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.