerry Ezard – Forever By the Sea Tribute Fund page for donations. Gerry was an avid Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) supporter. He loved life aboard his boat. Our first meeting was through a link to his Moonraker boat club.

Filip Jers in the UK and HarmonicaUK 2024

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Filip Jers is one of the top harmonica soloists. He flew into the UK in October 2024 and stayed with us, near London, before we travelled up to the HarmonicUK annual festival on 25-27 October in Birmingham. On the way back we visited Jim Hughes.

I have been lucky enough to host many artists on the way to the NHL/HarmonicaUK festivals, helped by our proximity to to Heathrow and a spare bedroom now that the children have flown the nest.

After picking up Filip from Heathrow, we stopped off for some traditional food – fish, chips, mushy peas and curry sauce, before he was introduced to the Harmonica Hotel (spare bedroom) made famous by Rob Paparozzi on his Facebook page.

Next morning we drove to Hillscourt and spent three days with an enthusiastic group of harmonica players where Filip presented workshops and played a fantastic set in the Saturday Concert. The festival photographs are by Pippa Phillips.

On the return home I took Filip to meet the ‘legendary’ Jim Hughes – chromatic soloist, teacher of World Champions and writer of the best tuition book for Chromatic Harmonica. Jim is 95, has lost his sight and housebound but still playing – formerly a sight reader he has taught himself to play by ear. They talked for two hours about technical aspects of playing and practising, and played music together. They were separated by 60 years in time but were united in mutual respect and their love for making music.

If you are interested you can enjoy the meeting by watching a video of the visit. I split it into two parts for convenience – before and after our pause for a coffee.

Part One – Filip Jers meets Jim Hughes Part One
Part Two – Filip Jers meets Jim Hughes Part Two

The journey home in the dark was tiring but it was another chance to talk about music and musicians.

After looking at some guitar records in my music archive (Charlie Byrd – House of the Rising Sun) and a good night’s rest, Filip headed back to Heathrow Airport and his flight back to his family in Sweden.

You can see a video of a similar visit I made to see Jim Hughes with Rob Paparozzi in 2023 by following this link – Jim Hughes and Rob Paparozzi talk and play

Here is the story of the Harmonica Hotel and Rob Paparozzi’s enforced stay in the UK.
http://www.the-archivist.co.uk/harmonica-hotel/

Larry Adler harmonica videos 1972 and 2000

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Here are some videos I have restored or edited showing Larry Adler at the peak of his ability in 1971 and also from his final year in 2000/2001.

1971 – “Playing the Thing“

In 1971 Chris Morphet created his harmonica film “Playing the Thing” and this included visiting Larry Adler at his flat in Brighton (UK) where he was interviewed and recorded playing several pieces of music. Some of the footage was included in “Playing the Thing” but most of it was lost on the editing floor. I recovered most of the out-takes and reconstructed the original full interview and performances. Here are the resulting videos. The quality is not perfect as some of the 16 mm film was damaged or missing and was from different sources.

Interview  https://vimeo.com/987579664

Malaguena – https://vimeo.com/987579584

Gavotte – https://vimeo.com/987579649

Smoke gets in your eyes – https://vimeo.com/987579604

Genevieve – https://vimeo.com/987579631

The full story of my continuing reconstruction of “Playing the Thing” with the interviews with Larry Adler, Sonny Terry, Cham’ber Huang, James Cotton, Bill Dicey, Andy Paskas, The Herold Trio, Hohner ….. can be found on the “Playing the Thing” website.

The website also has a video of the original film, “Playing the Thing“, which was released in 1972.

2000-2001 – Larry Adler’s final years

Here are some other videos from Larry’s last year before his death in 2001.

One is from his appearance at the Millennium Festival in Bournemouth (UK) in 2000 organised by John Walton and the IHO.

The others are from his last days when he secretly left his hospital bed to play in the Albert Hall, and the tribute concert held a few months after his death.

