Traditional Harmonica Episodes

Santiago Alvarez joins me on episode 147. Santiago is a chromatic player from Buenos Aires, who has dedicated himself to the folk traditions of Argentina, including writing a thesis on the history of the Argentine chromatic harmonica under the guidance of his mentor Franco Luciani. Specialising in tango, he explores the close musical relationship between the chromatic harmonica and the bandoneon. Santiago has recorded with numerous Argentine artists, released his own album in 2019, performs w...

Winslow Yerxa joins me on episode 126. Winslow is originally from Canada, now living in San Francisco. He started out playing blues harmonica before becoming interested in the traditional music of French Canada and British origins, among others. Winslow plays in harmonica ensembles and produces his own compositions using a wide variety of harmonicas, including the diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, the Pentaharp, XB40 and the recent Gamechanger harmonica. Winslow created the Harmonica Information ...

Ross Garren joins me again on episode 122. Ross lives near Los Angeles, where he has established himself as a leading session musician for harmonica recordings on movies, including Marvel’s Logan and the new Joker film, as well on albums with numerous pop artists, including recently on Beyonce’s album, Cowboy Carter. Initially a piano player, Ross came to love the harmonica from the age of twelve and plays a wide range of harmonicas, from diatonic to chromatic, bass, chord and other types. Ross ...

Marcos Coll joins me on episode 86. Marcos is a Spaniard who has been living in Berlin for the last twenty years. Marcos rose to fame at a young age on the Spanish blues scene playing with the Tonky Blues Band before forming the the Los Reyes del KO band, touring the world and sharing the stage with many famous names. Moving to Berlin in 2004, Marcos became a regular on the vibrant blues scene in Germany and recorded with many great artists. In addition to playing blues, Marcos likes to mix m...

Marko Jovanovic joins me on episode 78. Marko is a German player with Serbian roots, from where he developed an interest in playing Balkan music on the harmonica, returning to the region to team up with several acts to release some great music in that genre. He’s also an expert blues player, has played chamber music, Arabic music and much more on both diatonic and chromatic harmonicas. Marko also runs the successful Berlin Harmonica School, where as well as one-to-one group classes he has som...

Joe Powers joins me on episode 65. Joe started out playing diatonic harmonica along with blues records as a teenager, before deciding to study music composition at college, taking up the chromatic there. Joe’s passion for dancing led him to Argentina and tango music, where he has become the current leading exponent on harmonica. He believes the chromatic harmonica is the perfect instrument for tango music, and talks us through how to play this captivating genre. Although known as the ‘tango h...

Jason Rosenblatt joins me on episode 47. A native of Canada but now resident in Israel, Jason is best known for his band Shtreiml, playing a mixture of Klezmer (Jewish) and Eastern European music with great use of the harmonica. His first instrument was piano before he went on to pick up the harmonica after hearing Sonny Terry and Paul Butterfield. He then took advantage of the vibrant Montreal blues scene to witness harmonica live. After hearing Howard Levy’s seminal ‘New Directions in...

Mat Walklate joins me on episode 39. Mat is based in Manchester and has worked as a professional musician throughout his life, playing mainly blues and traditional music using a variety of harmonicas. He started out with a love for Sonny Boy Williamson II, and was soon touring Europe in a blues band. His interest in traditional music came from learning the tin whistle, and he also picked up other instruments for this genre, including the flute and pipes. Mat supplements his playing income thro...

Donald Black is predominantly a tremolo player, using the instrument to great effect across the range of traditional Scottish music. He learnt many of the tunes he loves from accordion music, emulating the sound on the tremolo harmonica. Donald’s musical career started quite late in life, and since then he has performed around the world, appearing at the SPAH convention and even in Moscow. With five albums to his name, Donald has also recorded two tracks with the great Charlie McCoy. His music ...

Chromatic player, Antonio Serrano, is the current SPAH harmonica player of the year. And with good reason. Antonio’s father was a great influence on the fledgling harmonica player. And Antonio met Larry Adler at a young age, and performed with him for the first time, at only 13 years of old. Since that time Antonio has made a big splash on the Spanish music scene, not least when he played with flamenco legend Paco de Lucia. He has recorded with many artists and released some albums under his own...

Mick Kinsella started out as a drummer before moving across to the harmonica to pursue his love of traditional music. Skilled in the use of both the diatonic and chromatic, Mick played on numerous sessions before releasing his own 2002 album ‘Harmonica’ with an assortment of genres and some tremendous harmonica work. He went out to tour with Rick Epping and Brendan Power under the name Triple Harp Bypass. Mick likes to tinker with his harmonicas, has a tuition book to his name and teaches each y...