Tag: Larry Adler

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.

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)

SPAH – The first 20 years

Archie

The Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica, SPAH, was founded in 1963 by Earl Collins (1924-88), Gordon Mitchell (1927-2001) and Richard Harris (1938-2015). Fortunately, the youngest member of the trio, Richard Harris, was an enthusiastic photographer and recording engineer so you get a chance to hear the history of SPAH as it was happening.

This blog post is taken from a cassette tape of the soundtrack of a video that Richard made in 1983, from his vast archive of recordings, to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of SPAH. It is tribute to Richard Harris as well as SPAH. Richard was ahead of his time. Without his foresight and hard work this detailed audio history would not have been possible.

Here are Richard’s notes which accompanied the cassette he sent.

SPAH – The First 20-Years – featuring “THE HARMONICA MEN”, trio. Produced and narrated by: Richard Harris.
History of SPAH via music and the spoken word. Relive excerpts from the first SPAH meeting, Dec. 1962. Here the voice of founder Earl Collins, words of wisdom from harmonica greats like Tommy Reilly, Blackie Shackner. Remember firsts such as Richard Hayman’s Harmonica Concerto, April 1978, the first CanSPAH concert November 1965. And the radio and TV programs – a sampling includes the “I’ve Got A Secret” Show and the 8′ harmonica that stumped the panel. But, that’s history – history that will be remembered by early SPAH members and now 20 years later by you. All on a premium cassette in stereo (recorded 1983 converted to digital in 2018).

You can read more about the history of SPAH by visiting the excellent SPAH Archives webpage written by Manfred Wewers.

Larry Adler – In his own words

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Larry Adler was the first harmonica superstar. He was born in 1914 and  he took the chromatic harmonica onto the concert stage and into films, playing popular and classical music.

This recording was made in 1998 for the BBC when Larry was 84. Larry Adler’s Century was broadcast as seven weekly programmes but Larry produced an edited version on a tape cassette which he gave to his fans.

Larry was an entertainer in the full sense of the word and he enjoyed playing the harmonica, writing in magazines and appearing on radio and TV shows. He had a fantastic knowledge of classical and popular music and would play with anyone, anywhere.

Here he talks about his life and plays some of his recordings.

Tracklist
1 – Introduction – Larry Adler
2 – Smoke gets in your eyes – Jerome Kern
3 – Beginnings – Larry Adler
4 – Minuet in G – Mozart
5 – First jobs -Larry Adler
6 – I want to be loved by you – Stothart
7 – Al Capone – Larry Adle
8 – Playing the harmonica – Larry Adler
9 – Summertime – Gershwin
10 – Playing the chromatic harmonica – Larry Adler
11 – Bach goes to Town – Alec Templeton
12 – Meeting Ravel – Larry Adler
13 – Bolero – Ravel
14 – Meeting George Gershwin – Larry Adler
15 – Rhapsody in Blue – George Gershwin
16 – Musical Joke – Larry Adler
17 – Lets call the whole thing off – George Gershwin
18 – Harold Arlen – Larry Adler
19 – Blues in the night – Arlen
20 – Musical Joke – Larry Adler
21 – Somewhere over the rainbow – Harold Arlen
22 – World War II Jack Benny – Larry Adler
23 – The Continental – Conrad
24 – Meeting Ingrid Bergman – Larry Adler
25 – Song for Ingrid Bergman – Larry Adler
26 – Gettysburg Address – Larry Adler
27 – Relationship with Ingrid – Larry Adler
28 – As time goes by – Hupfeld
29 – The House Un-American Activities Committee – Larry Adler
30 – It ain’t necessarily so – Gershwin
31 – The blacklist – Larry Adler
32 – Genevieve – Larry Adler
33 – Writing Genevieve and the blacklist – Larry Adler
34 – Genevieve – Larry Adler
35 – Yesterdays – Larry Adler
36 – The effect of music – Larry Adler
37 – Ode to Joy – Beethoven
38 – Speech in Australia – Larry Adler
39 – Meeting with Sting – Larry Adler
40 – Ten Summoners Tales – Sting
41 – Glory of Gershwin with Elton John – Larry Adler
42 – It’s very clear – Elton John
43 – Programme credits – Larry Adler
44 – Nice work if you can get it – George Gershwin

Harmonica Harry (Pitch) – 1925 to 2015

Archie

Harry Pitch took inspiration from Larry Adler and like him he was an entertainer who worked hard to build a successful career. They were both more interested in the music rather than technique, but Harry was always a jazz player.

This audio biography shows how Harry’s long musical career covered all areas of music on chromatic harmonica and trumpet, as a soloist, session man and bandleader. He could read music but was always happy to improvise and play with other musicians.

Harry started to play harmonica before the Second World War. When harmonicas became unavailable after the Second World War he moved to trumpet. He joined and led big bands in the 1940s/50s but he started to play harmonica again after hearing Max Geldray playing in the Goon Show. I have included examples of him playing both instruments in his big band. He carried over much of his trumpet solo style to his harmonica playing.

