Jan. 31, 2024

Konstantin Reinfeld interview

Konstantin Reinfeld joins me on episode 103. Konstantin is a German who comes from the overblow school of harmonica, studying music at a conservatory and taking lessons from Howard Levy as part of his early development. He released a jazz album at age 18, with two more albums to follow before releasing a classical album played on the diatonic harmonica, for which he won a German Grammy award for classical music. On top of this Konstantin is a music producer, including producing his own recor...

Konstantin Reinfeld joins me on episode 103.

Konstantin is a German who comes from the overblow school of harmonica, studying music at a conservatory and taking lessons from Howard Levy as part of his early development. He released a jazz album at age 18, with two more albums to follow before releasing a classical album played on the diatonic harmonica, for which he won a German Grammy award for classical music.
On top of this Konstantin is a music producer, including producing his own recordings bringing the harmonica into a contemporary pop setting. He has a very active online presence and hosts harmonica interviews for the Hohner Live X series of YouTube videos.

Links:
Konstantin’s website:
https://www.konstantinreinfeld.com

Patreon page:
https://www.patreon.com/konstantinreinfeld

Compositions for harmonica and piano:
https://www.doerken-stiftung.de/foerderung/kompositionen-fuer-mundharmonika-als-gratisdownload/downloads-kompositionen-fuer-mundharmonika-und-klavier

Videos:
YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@KonstantinReinfeld

Body Heat with Benjamin Nuss:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KEJzFcZgqg&list=TLGGMrKWZLRF3CoyMjAxMjAyNA&t=2s

Cinema Paradiso - Love Theme:
https://youtu.be/ULj-GjL4nFA?si=D6G11zXwOCd32kvv

Interview on Hohner channel with the 14 year old Konstantin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIPCFRTIJDU

Hohner Live X interview with Howard Levy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_DDBgcEViw

Country Harmonica Challenge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glvupq6gpf8

Don Toliver harmonica cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2BVsMa5QiM

Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB

or sign-up to a monthly subscription to the podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/995536/support

Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS

Support the show

01:20 - Konstantin is from Germany, now living in Hamburg

01:29 - Went to music Conservatory in Cologne

01:40 - Hamburg has a great pop music scene

02:10 - Konstantin is 28 years old (born in 1995), and started playing harmonica age 13

02:43 - Played flute and piano from a young age, then some clarinet

04:07 - Started getting seriously into music when he picked up the harmonica

04:26 - First heard the harmonica on a German talent show in 2008, from the playing of Michael Hirte

04:56 - First harmonica bought was a Hohner Blues Harp MS

05:20 - Discovered overblows online, and was the direction he took

06:14 - Initial interest was in playing melodies, and not blues

06:29 - First concert was played at school in front of an audience of 600 to 700 people

07:04 - Did devote some time to working up his blues chops on the diatonic

07:14 - The internet played a big part in Konstantin's learning path, and uploaded his own recordings to YouTube and harmonica forums, and getting some feedback

07:32 - Took his first lessons in harmonica blues basics from a German player

08:00 - After these first lessons Konstantin started reaching out to lots of his favourite harmonica players online

08:36 - Konstantin contacted bands and asked if he could rehearse with them

09:05 - Went to the music fair in Frankfurt, where Konstantin started getting noticed as a harmonica player

09:24 - Invited to the Hohner Harmonica Masters event by Steve Baker

09:47 - Was fluent in overblows at this early stage

10:30 - Doesn’t play much chromatic, although has started playing it more recently for songs which suit the sound of the chromatic

11:47 - Was a 100% tongue block player for a time

11:52 - Plays the diatonic rather than the chromatic because it’s the first instrument he fell in love with

12:06 - Doesn’t play different tunings on the diatonic (although has experimented)

12:36 - Plays along with a Toots Thielemans recording using a diatonic and the importance of transcribing

13:24 - Transcribed lots of Jason Ricci, Alex Paclin and Howard Levy, and the form of Konstantin’s transcriptions

14:01 - Attended the music Conservatory with the diatonic as his main instrument, and the challenges of being accepted at some music schools

15:00 - Didn’t have a harmonica tutor at his Conservatory, learnt mainly from a pianist

15:40 - Took lessons with Howard Levy for a couple of years as part of a Jazz Masters course in Hamburg, and played a concert with Howard at the school

16:25 - Impact of taking tuition from a different instrument from harmonica

17:25 - Had been playing for around five years before went to the Conservatory, and the amount of practise he did in those five years

18:13 - Had singing lessons as his second instrument at the conservatory, although doesn’t sing now

18:52 - Sang at a harmonica festival in the Netherlands, with Ben Bouman and Rachelle Plas

19:54 - Transcribed lots of Carlos del Junco’s harmonica playing

20:56 - Lessons with Howard Levy

21:43 - Early studies in Cologne and Hamburg were in jazz, so first album Konstantin released was a jazz album

22:05 - First album released in 2013, Mr Quilento, after Konstantin was selected to work with a record producer at the Harmonica Masters event

23:44 - Some of the songs on first album were own compositions

24:41 - Next album, Old Friend, is a Toots Thielemans inspired album

25:24 - Recorded a second album with the quartet: Algiedi, all his own compositions and he is very proud of this work

25:43 - Uses guitar whammy and delay effects on the Algiedi album, although doesn’t use effects now

26:33 - Played in a Techno live band in Cologne

27:03 - Algiedi song is subtitled ‘death of a star’

27:54 - Interest Classical playing inspired by Howard Levy, so got together with a pianist called Benjamin Nuss

28:43 - Released album ‘Debut’, which is mainly classical pieces, with some jazz

29:09 - Repertoire is important when selecting Classical music to play on harmonica, with the flute pieces working well

29:25 - Working with composers to write pieces for the duo with Benjamin Nuss, with the music available online

30:03 - Classical music on harmonica is typically played on the chromatic, and the differences of playing it on diatonic