You can watch these on my blog page – The final years of Larry Adler (1914-2001)

The final years of Larry Adler (1914-2001)

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Despite his poor heath, Larry did what he always did.
He played until he finally had to leave the stage.

I first got to know Larry when I joined the National Harmonica League (NHL, HarmonicaUK) committee in 1999. Larry was our President and needed help with his office. Gout had frozen his fingers making it very difficult for him to answer emails and write his articles and reviews. I visited Larry regularly and made his computer more accessible. I had set up the NHL website which had a page listing his many gigs around the country and in his favourite location – “The Pizza in the Park” in London.

Larry returned from a successful concert with Cham’ber Huang in Hong Kong in December 1999 and after a series of UK gigs he made a short tour in Australia in May 2000. On his return he wrote, “I’m playing at the Edinburgh Festival Aug 5 and 6, later in September at the Palace Theatre, London as part of the Soho Jazz Festival. Found a sensational piano accompanist whom I’m importing for these events.” This was the 18 year old Simon Tedeschi from Australia. He looked after Larry’s musical needs until his death, a year later.

Simon Tedeschi

Larry was set to tour Australia in 2000, and for whatever reason his pianist was indisposed. When he found out that a teenager was due to accompany him instead, he wasn’t happy in the slightest, and as anyone knows, Larry came from an era in which feelings were not held back. But when we met, the music flowed instantaneously. He called me son, and I called him pop. We exchanged Jewish jokes and talked about the world. He was a complex man, with many sides, some of them difficult, others charming and affable.

We went on, after that tour, to travel the world together. As his health failed, I had to do more and more to ‘fill in the gaps’ musically, but I never stopped learning from Larry, simply from being around him. I never quite worked out which of his stories were 100% true and which were confabulated, and I don’t think he quite knew either.

We performed at Pizza on the Park in Knightsbridge at least twenty times, and each time was a joy. We travelled on the Orient Express together, which I will never forget. We argued and laughed, jostled and teased. He was the first ‘legend’ I ever worked with.

Until only a week or so ago, I had no idea any footage of us playing together existed. I was his last pianist and according to him, the finest Gershwin exponent he’d ever heard. I still like to use that quote wherever I can!

Videos of Larry’s last performances

Larry Adler and Simon Tedeschi performed together on many occasions including at the IHO Millennium Festival Concert in Bournemouth, UK, 7-10 September, 2000. Larry was very ill but he did not want to disappoint his harmonica friends – he was President of the NHL. He arrived in a wheel chair and was assisted to and from the stage.

Here is the video from the concert.

After Larry’s death in August 2001, there was a Tribute Concert in The Arts Theatre in London, 30 October 2001. It was attended by lots of Larry’s friends and colleagues from the entertainment industry, including his brother Jerry, and Sir George Martin. Music was provided by Simon Tedeschi, Hot Club de Londres, Izzy Van Randwyck, and Harry Pitch.

Here is a link to the video of the concert.

This was Larry’s last gig. He was in hospital in June 2001 and there was a big musical birthday party for his old friend, Prince Philip. His doctors would not let him take part so he slipped quietly out of his room, went to the concert in the Albert Hall and returned to the hospital.

Unfortunately for Larry the concert was televised by the BBC…

Here is a link to the video of Larry’s Great Escape.

Larry died in the hospital on 6 August, 2001.

Simon Tedeschi went on to have a successful career as a musician and writer – https://simontedeschi.com

Other Larry Adler pages on my blog

Larry opened the the doors which the harmonica players who followed him were able to walk through.

Here is a link to my one minute tribute video

Larry Adler thank you

Jim Hughes and Rob Paparozzi talk and play

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Jim Hughes was 94 when Rob and I decided to make an unplanned visit to his home in Birmingham. Rob knew about Jim’s years of session work including ‘Last of the Summer Wine‘ and many radio broadcasts, but they had never met.

Jim is possibly the best teacher of the chromatic harmonica and two of his students were World Champions.

Rob uses Jim’s highly regarded course books when teaching his own pupils.

