Results for "harmonica"

Frederic Yonnet

When it comes to the harmonica, French-born jazz harmonicist Frédéric Yonnet knows how to turn skeptics into believers. Most people perceive the harmonica as a “side” instrument used in country and blues. However, Yonnet is one of a handful of musicians to successfully demonstrate the harmonica’s versatility as a lead instrument in contemporary jazz, as well as other genres of music. Self-described as an “old spirit”, you know after listening to one set that Yonnet has “been here before”. As one of the youngest professional mouth harp virtuosos, he began his harmonica career at age 19

Brad Gould

Available -, Jazz, Blues, Country, fusion. Session or stage.

Sonny Boy Williamson II

Born: March 11, 1897

Sonny Boy Williamson II, nicknamed "King of the Harmonica" by his peers, was one of the most inspiring harp players in blues history. With his passionate yet understated style, his metronome-like timing, and his endlessly inventive technique, he has influenced generations of players, including such virtuosos as Howling Wolf, James Cotton and Junior Wells. Aside from being a harp player who helped set the course of modern blues, he was also a legendary blues character whose colorful personality, unpredictable actions, and frequent stretching of the truth only served to enliven his blues with a rare, but warmly embraced, eccentricity

Junior Wells

Born: December 9, 1934

Junior Wells was considered the direct musical descendant of modern blues harmonica legends John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson, "Sonny Boy" Williamson II (Rice Miller) and Little Walter Jacobs. An exponent of blues, funk and soul music, Wells developed a style incorporating all of those genres, and was a consummate stage performer who could back it all up. Born Amos Blakemore in 1934, Junior was raised on a farm in rural West Memphis and Marion, Arkansas. He became intensely interested in the music flowing from the fertile blues culture of Memphis and learned harmonica from his cousin Little Junior Parker

Snooky Pryor

Born: September 15, 1921

Snooky Pryor was a true pioneer of the postwar harmonica blues sound. Born in Lambert, Mississippi on September 15, 1921, James Edward Pryor took up the harp at the age of 14 despite the objections of his minister father, copping licks from old Sonny Boy Williamson 78's. Stationed with the army outside Chicago in 1940, Snooky jammed on weekends with the likes of Sonny Boy and Homesick James and played on the Maxwell Street scene. 1945 saw his musical career begin in earnest. In 1948, he made his recording debut with "Telephone Blues" on the tiny Planet label, now considered one of the earliest postwar Chicago blues classics

Jerry Portnoy

Born: November 25, 1943

Jerry Portnoy was born in 1943 and grew up in the blues rich atmosphere of Chicago's famous Maxwell Street Market during the golden age of Chicago Blues. He began his professional career in the late 60's and since that time has performed, live and on television, to more people in more places than any other blues harmonica player. During a career that includes six years as a member of the fabled Muddy Waters Blues Band, another six as leader of the Legendary Blues Band, four years at the head of his own band The Streamliners, and another four as a featured member of the Eric Clapton Band, he has maintained a constant touring schedule that has carried him to every state in the union and twenty-five foreign countries on five continents, with performances at the White House, Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, the Smithsonian, London's Royal Albert Hall, and at major jazz festivals worldwide, including the Newport Jazz Festival, the Montreaux Jazz Festival, the Warsaw International Jazz Jamboree, the Hawaii Pacific Jazz and Music Fair, and the Grande Parade du Jazz in Nice, France. He has played on several Grammy Award winning albums while recording with a wide variety of artists, and was a Grammy Award nominee in 1997 for his work with the Muddy Waters Tribute Band

Lee Oskar

Born: March 24, 1948

Harmonica wizard and entrepreneur Lee Oskar was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1948. Oskar landed in the States in the mid 60’s and is most popularly known as one of the founding members of the seminal jam band WAR. Together with Harold Brown, BB Dickerson, Howard Scott, Lonie Jordan, Charles Miller, and “Papa Dee” Allen, WAR started out supporting the former Animal front man, Eric Burdon. Together with Burdon, their very first recorded effort contained the popular tune “Spill The Wine,” unleashing the genre-busting sound of WAR for the first time. Not far down the road the group set out on their own to compose and perform huge hits like, “All Day Music,” “City Country City,” “Me and Baby Brother,” “Low Rider,” “Why Can’t We Be Friends,” “The Cisco Kid,” “Slipping into Darkness,” “The World is a Ghetto,” and many others. Today, the musical legacy of WAR continues as Lee and original members Howard Scott (guitar/vocal) BB Dickerson (bass/vocal) and Harold Brown (drums/vocal) continue to perform and collaborate as The Lowrider Band

Charlie Musselwhite

Born: January 31, 1944

Charlie Musselwhite - harmonica, vocalist Charlie Musselwhite seemed destined to be a bluesman. Born in Mississippi, the cradle of the blues, in 1944, Charlie moved to Memphis at an early age and became immersed in the city's diverse musical culture. While Charlie soaked up the music of Memphis with the enthusiasm of a true devotee, it was the blues that caught his soul. In his teens, he befriended several of Memphis' legendary traditional bluesmen, including guitarist Furry Lewis, Will Shade and the surviving members of the Memphis Jug Band. It wasn't long before Charlie began sitting in with his more experienced friends, and establishing a name for himself. When Charlie was 18, he had an awakening

Little Walter

Born: May 1, 1930

Little Walter could make his harp sound like a tenor sax; he was instrumental in defining the sound that is now known as Chicago blues harp. Singer, composer, bandleader and peerless harmonica virtuoso, Little Walters music in virtually all its significant details was forged in the crucible of the emerging and maturing postwar Chicago Blues. It was as a member of, and a vital contributor to the Muddy Waters band that Walter was given full rein to stretch his wings, and it is a tribute to Muddy's foresight and generosity of spirit that he early recognized Walter's great talent and allowed him every opportunity and encouragement to develop it.

Howard Levy

Howard Levy is a musician without limits. His musical adventures include journeys into jazz, pop, rock, world music, Latin, classical, folk, blues, country, theater, and film. He has appeared on hundred of cd’s, won a Grammy (1997), won a Joseph Jefferson Award (1986) for Best Original Music for a Play, and has performed many times on American and European television and radio. Universally acknowledged as the world’s most advanced diatonic harmonica player, Howard developed a fully chromatic style on the standard 10 - hole diatonic harmonica, revolutionizing harmonica playing and taking the instrument into totally new territory