30:37 - No bending permitted in Classical music is changing

31:52 - Won German Grammy for Classical music for the Debut album

32:07 - Winning the award changed how the diatonic harmonica was perceived in the Classical music scene in Germany

32:59 - Will be releasing a new concerto for harmonica and piano later in 2024

33:12 - How approached play the different genres of jazz and classical

33:55 - Partly reads the scores for Classical pieces, partly from memory

34:52 - Recording a Christmas album this year

35:10 - Cinema Paradiso is a song Konstantin has recorded with an orchestra, and has also played the Howard Levy harmonica concerto

36:05 - Will continue to work on Classical music, including a new album with Benjamin Nuss

37:07 - Also works as a music Producer, initially working on mixing Hip Hop inspired songs

38:31 - Started getting more seriously into music production when met a Dutch Afro-pop musican, and has produced some songs with him, including harmonica

40:01 - Creates all the music on the self-produced tracks

40:50 - Has a strong online presence, including Harmonica Challenges with prizes provided by Hohner

42:19 - Puts out a lot of videos on his Patreon page

42:22 - Hosts Hohner Live X harmonica video interviews on YouTube

43:19 - Releasing his first harmonica instruction book later in 2024, with videos and audio recordings. Set for beginners and focus is on melodic playing (not blues)

44:50 - Has made numerous TV appearances in Germany

45:19 - 10 minute question

46:28 - Been an ambassador for Hohner since age 15 and appearing at the Hohner Harmonica Masters event

47:16 - Video interview of Konstantin by Hohner when he was 14 years old

48:02 - Initially played Golden Melody harmonicas, as many overblow players did, mainly due to temperate tuning

48:41 - Started playing custom Marine Bands, built by Thomas Hanke, with Special 20 cover plates (as does Howard Levy)

49:23 - Special 20 cover plates don’t have the gap in them, which the Marine Band ones do, so Special 20 plates project sound more directly to mic

50:40 - Plays the lower range of diatonics (doesn’t just play C chromatically)

51:19 - What harmonica position Konstantin chooses is largely driven by the melody of the piece of music

52:04 - How many positions Konstantin uses with his overblow playing: 1 to 6 and 10,11,12 are most frequently used

52:47 - Embouchre: puckers now, did play tongue block for a while in the past

53:21 - Tongue blocking is possible with overblows

53:46 - Amplification: uses a PA

54:08 - Uses Sennheiser 441 mic (as does Howard Levy)

54:16 - Uses a little reverb, but no other effects now

54:32 - Plays off the mic (not holding it), as provides more control over the tone, and making each note sound as close to each other tonally as possible

55:23 - Holds mic to be heard in a louder setting

55:33 - Moves around a lot when playing

55:57 - Future plans: releasing orchestral works and recording a Christmas album

56:52 - No current plans to play with a band again

57:09 - Has another contemporary song coming out soon, playing a chromatic harmonica

57:39 - Touring Europe in 2024

58:00 - Likely to be playing in Asia again this summer

WEBVTT

00:00:00.258 --> 00:00:02.781
Konstantin Reinfeld joins me on episode 103.

00:00:03.822 --> 00:00:12.753
Konstantin is a German who comes from the Overblow School of Harmonica, studying music at a conservatory and taking lessons from Howard Levy as part of his early development.

00:00:13.714 --> 00:00:24.789
He released a jazz album at age 18, with two more albums to follow before releasing a classical music album played on the diatonic harmonica, for which he won a German Grammy Award for classical music.

00:00:25.250 --> 00:00:32.381
On top of this, he is a music producer, including producing his own recordings, bringing the harmonica into a contemporary pop setting.

00:00:32.781 --> 00:00:38.712
He has a very active online presence and hosts harmonica interviews for the Whole New Life X series of YouTube videos.

00:00:39.112 --> 00:00:41.576
This podcast is sponsored by Zeidel Harmonicas.

00:00:41.997 --> 00:00:51.332
Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.zeidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Zeidel Harmonicas.

00:01:15.969 --> 00:01:18.352
Hello, Konstantin Reinfeldt, and welcome to the podcast.

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Hey, thank you, Neil.

00:01:19.712 --> 00:01:20.453
Thank you for having me.

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So you're German.

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You're originally

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from Kempen, and now you live in Hamburg, yeah?

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That's true, yeah.

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Kempen's a small town very close to the border of the Netherlands.

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Right after school, I went to Music Conservatory in Cologne, did my bachelor there, and then I moved to Hamburg, I

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think like four or five years ago.

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Great.

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And is Hamburg...

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Well, famously, it's got a great music scene.

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You hear about the Beatles going to Hamburg, and then sort of that where they kind of cut the teeth.

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Has it still got that great scene?

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A lot of the pop music scene is located here.

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It has like the official kind of vibe.

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I feel like there's a lot of stuff happening in Berlin too.

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But people got their own home studios in their basements and stuff.

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So you don't really know where stuff is happening.

00:02:03.575 --> 00:02:09.600
But in Hamburg, it's like there are still a few of these bigger official studios for bigger productions, you know.

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So you're quite a young guy still.

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Are you 28 now or slightly younger than that?

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Yeah.

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Just turned 28 in December last

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year.

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I think you started playing when you were 13, so you've been playing for 15 years now, yeah?

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That's a crazy anniversary, right?

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So, yeah, so you've got to a great level already.

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I'm excited to hear what else you're going to come out with, but, you know, you've done some great stuff already.

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MUSIC

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When you were young, you did some piano and clarinet.

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Before you started, you picked up the harmonica.

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So you had that grounding at a young age.

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Age eight, did I say, Reid, you started playing piano?

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Maybe even earlier, yeah.

00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:59.524
My parents don't have anything to do with music, like professionally, but of course, like music fans.

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And I started out playing the flute very young and started getting piano lessons from my mother around the age of five or six already, I think.

00:03:08.532 --> 00:03:14.097
Yeah, there were some concerts with the piano class and I heard somebody play the clarinet there.