In the 1960s he became a successful session musician, featuring on film soundtracks, classical music concerts, pop records and his biggest hit, Groovin’ with Mr Bloe’.

From the 1970s, Harry played on the long running TV series, ‘The Last of the Summer Wine’ and he started to play more with his old friend, accordionist, Jack Emblow.

Harry set up two bands, ‘Rhythm and Reeds’ and ‘The Thames Valley Jazzmen’ and he continued to play trumpet and harmonica. As live gigs became harder to get he played more smaller venues like Pizza Express restaurants with some distinguished pianists and a repertoire of light classics, standards and tributes to Larry Adler.

There are some videos and more information on his web page.

Harry Pitch Audio Bio

1 – – – 00:00
2 – Max Geldray – Goon Show – 02:00
3 – – – 02:45
4 – Big Band Trumpet – Boy Friend – 03:10
5 – Big Band Harmonica – Lady be Good – 04.03
6 – – – 05:40
7 – Frank Ifield – I Remember You – 06:45
8 – Bill McGuffie – During One Night – 07:22
9 – – – 08:10
10 – Mr Bloe – Groovin with Mr Bloe – 09:10
11 – – – 10:00
12 – Ronnie Hazelhurst – Last of the Summer Wine – 10:30
13 – – – 11:30
14 – Rhythm and Reeds with Jack Emblow – Alfie – 11:45
15 – Thames Valley Jazzment – Birth of the Blues – 15:10
16 – Thames Valley Jazzmen – L’il Darlin’ – 18:40
17 – Harry Pitch Duo – Body and Soul – 23:30
18 – Harry Pitch – Summertime – 27:10

Major Chromatic Harmonica Soloists.

Archie

Four soloists were mainly responsible for rise in the popularity of the chromatic harmonica in the 1930s, 40s and 50s – Larry Adler, John Sebastian, Ronald Chesney and Tommy Reilly. They were all entertainers and the music they played came from musical shows, classical music and folk music. This programme is introduced by Larry Adler and it contains examples of the music they all recorded on 78rpm records.

There were other performers and they will be featured on future broadcasts.

Major Chromatic Harmonica Soloists.

1 , Ruth Etting , If I could be with you , 0:00
2 , Larry Adler , Smoke gets in your eyes , 0:30
3 , John Sebastian , Ritual Fire Dance , 4:00
4 , Ronald Chesney , Whispering/Margie , 7:15
5 , Tommy Reilly , Can anyone explain, Autumn Leaves , 10:17
6 , Larry Adler, Claire de Lune , 13:15
7 , John Sebastian , Maiden with the Flaxen Hair ,  16:20
8 , Ronald Chesney , Fantasie Impromptu , 18:20
9 , Tommy Reilly , Traumerie , 21:35
10 , Larry Adler , Body and Soul , 24:00
11 , John Sebastian , Malaguena , 27:07
12 , Ronald Chesney , Volare , 30:36
13 , Tommy Reilly , Jealousy , 32:57
14 , Larry Adler , Bolero , 35:40
15 , John Sebastian , The Harmonica Player , 39:08
16 , Ronald Chesney , The Flight of the Bumble Bee , 40:49
17 , Tommy Reilly , Hora Staccato , 42:57

Golden Age of the Harmonica on BBC Radio – 1950 to 1960

Archie

Imagine you are back in the 1950s. Tune your AM Radio to the BBC and listen . The harmonica was heard in many radio comedies, variety and serious music shows in the 1950s.

Here are some examples featuring Tommy Reilly, Larry Adler, Ronald Chesney, Max Geldray, The Morton Fraser Gang and The Three Monarchs. Shows mentioned include Dixon of Dock Green, The Grove Family, The Navy Lark, Educating Archie, The Goon Show, Workers’ Playtime, and Variety Bandbox.

Light Programme , Opening , 0:00
Workers Playtime , Essex , 0:16
Tommy Reilly , Medley , 0:31
Tommy Reilly , Dixon of Dock Green , 4:42
Tommy Reilly , Family Joke, The Navy Lark , 5:58
Educating Archie , Ronald Chesney , 9:25
Ronald Chesney , Blues in the Night , 12:05
Ronald Chesney , Hora Staccato , 16:35
Variety Bandbox,  , 18:07
Morton Fraser Gang , Medley , 18:15
Morton Fraser Gang , Body and Soul , 20:24
Three Monarchs , Beer Barrel Polka, 23:10
Three Monarchs , Small Talk , 25:05
Three Monarchs , Bach goes to Town , 28:52
Max Geldray , The Goon Show , 30:09
Max Geldray , Side by Side , 31:46
Max Gelday , So Rare , 32:54
Light Progamme , Larry Adler Programme 1 , 34:20
Larry Adler , Smoke gets in your Eyes , 35:10
Larry Adler , Holiday for Strings , 38:40
Larry Adler , Genevieve Film Music , 42:04
BBC Light Programme, Closedown, 48:43