Jim’s teaching materials, CDs, and a huge list of written scores for harmonica by James Moody and other composers are available through email – jamesmoodyscores@gmail.com . There is a list at the end of this blog

Jim was a great advocate of learning to sight read music and did so all his working life – a great asset for recording sessions. Unfortunately he is now totally blind but he practices many hours a day and has become very good at playing by ear. This has also led to him now to concentrating on his love of jazz standards.

Rob and Jim got on very well and they had a mutual respect for each other. After some discussion, they started to play together as can bee seen in the 20 mins video below. This was not a performance. It was all spontaneous and as is easy to see, a very enjoyable time for both of them.

A musical meeting of minds (and chromatic harmonicas)

You can watch chromatic harmonica maestro, Filip Jers, talking to Jim Hughes in 2024 here

Here is a list of the music which can be purchased from Jim’s son.

James Moody Sheet Music – January 2025 price list

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My harmonica video archives on YouTube and Vimeo

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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,

Chromatic Harmonica Music from Douglas Tate Memorial

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This video contains all the chromatic harmonica music played during the Memorial Service held on April 21st, 2006, in Olney Parish Church. Douglas Tate was a charismatic UK harmonica player, engineer and teacher. He had played in World Championships, broadcast on the BBC, and written books on the maintenance and playing of the chromatic harmonica. He became President of SPAH in 2000 but his term was sadly ended by cancer.

Douglas had been involved with the National Harmonica League (now HarmonicaUK) for most of his adult life and the musicians who took part in the Memorial Service were friends from the organisation. Gerry Ezard, Colin Mort, and Harry Pitch were long time friends and Philip Achille, Eddie Ong and Jamie Dolan were youngsters that Douglas had encouraged.

  • 01:20 mins – Douglas Tate – Sonata for Harmonica (Peter Jenkyns)
  • 06:00 mins – Jamie Dolan – Mulberry Cottage
  • 09:00 mins – Harry Pitch – Last of the Summer Wine
  • 13:00 mins – Philip Achille – Ashokan Farewell
  • 17:50 mins – Jang Ming – No Place Like Home
  • 19:00 mins – Ensemble – Bach Double Violin Concerto
  • 27:40 mins – Jamie – Dark Island
  • 30:00 mins – Douglas Tate – Trio Sonata in F major (Jean-Baptiste Loeillet)

You can learn much more about Douglas Tate and his life from my articles in the Harmonica World magazine issue shown in the video above. It can be viewed here.

Here is a link to a page of Douglas’ recordings and sheet music put together by Barbara Tate.

Toots Thielemans at 100

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Toots died in 2016 but he would have been 100 if he had lived until 2022. This year there was a series of events including concerts in Brussels and around the world to celebrate his life and music. You can see more on the event website – 100 years of Toots Thielemans .

I love his music and enjoyed his enthusiastic personality which came across in his interviews.

Here is a great edit from the many conversations he recorded over his long career as whistler, guitarist and one of the best harmonica players. The compilation was put together by a Belgian DJ, Nico Kanakaris, who goes by the name of BlueNotes (Facebook).

Here are some memories of Toots and his life broadcast in German by ‘Das Feature – Deutschlandfunk’ with contributions from harmonica players – Steven de Bruyn, Hendrik Meurkens, Yvonnick Prene, Gregoire Maret … – and many top jazz musicians. Download the music from their webspage –
Der Weg der Mundharmonika – Toots Thielemans und der Atem der Melancholie

Here, Julian Joseph and Julian Jackson talk about Toots Thielemans in the Jazz Legends series broadcast by the BBC in the early 2000s. Julian Jackson is one of the top UK Jazz harmonica players and a session musician. He was been inspired by and had visited Toots. They play a number of recordings by Toots.

The Archivist’s Harmonica Archive Blog

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The history of the harmonica is told by the performers and the music they recorded. Most of the major music collectors have died but this website shares some of the recordings from their collections – shellac, vinyl, cassette and reel to reel tapes, CDs, film and video tapes. It includes all music styles and harmonica types.