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I liked the sound and started to play the clarinet.

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I had weekly lessons, but I never really practiced, you know.

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It was just like playing 10-15 minutes right before the lesson and that was enough.

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The teacher wouldn't notice, you know, that I didn't actually practice.

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And in the end I feel like we definitely went into a jazzier direction.

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But I wasn't really conscious about it.

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It was always just like playing music from the sheet.

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No improvisation.

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I was never even told how to do like a nice vibrato on a note, you know.

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Like all the expression that makes things exciting, I feel like.

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Especially on the harmonica and stuff.

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I didn't really know about that.

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So what do you think about these early lessons?

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Were you taking grades then?

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Was it quite formal?

00:03:59.825 --> 00:04:02.868
It sounds like it was maybe quite lightweight at that stage.

00:04:02.908 --> 00:04:03.930
Obviously, you were very young.

00:04:04.389 --> 00:04:04.930
Yeah, that was

00:04:04.969 --> 00:04:05.631
just lightweight.

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That was just a hobby, definitely.

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Things only started to get serious with the harmonica, which is kind of crazy.

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During the last few lessons, we actually started to improvise on the clarinet, but then I was like, oh, let me grab the harmonica and play the solo on there.

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So the clarinet teacher basically knew at that point, yeah, it's over.

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I read that you first heard the harmonica on a talent show in Germany, a guy called Michael Hurt.

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Yeah, so that was late 2008.

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Yeah, basically Americans got talent, but just in Germany.

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I was just fascinated.

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It was super emotional.

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Kind of felt like secretive, holding that harmonica invisibly in your hands and just getting these sounds out of it.

00:04:55.793 --> 00:05:01.423
Yeah, basically right before Christmas, I went to the local music store, got my first instrument.

00:05:01.463 --> 00:05:06.312
Of course, it had to be exactly the instrument he played, which was a Hohner Blues Harp MS.

00:05:06.831 --> 00:05:09.336
Also purchased an instructional book.

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Started to learn autodidactically, yeah.

00:05:12.865 --> 00:05:32.278
Yeah, so I think your learning journey at that early stage was probably quite different, yeah, because I think you, again, I read that, I think you discovered overblows yourself at this stage, so did you discover those quite early on, and was that the approach you were taking, and maybe, again, coming from playing piano, and, you know, it's obviously chromatic notes are all there, is that something you picked up?

00:05:32.577 --> 00:05:33.699
you know, straight from the beginning?

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I feel like that was something I picked up online.

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I mean, when I first got back home with the instrument, actually, I think my grandparents were home for some reason, and my grandpa was sitting down on the piano, and he was like, oh yeah, now you got the harmonica, now you got the instrument, why not play the C major scale?

00:05:53.475 --> 00:06:13.882
And I started out playing whole one blow, one draw, two whole blow, kind of trying to get a single note, and then I ran into big problems on whole So yeah, at that point I knew there was some work involved to get where I wanted to be playing Ave Maria under the Christmas tree, you know.

00:06:13.901 --> 00:06:13.961
But

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initially your interest was in playing kind of melodies, not blues, was it?

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Definitely.

00:06:19.846 --> 00:06:21.048
It was just

00:06:21.088 --> 00:06:26.877
about doing the stuff I heard watching TV, you know, and playing evergreens and melodies.

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And that's how I started out.

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I think at that point, I even had like a friend at school who started out playing with me.

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And we had our first gig on stage.

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There was like a 350 year anniversary of our school.

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And we played in front of 600, 700 people.

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Like that's a pretty big gig for being on stage for the very first time in your life basically.

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And we played You Raise Me Up and I remember we were doing that on the C harmonica and then I pitched up the last part of the backing track a half step and then we switched over to the D flat.

00:07:02.151 --> 00:07:03.713
My little key change there, yeah.

00:07:04.482 --> 00:07:09.209
Have you ever spent time working on the real blues chops, the classic blues harmonica?

00:07:09.230 --> 00:07:10.170
Is that something you haven't done?

00:07:10.791 --> 00:07:13.536
Oh, I definitely did that, but only later.

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The internet played a huge role then.

00:07:16.622 --> 00:07:21.389
I was super early in uploading my own recordings to YouTube.

00:07:22.050 --> 00:07:24.232
just hanging out on these online harmonica forums.

00:07:24.351 --> 00:07:25.613
There was also like a German one.

00:07:26.194 --> 00:07:28.956
I started to post my recordings there, getting some feedback.

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And these forums were basically my first teacher.

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At some point, somebody from Germany, Ralf Fuckart from Düsseldorf, also called B.B.

00:07:37.206 --> 00:07:37.567
Harpy.

00:07:37.927 --> 00:07:41.771
He also builds some very good blues microphones for harmonica.

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He sent me a message on that harmonica forum and he was like, how do you feel about getting some lessons from me?

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Like six online lessons to teach you blues basics.

00:07:51.874 --> 00:07:54.980
That's how it all started, basically, the online thing.

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I noticed, wow, that's crazy, I can get online harmonica lessons via Skype.

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And after getting these first lessons, I just started to reach out to so many of my favorite harmonica players that I saw online on YouTube, you know, and most of them were super nice.

00:08:09.987 --> 00:08:13.052
And they were just like, oh, yeah, of course, I'm going to give you a free lesson.

00:08:13.697 --> 00:08:15.420
You started playing at 13.

00:08:15.579 --> 00:08:17.122
You're an exceptionally good player now.

00:08:17.141 --> 00:08:21.747
So in the early days, how much were you practicing?

00:08:21.826 --> 00:08:22.668
What were you doing?

00:08:22.728 --> 00:08:24.389
It sounds like the internet was a big part of that.

00:08:24.589 --> 00:08:25.391
So what do you think?

00:08:25.651 --> 00:08:27.132
Did you get very good very quickly?

