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David Herzhaft

Harmonica wizard

About Me

Born in Lyon, France, David Herzhaft was introduced to blues and country harmonica when his father gave him his first diatonic harmonica when David was twelve. “The diatonic is very technical because half of the notes are missing so the player has to recreate them using two techniques called bends and overblows. It’s very hard to get those right in tune and right on time,” David explains. “That’s the major handicap of the instrument: Any one can press a keys on a piano and get all the notes. On a diatonic harmonica, it can take ten years to get them approximately right!”

Herzhaft taught himself harmonica while simultaneously studying guitar at a jazz school in Lyon. David eventually got enough notes “approximately right” to play alongside his father and uncle as a family band in music festivals throughout Europe and Canada, where they opened for such blues legends as Koko Taylor, Johnny Heartsman and Junior Wells.

His music took an irreversible turn in the early 1990s, when he met Howard Levy, co-founder of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and the first musician to play the diatonic harmonica chromatically. In 2000, David released his first solo album in France, Des Mots d'Harmo, and continued to perform and study. “When it became time to put together my next recording project, I wanted to showcase the diatonic harmonica in a world jazz context,” he explains.

Featuring Levy and guitarist Frank Gambale, Jazzin' Around (2007) is peppered with original atmospheric originals but is mainly built upon tunes by Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and other jazz legends. “I wanted to show that you can play the diatonic harmonica in a very wide jazz context – from bop to fusion to bossa and so on,” David recalls.

“I'm mostly influenced by non-harmonica players. Very few play in the jazz idiom anyway,” he continues. “Michael Brecker, Sonny Stitt, Bob Berg, Mark O’ Connor, Kenny Burrell and Ike Quebec are among my favorite musicians.”

Life shifted again in the early 2000s, when Herzhaft was invited to session work in Los Angeles. Musicians he met in this new musical orbit included Ricky Martin’s guitarist Yussi Wenger, with whom Herzhaft performed as a duo called Acoustic Connection in and around the city. Herzhaft eventually moved to California in 2012 and began formulating his next project, Pacific Lounge (2016), inspired by his new surroundings. “I had been writing a lot after I moved to Los Angeles. I got inspired by the heat, light, palm trees, Malibu beach, the clubs, but most of all the Pacific Ocean,” he explains. “Once I had everything down and the right vision I invited some extra musicians to polish it up. I didn’t want too much harmonica but something more musical, so there are a lot of other instruments,” he continues. Guest musicians include guitarist Wenger, session guitar aces Carl Verheyen (Supertramp) and Brent Mason (Alan Jackson), percussionist Martin Flores and Dick Aven on baritone and tenor sax.

Even though his instrument of choice is small enough to fit into your hip pocket, Herzhaft’s blend of blues, jazz, country, lounge and other styles expands its horizons. He has written numerous educational titles for harmonica, including Celtic Harmonica Reels, Harmonica Blues, Harmonica Country, and two DVDs, and in 2010 consolidated his decades of individual and group instructional experience to launch a web-based Harmonica School in French and English.

“I just wish that people would think about the harmonica like they think about any other instrument,” David concludes. “It’s probably even cooler because it's only a few inches long and you can play three full octaves on it!”

To learn more, visit davidherzhaft.com or read his harmonicablog.com

Discography Pacific Lounge (2016, Pacific Waves) Jazzin' Around (2007, H-Land) Des Mots d'Harmo (2000, Fremeaux et Associes)

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