00:08:27.192 --> 00:08:31.958
I think you were invited to the Harmonica Masters, weren't you, in Germany quite early on as well.

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So what happened in the early days to get you a level up?

00:08:36.082 --> 00:09:15.942
Yeah, that was basically starting out in my hometown and just sending emails out to people bands and big bands and being like yeah well can i just come over for a rehearsal and play with you so that's how some of that stuff started out and there's a musician in my town his son is kind of a famous blues guitarist and i played together with their all-star band for a few gigs in my hometown he was like We got to go to the music fair in Frankfurt together and go to the harmonica manufacturers and have me play at all of those booths, you know?

00:09:15.962 --> 00:09:19.427
So that's what we did in 2010, I think.

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And that's how things kind of started.

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And I feel like one year later, I was invited to the Harmonica Masters in Trostingen by Steve Baker.

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And even before, like in Frankfurt, like right after the music fair, there's like a nice little blues hangout, harmonica hangout session in Frankfurt downtown, where I played at the session.

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And that was the first time Hohner helped me play it,

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you know.

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And were you playing overlords at this stage?

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You know, that's the direction you took.

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I was, yeah.

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I mean, it was still very bluesy and I really liked funk and stuff.

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But yeah, very fluent in overblows already back then.

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No, absolutely.

00:10:00.409 --> 00:10:02.692
You get amazing soulful sound out as well.

00:10:02.951 --> 00:10:05.394
There's a great clip as well.

00:10:05.514 --> 00:10:10.600
I know lots of people say that harmonica is the closest to the human voice of any instrument.

00:10:10.921 --> 00:10:15.144
There's a great clip of you playing on the debut album where you make the sound like the human voice.

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It's really beautiful.

00:10:16.365 --> 00:10:16.405
No,

00:10:23.774 --> 00:10:23.933
no, no, no.

00:10:25.186 --> 00:10:31.038
i

00:10:31.099 --> 00:10:55.491
mean just touching um obviously on the question of overblows and chromatic so i've seen you playing some chromatic you do this there's this video short of you playing a drake song so I don't see you playing much chromatic.

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Is it something you use much?

00:10:56.673 --> 00:10:58.716
But I mean, on that clip, you're sounding pretty good.

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So is it something you practice a lot?

00:11:00.259 --> 00:11:02.001
You know, the chromatic?

00:11:02.302 --> 00:11:03.484
I never practiced chromatic.

00:11:04.105 --> 00:11:11.876
I got this CX-12 as soon as I became a honer in Dorsey, but I never used it.

00:11:12.865 --> 00:11:46.495
only at some point where I had my first like kind of like recording gigs or studio sessions where people were like oh yeah we kind of want the Stevie Wonder sound on this so that's when I did it it's only recently that I kind of like to use it sometimes a lot more just because I feel like the sound fits a little better into some pop styles and stuff but I never really practiced it there was a little period where I was just into the third position blues thing too yeah There was the time where I was really into everything Dennis Groening did.

00:11:46.535 --> 00:11:51.823
There was also a time where I was a tonk block player, like 100%.

00:11:52.686 --> 00:11:54.427
But what is it about the diatonic?

00:11:54.467 --> 00:11:58.254
You like the soulfulness, the expression you get out of the diatonic over the chromatic, is it?

00:11:58.774 --> 00:12:02.461
Yeah, I mean, it's the instrument I fell in love with in the first place, you know?

00:12:02.500 --> 00:12:04.043
Yeah.

00:12:04.062 --> 00:12:05.485
And I also can't imagine...

00:12:05.985 --> 00:12:29.822
using another tuning now or something like that I mean I like to play around with that stuff and get some interesting sounds out of whatever if it's a minor tuned or like that one was called true chromatic tuning or I used to do the Irish stuff very early on with the Petty Richter tuning, and I experimented a little with the pentaharp recently, you know.

00:12:30.263 --> 00:12:35.407
But you like the standard tuned Richter, that's what you're playing your overblows on, yeah.

00:12:35.547 --> 00:12:35.807
Yeah.

00:12:36.087 --> 00:12:36.268
Yeah.

00:12:36.587 --> 00:12:48.438
So again, just finishing off on this topic of chromatic harmonica, so again, there's some clips of you, and there's various ones of these, but you're playing the diatonic chromatically over chromatic solos.

00:12:48.719 --> 00:12:52.884
For example, there's one when you're along with a Toots Tillman's recording.

00:13:04.578 --> 00:13:07.802
Yeah, that ability to play chromatically obviously is key for you, yeah.

00:13:08.202 --> 00:13:19.837
Yeah, that was just something very usual at music school, you know, it's like also needed, like you have to do some transcriptions and play some transcriptions and have like a kind of a repertoire.

00:13:19.970 --> 00:13:23.177
Transcribing always played a very huge role for me.

00:13:23.197 --> 00:13:35.121
Also, during that YouTube stage, I feel like at some point I really transcribed everything I could find that Jason Richie played, everything Alex Paklin played at that time.

00:13:35.522 --> 00:13:37.984
and everything howard played

00:13:38.424 --> 00:13:48.833
the transcriptions and obviously a really critical part for learning and really getting under the under the hood of the of the instrument so did you write down these transcriptions or were you playing them by ear or i mean both sometimes

00:13:48.874 --> 00:14:01.004
i wrote them down in early stages it was just me writing down harmonica taps later on of course at music school you gotta write down like actual sheet music of that stuff now sometimes it's just by year

00:14:01.384 --> 00:14:10.633
so you say you went to the conservatory after you finished high school yeah in Germany there so was that with the diatonic harmonica as your main instrument

00:14:10.953 --> 00:14:57.368
exactly yeah that's kind of interesting because like you can't really do that officially so right before applying to all of these music conservatories I actually had to ask them if I can come and play for them and if I would actually be accepted if they liked how I played you know so some of the conservatories were also like yeah you don't have to apply even if you are amazing we wouldn't know what to do with you yeah I even did like some online applications for like the music schools in the US and maybe got like a 50% scholarship in New York and stuff like that but Netherlands, there was also an option, but I feel like most of them were also like, yeah, we don't know what to do with a harmonica.

00:14:57.948 --> 00:15:00.471
But some of the conservatories were very open.

00:15:00.510 --> 00:15:04.534
Often they'd bring in a sort of guest tutor, wouldn't there, to be a harmonica player.

00:15:04.554 --> 00:15:05.856
Is that something that happened with you?

00:15:05.876 --> 00:15:12.663
I'm not sure if they could have done that, but in Cologne I actually never had an actual harmonica lesson.

00:15:12.702 --> 00:15:15.966
I was just learning together with pianists.

00:15:16.427 --> 00:15:18.789
That was also something I wished for.

00:15:19.330 --> 00:15:27.908
In the auditions I was actually competing against the jazz pianist because I wanted to get lessons from a jazz pianist just for the visual representation.

00:15:27.948 --> 00:15:34.985
But then it's very usual, especially in Cologne at that music school, to get lessons from another instrumentalist.

00:15:35.206 --> 00:15:38.393
Even a drummer will get lessons from a pianist.

00:15:39.298 --> 00:15:40.019
All that stuff.

00:15:40.541 --> 00:15:49.700
Only in Hamburg when I moved here in 2018 it was possible to actually get harmonica lessons because there's a huge jazz fan here in Hamburg.

00:15:50.041 --> 00:15:54.691
He has a foundation and he basically founded that Jazz Master Studies.

00:15:55.312 --> 00:16:02.120
So if you got the connections to your favorite teacher, and you can set it up, they pay for the lessons.

00:16:02.620 --> 00:16:07.192
So during these two years, I was able to get online lessons with Howard then.

00:16:07.875 --> 00:16:13.604
After being part of his online harmonica school for some time already, That was perfect, of course.

00:16:13.663 --> 00:16:16.145
And I had the chance to fly him over, invite him.

00:16:16.187 --> 00:16:19.409
He gave a workshop at the Music Conservatory.

00:16:19.450 --> 00:16:23.595
Everybody was amazed and we played a concert together.

00:16:23.674 --> 00:16:24.596
Incredible.

00:16:24.655 --> 00:16:25.557
But yeah, again, interesting.

00:16:25.977 --> 00:16:34.386
As you say, lots of people do take lessons off other instruments, but I mean, you've done it entirely right because you didn't have any harmonica tutor in that conservatory.

00:16:34.427 --> 00:16:38.812
So again, what do you think that did to your playing compared to other harmonica players?

00:16:39.753 --> 00:16:40.173
It was just...

00:16:40.769 --> 00:17:12.644
good to have some stuff pointed out by pianists or sax players like for example I remember a lesson from a piano guy and he was like yeah I noticed that you always do that this little vibrato thing on these notes like try to play these notes a little more stable and that was me playing the overblows or bendings and just trying to hide possibly bad intonation you know just moving around on that note and Yeah, you don't want to do it all the time, obviously.

00:17:12.664 --> 00:17:15.160
Were you 18 when you went to this conservatory?

00:17:15.842 --> 00:17:16.702
I got to do the math.

00:17:16.823 --> 00:17:17.243
I don't know.

00:17:17.263 --> 00:17:19.547
I was born in 95.

00:17:19.666 --> 00:17:22.549
So in 2014, I started the bachelor studies.

00:17:22.630 --> 00:17:25.212
In 2018, I started the master studies.

00:17:25.894 --> 00:17:32.342
Either way, I don't do my master, but you hadn't been playing for that long before you, I mean, maybe only like five years or so before you went to this conservatory.

00:17:32.402 --> 00:17:35.806
So again, in that five years, you practiced a lot, right?

00:17:35.826 --> 00:17:38.710
You got to a good level to get onto this course.

00:17:38.769 --> 00:17:41.953
So you were playing every hour possible, were you?

00:17:42.273 --> 00:17:42.815
Definitely,

00:17:43.154 --> 00:17:43.455
yeah.

00:17:43.957 --> 00:17:47.501
I feel like everyone has to have that period of time.

00:17:47.923 --> 00:17:52.069
I'm not sure, for me it was like two or three years where I basically didn't do anything else.

00:17:52.309 --> 00:17:55.013
I wasn't hanging out with my schoolmates at all.

00:17:55.034 --> 00:17:57.097
I didn't go to any parties.

00:17:57.919 --> 00:18:02.486
If there was like anything happening, I would just be like, yeah, I'm going to stay at home.

00:18:02.526 --> 00:18:03.428
I'm not going to go.

00:18:03.468 --> 00:18:06.633
And I'm rather going to stay at home practice.

00:18:07.134 --> 00:18:13.153
And as soon as my family went to sleep, I usually went down to the basement and continued practicing.

00:18:13.694 --> 00:18:13.976
Great.

00:18:13.996 --> 00:18:20.244
So did you have a second instrument during your course there or were you just allowed to just do the harmonica, the humble harmonica?

00:18:20.644 --> 00:18:21.125
Interesting.

00:18:21.266 --> 00:18:21.425
Yeah.

00:18:21.526 --> 00:18:26.272
I mean, the thing was in Cologne, I was officially on paper, I was a pianist.

00:18:26.693 --> 00:18:32.602
I mean, usually the piano is like the instrument you have to play as a secondary instrument.

00:18:33.282 --> 00:18:38.181
But for that reason alone, I actually wasn't able to pick the piano as my second instrument.

00:18:38.922 --> 00:18:41.805
I had to pick something else, so I went with singing lessons.

00:18:42.325 --> 00:18:43.105
Which was kind of cool.

00:18:43.625 --> 00:18:44.827
I never really made

00:18:45.407 --> 00:18:46.750
use of that on stage.

00:18:47.269 --> 00:18:48.550
Do you sing during your recordings?

00:18:48.570 --> 00:18:51.634
I'm not aware that I've heard you singing on your albums.

00:18:52.055 --> 00:18:58.020
Yeah, so the first time I sang was at a harmonica festival in the Netherlands.

00:18:58.882 --> 00:19:01.203
Very early on I got some lessons from Ben Baumann there.

00:19:01.805 --> 00:19:02.526
There was also...

00:19:03.298 --> 00:19:35.835
a festival where Rochelle Plass played so we had a band on site and she rehearsed before me and there was just like very very little time for me left to rehearse right before the gig and I wanted to play Just You Fool and sing that song too and I did that but didn't really feel right I think it didn't sound too bad, but we didn't have enough time to rehearse and that was just like a bad first singing on stage experience for me.

00:19:36.596 --> 00:19:53.057
So yeah, right after I never really sang again on stage, only when I started to travel to these Asian harmonica festivals, where I kind of felt comfortable again, because I felt like, yeah, nobody knows me here, so I can

00:19:53.096 --> 00:19:54.077
do whatever I want.

00:19:54.594 --> 00:19:58.758
I know that Carlos Del Junco was one of your big heroes starting out, right?

00:19:58.817 --> 00:20:01.441
Is he kind of what got you into doing Overblows early on?

00:20:02.201 --> 00:20:06.826
I'm not sure who got me into Overblows, but he was big for the transcription thing, too.

00:20:07.266 --> 00:20:12.351
I feel like for most of the albums, I transcribed every single song.

00:20:13.211 --> 00:20:15.134
And I remember playing the Jitterbug Waltz.

00:20:23.281 --> 00:20:23.582
Jitterbug Waltz

00:20:27.938 --> 00:20:48.134
and everything he has on there the big boy cd i think that's also the record he presented at that harmonica festival in the netherlands i went to just experiencing his live show was just amazing yeah I still feel like he's one of the most musical harmonica players out there.

00:20:48.153 --> 00:20:53.900
An all-around package that feels really good, together with the singing and the songs and his sound.

00:20:54.359 --> 00:20:55.141
Yeah, he's incredible.

00:20:55.181 --> 00:20:56.082
Yeah, I'm a big fan.

00:20:56.561 --> 00:20:58.564
And of course, you say you had lessons with Howard.

00:20:58.584 --> 00:21:03.167
So these were online one-to-one lessons that you did for two years with Howard, was it?

00:21:03.469 --> 00:21:06.070
So yeah, I started out with the online harmonica school.

00:21:06.731 --> 00:21:10.596
There was also the time period where I was really deep into jazz.

00:21:11.175 --> 00:21:12.978
And then during the master's studies, I...

00:21:13.473 --> 00:21:16.557
had like, I mean, one and a half years of online lessons with him.

00:21:17.057 --> 00:21:19.540
What's it like having Howard as a one-to-one tutor?

00:21:19.560 --> 00:21:21.103
Is he quite demanding at a mansion?

00:21:21.884 --> 00:21:21.943
It

00:21:21.983 --> 00:21:26.229
was just cool to learn a lot about like odd time meters.

00:21:26.769 --> 00:21:30.413
We were playing all the things you are in 11.8 and stuff like that.

00:21:30.453 --> 00:21:37.181
Learning different rhythms, different patterns on different chords and stuff like that.

00:21:38.145 --> 00:21:42.551
So let's get into your recording career and some of your output, which is fantastic.

00:21:42.592 --> 00:21:43.593
Again, very varied.

00:21:43.633 --> 00:21:44.494
So you mentioned jazz.

00:21:44.515 --> 00:21:48.279
So when you were doing your course, was it a jazz course, the conservatory mainly?

00:21:48.359 --> 00:21:48.460
Oh,

00:21:49.080 --> 00:21:49.280
yeah.

00:21:49.842 --> 00:21:54.647
So in Cologne, they called the Bachelor of Studies jazz pop.

00:21:55.449 --> 00:21:58.614
And here in Hamburg, it's jazz.

00:21:58.713 --> 00:22:01.917
And then you could pick another topic, basically.

00:22:02.578 --> 00:22:04.582
And that was music production for me.

00:22:04.993 --> 00:22:10.901
So your first album, which released in 2013, so you were 18 at this stage, maybe 19.

00:22:11.442 --> 00:22:14.404
Yeah, still in school, still at high school.

00:22:15.105 --> 00:22:15.727
Still in school.

00:22:15.747 --> 00:22:16.228
So Mr.

00:22:16.367 --> 00:22:17.048
Quilento.

00:22:17.328 --> 00:22:18.730
So yeah, it's a jazz album, right?

00:22:18.810 --> 00:22:21.012
I mean, there's some great tracks on here.

00:22:21.053 --> 00:22:27.221
So there's one I picked out is Droning, which is kind of Arabian type scale.

00:22:27.240 --> 00:22:30.484
And you've got this kind of polytone self-accompaniment thing going on.

00:22:30.545 --> 00:22:34.750
So yeah, very advanced stuff.

00:22:34.913 --> 00:22:42.301
Thank you.

00:22:44.001 --> 00:22:47.746
Yeah, I mean, at that point, I didn't really feel ready to record an album.

00:22:48.165 --> 00:22:54.071
However, at the Harmonica Masters, they shot some videos with the Hohner artists.

00:22:54.772 --> 00:22:59.737
And the guy who produced the videos, he's from Hamburg, and he has a label.

00:23:00.157 --> 00:23:04.201
And he basically picked three harmonica players he wanted to do a project with.

00:23:04.642 --> 00:23:05.403
And I was one of them.

00:23:05.963 --> 00:23:10.468
So I just started out to write my own compositions at that point.

00:23:11.128 --> 00:23:12.309
I traveled to Hamburg...

00:23:12.738 --> 00:23:18.250
Quite a lot at that time and also had like various writing sessions with other jazz musicians here.

00:23:18.289 --> 00:23:22.318
That way my quartet kind of formed.

00:23:22.759 --> 00:23:30.698
So I got to know the pianist first and we wrote some songs together and then I had my own quartet.

00:23:31.170 --> 00:23:39.701
was kind of a cooperation with hona too like i think they put out like a collector's edition together with harmonica taps and a golden melody you know

00:23:40.343 --> 00:23:47.231
nice well it's a fantastic first album so well done were some or all of these songs your own compositions did you say on this album

00:23:47.352 --> 00:23:56.865
i mean some of them yeah some of them were written by myself some of them by my pianist some of them by both of us and we got some covers on there too i think

00:23:57.602 --> 00:23:58.982
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00:23:59.423 --> 00:24:00.605
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00:24:27.567 --> 00:24:44.596
have a question or need advice just drop Jonathan a line on sales at theharmonicacompany.com and he'll be happy to help the discount code and email address are also listed on the podcast page And then we'll move on to your, I think, your next album.

00:24:44.698 --> 00:24:48.863
I got the order wrong, but so the Old Friend album, which is with a pianist.

00:24:48.903 --> 00:24:54.249
So you've done a few recordings with pianists, which is a great combination with harmonica, of course.

00:24:54.288 --> 00:24:56.771
So, well, more kind of standard harmonica songs in there.

00:24:56.791 --> 00:25:04.622
Blue Zets on there, of course, is a Toots Thielman song, again, played on a diatonic harmonica.

00:25:04.642 --> 00:25:04.862
MUSIC PLAYS

00:25:12.258 --> 00:25:18.482
You do, you know, you do Over the Rainbow, you do Imagine, so sort of more kind of popular, you know, sort of popular music.

00:25:18.522 --> 00:25:20.285
So yeah, what were you thinking for this one?

00:25:20.704 --> 00:25:22.626
Yeah, that was definitely our Toots album.

00:25:23.228 --> 00:25:29.053
In between, I actually also recorded a second album with the quartet called Alighieri.

00:25:29.432 --> 00:25:37.259
I'm still a huge fan of that one because that's like all my own compositions and yeah, a lot of different influences coming together there.

00:25:37.299 --> 00:25:41.022
I'm starting to experiment with guitar pedals

00:25:41.123 --> 00:25:41.583
and stuff.

00:25:41.804 --> 00:26:01.042
Well, I was going to that there's there's quite a lot of effects that on the harmonica on this one isn't this what pedals were you using

00:26:01.884 --> 00:26:08.330
not too much actually it was just like a digi tag whammy kind of thing experimenting with some delays

00:26:08.391 --> 00:26:13.144
too is is that something you're still doing using a lot of pedal well some pedal works

00:26:13.203 --> 00:27:02.393
actually not like nowadays I'm mostly just playing into a microphone in a stand and I like the natural sound I like to especially playing the classical stuff or like more advanced pieces I feel like I got more freedom moving around the instrument if I don't have to hold the microphone right behind the instrument you know but yeah at that point I did that stuff a lot I even played it in a techno live band in Cologne where it was just bass drums trumpet and harmonica so i had to do a huge part for the chord stuff i was in charge of the harmonies basically so i had to use a harmonizer and the whammy you know to do some of that stuff but nowadays they are just sitting around here i'm not using them at all it would be cool to pick them up again

00:27:03.617 --> 00:27:11.015
Yeah, so that song, El Giedi, it's Life and Death of a Star is the kind of subtitle, yeah, and is this one of your compositions?

00:27:11.576 --> 00:27:12.218
Yeah, exactly.

00:27:12.238 --> 00:27:16.407
Yeah, so that's an ambitious title for a harmonica instrumental, but I think you pull it off.

00:27:19.054 --> 00:27:19.134
Yeah.

00:27:31.074 --> 00:27:40.608
That's true but yeah I'm super happy about that album and I feel like I would put it out again like today if it would sound the same.

00:27:41.529 --> 00:27:46.096
So like I really like my vision came to life with that album at that point.

00:27:47.118 --> 00:27:48.601
What year was this when you released this

00:27:49.261 --> 00:27:49.442
one?

00:27:49.461 --> 00:27:50.042
2015.

00:27:50.743 --> 00:27:54.009
Right so yeah so again you're so 20 years old then.

00:27:54.269 --> 00:27:54.589
Yeah.

00:27:54.817 --> 00:28:00.726
So, and then you touched on, you've done lots of classical playing and it's something you've done a little bit later.

00:28:00.746 --> 00:28:04.432
You play with a piano player called Benjamin Nuss.

00:28:04.471 --> 00:28:05.512
Is that a German piano player?

00:28:05.773 --> 00:28:06.253
Exactly.

00:28:06.294 --> 00:28:09.558
So he also started in Cologne at the music school.

00:28:10.079 --> 00:28:12.042
We never actually got to know each other in person.

00:28:12.943 --> 00:28:14.165
I just knew about him.

00:28:14.561 --> 00:28:22.250
At that point, I was looking for a pianist who can do both, very proficient in classical, because that was my initial idea.

00:28:22.270 --> 00:28:26.536
I wanted to play more classical music, definitely inspired by Howard.

00:28:26.955 --> 00:28:31.101
So I started out practicing all these Bach flute sonatas and stuff like that.

00:28:32.061 --> 00:28:38.169
So I just sent him an email and asked him if he wanted to start a project and record a CD.

00:28:38.809 --> 00:28:42.394
We still play together, and we got a lot of stuff coming up.

00:28:42.978 --> 00:28:51.166
Yeah, so you released this album called Debut with Benjamin and as you say, you've got mostly classical music on there.

00:28:55.501 --> 00:28:55.582
Yeah.

00:29:03.874 --> 00:29:04.954
but also a bit of jazz.

00:29:04.974 --> 00:29:08.559
There's 500 Miles High, which is a Chick Corea song, so yeah, you've got some jazz on there.

00:29:08.859 --> 00:29:12.644
So how do you approach playing classical on a diatonic?

00:29:13.486 --> 00:29:13.926
I mean, you've

00:29:13.946 --> 00:29:16.289
really got to take a look at the repertoire, yeah.

00:29:17.151 --> 00:29:18.613
The flute stuff really works well.

00:29:19.334 --> 00:29:24.180
Of course, influenced by Howard, I kind of knew which pieces could work.

00:29:25.201 --> 00:29:29.546
Yeah, we still are working on the harmonica repertoire in the classical world, kind of.

00:29:29.926 --> 00:29:31.970
So at some point we even got the chance to...

00:29:32.609 --> 00:29:56.099
have composers write for our duo there was a foundation financing like seven or eight compositions there's even a website you can download the sheet music it's like seven pieces for diatonic harmonica and piano some of them are super cool some of them we still like to play and some of them are kind of more experimental, you know?

00:29:56.942 --> 00:30:02.900
So I met up with some of these guys and told them a little about the harmonica and they started to write something.

00:30:03.554 --> 00:30:06.938
I mean, typically, classical music on the harmonica is played on the chromatic.

00:30:06.998 --> 00:30:13.144
And again, that more pure sound without the bends is something that most classical players would aim for, right?

00:30:13.184 --> 00:30:18.951
So again, what do you think about playing classical music on the diatonic as opposed to the chromatic in that difference in sound?

00:30:19.191 --> 00:30:21.314
Yeah, I mean, it can be very soulful.

00:30:21.354 --> 00:30:23.496
And I try to shoot for that.

00:30:23.536 --> 00:30:32.131
And I feel like my taste plays a bigger and bigger role Nowadays, there's a lot of stuff that I practice, but I don't put it out.

00:30:32.790 --> 00:30:37.417
If I feel like something actually doesn't sound good, I wouldn't pursue playing it on the diatonic.

00:30:37.858 --> 00:30:46.109
I mean, a golden rule of classical music, as I understand it, I play a little bit myself, I'm no expert, but absolutely no bending allowed, right?

00:30:46.150 --> 00:30:57.346
So is bending something that you avoid on the diatonic and just play the notes, you know, kind of clean in an overblows, an overdraws, or are you putting bending in for expression or...?

00:30:57.826 --> 00:30:58.468
I like to put in

00:30:58.508 --> 00:30:58.848
bending,

00:30:58.868 --> 00:31:03.381
as long as it feels right, if it fits my taste, definitely.

00:31:04.123 --> 00:31:07.391
Well, classical music probably has branched out more, hasn't it, to allow some more bending?

00:31:07.551 --> 00:31:08.394
It definitely has.

00:31:08.473 --> 00:31:12.444
I mean, in our concerts, we still like to improvise a lot, and...

00:31:13.057 --> 00:31:32.820
play a lot of world music and stuff I mean it's on the album too and still we won that German Grammy for classical music called Opus Classic with that first album which was a huge surprise and we even played on TV during the awards which is also unusual for the newcomer artist.

00:31:33.342 --> 00:31:34.682
So that was super cool.

00:31:34.782 --> 00:31:40.048
And on TV, we played some Billa Bartok, which is classical, but very bluesy, kind of.

00:31:40.088 --> 00:31:45.153
And then Brazilian Choreo piece, which isn't really classical, I don't know.

00:31:45.173 --> 00:31:46.695
Oh, the Brazilian Choreo.

00:31:46.736 --> 00:31:51.140
I had Victor Lopes on a few episodes, and that is amazing, that music.

00:31:51.201 --> 00:31:52.882
So yeah, great that you're playing that.

00:31:52.961 --> 00:31:56.326
So as you say, you won this German Grammy for classical music.

00:32:07.425 --> 00:32:11.393
So you obviously made a splash in the classical music scene in Germany there, right?

00:32:11.432 --> 00:32:15.039
Which has got all the great composers like Bach, as you mentioned.

00:32:15.099 --> 00:32:19.528
So how were you received in the classical world playing a diatonic harmonica?

00:32:19.567 --> 00:32:22.633
Was that always well received by the audiences and the critics and all?

00:32:23.836 --> 00:32:24.917
Interesting question.

00:32:24.958 --> 00:32:26.200
So

00:32:26.240 --> 00:32:29.244
definitely before the award...

00:32:29.986 --> 00:33:11.334
had some weird experiences of course like also booking concerts and stuff like some of the responses weren't very positive you know I remember one of them in particular and that the booker was like yeah like the harmonica is my most hated instrument ever so we won't have it at our venue you know but that kind of changed like with the award playing more of these classical concerts and working on the classical repertoire for the instrument and now there was last year when we recorded it two works for harmonica piano plus orchestra like newly written concertos basically that we're gonna put out this year

00:33:11.842 --> 00:33:19.409
And then there's also, so you started out doing jazz and a lot of people sort of probably do this, you know, they play jazz, they want to play some classical and vice versa.

00:33:19.429 --> 00:33:24.593
So how have you found playing the two kind of poorly different genres of music there?

00:33:24.992 --> 00:33:36.442
Yeah, I feel like there are more and more people doing this and it's good that things just melt because that's the way it's supposed to be and I feel like it's the way it always was.

00:33:36.784 --> 00:33:41.468
So there's quite a scene of players doing both classical and jazz now.

00:33:41.807 --> 00:33:43.692
Obviously, in classical, it's all very strict.

00:33:43.711 --> 00:33:45.516
You've got to be perfectly strict with your time.

00:33:45.715 --> 00:33:49.604
Whereas in jazz, obviously, you've got more freedom from that score.

00:33:49.644 --> 00:33:52.249
So how was your leap across to classical?

00:33:52.289 --> 00:33:54.413
Did you have to really practice your reading?

00:33:54.775 --> 00:33:57.640
And the other question, are you reading the scores when you're playing them?

00:33:58.080 --> 00:34:01.969

Konstantin Reinfeld interview

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