Armonica

Armonica: From Me to You

by Roger Crane
July 25, 2003

The word “armonica” has two meanings, both relating to music. An armonica is a glass harmonica (which, interestingly, was invented by Benjamin Franklin) and it is also the Italian word for “harmony.” So Armonica, the Portland-based singer, has the perfect name to accompany her marvelous singing. By the way, this is not a name that she chose to enhance her musical career. Her parents so named her.

Armonica opens her stellar debut CD with a bouncy reading of Peggy Lee’s ...

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Grégoire Maret's harmonica jazz

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
April 8, 2017

Harmonica players are rare in jazz. Many fans could recognize and name the late Jean “Toots" Thielemans (who also played guitar) and Howard Levy, who first earned fame playing harmonica and keyboards with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (and St. Louis music fans in the know might tout our town's Sandy Weltman as deserving of being mentioned in the same company), but beyond that, not many harp players have been able to make a living over the years exclusively playing ...
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Larry Adler's Harmonica

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
August 24, 2016

The late Toots Thielemans was one of the first chromatic harmonica players to play swing and bop on the instrument. And no one could touch Toots or even sound like him. But he wasn't the first harmonica star. That title belong to Larry Adler, who died in 2001. Born in jny: Baltimore, he taught himself to play before running away to New York, where as a kid he got a job in vaudeville. Adler was so proficient on the harmonica ...
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Jazz this week: J.D. Parran & George Sams, "New World Harmonica Jazz," Chapter:SOUL, Chick Corea Trio, and more

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
June 16, 2016

This week's calendar of jazz and creative music in St. Louis offers some early summer eclecticism, including a homecoming performance by one of our city's exemplars of the avant-garde; a couple of free, multi-venue festivals featuring a variety of local talent; sold-out shows featuring two touring pianists, and, as the saying goes, much, much more. Let's go the the highlights... Wednesday, June 15 Saxophonist Doug Lawrence leads a quartet in a free show at Saxquest; Cabaret Project St. Louis presents ...
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Fretless Brothers Bring Harmonically Tuned Jazz To Shapeshifter Lab In Brooklyn

Source: Jon Catler
March 21, 2014

FreeNote Records is pleased to announce a live performance by the Fretless Brothers on Sunday, March 23rd at 8:15pm at ShapeShifter Lab, 18 Whitwell Place, Brooklyn, NY ($10). The Fretless Brothers are the world's first Harmonic Series jazz group, using specially fretted guitars to stretch the language of jazz to 36 notes per octave. The group has just released their debut CD, Footsteps, which features Jon Catler (La Monte Young) and Dane Johnson (Hangmen) on 12-Tone Ultra Plus guitars, Hansford ...
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Blues Harmonica Icon Curtis Salgado Brings 'Soul Shot' to Sellersville, PA

Source: Chris M. Slawecki
July 27, 2012

Award-winning vocalist/songwriter/harmonica icon Curtis Salgado will celebrate the release of his blistering Alligator Records debut CD, Soul Shot, with a live performance at the Sellersville Theater in Sellersville on Wednesday, August 29, 2012. Winner of the 2012 Blues Music Award for Soul Blues Artist Of The Year, Salgado effortlessly mixes R&B, funk and blues with a delivery that is raw and heartfelt. He moves with ease from the tenderest ballads to the most full-throated stompers. Concert information follows: Date: Wednesday, ...
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Harmonica Master Charlie Musselwhite to Perform in New Hope

Source: Chris M. Slawecki
April 16, 2012

Harmonicist/vocalist/songwriter/guitarist Charlie Musselwhite, touring in support of his Grammy-nominated Alligator Records CD, The Well, will perform live at The New Hope Winery in New Hope on Friday, May 4, 2012. The Well is an authentic slice of Charlie's deep blues roots with musical flavors from Mississippi to Chicago to California, including help on one song from legendary vocalist and friend Mavis Staples. Amazon included The Well in its Top Ten Blues CDs of 2010, and Musselwhite won two 2011 Blues ...
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Matthias Broede, Harmonica Player, Pianist & Composer From Germany With New CD

Source: Matthias Broede
April 16, 2012

LINER NOTES by Karsten Mützelfeldt (Jazz Journalist, Germany, WDR, Deutschlandfunk, Jazz Thing) for the new CD “Space Between Intervals" recorded by Matthias Broede's SPEAK TRES: It's a matter of fact that in the history of Jazz the harmonica plays a role as small as its size and had to share its place in the polls with other “miscellaneous instruments". These reasons make it inevitable to write some introductive words. Even though Toots Thielemans isn't anymore the only name who ...
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Master of the Half Valved Harmonica Releases Dazzling New CD

Source: Michael Ricci
May 31, 2011

2 Days Out, marks yet another milestone in harmonica maestro PT Gazell's musical journey. Perhaps the most musically daring of all his recordings, 2 Days Out explores dynamic sonic combinations that are superbly refreshing, spirited and profound. PT's half-valved diatonic harmonicas are paired with a couple of heavyweights from the brass section—trombone and flugelhorn. PT's impeccable phrasing and undeniable expressive shadings blend seamlessly with these horns to create something extraordinary and distinct. On songs as varied as the swing standard, ...
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Toots Thielemans' Harmonica Live with His European Quartet

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
March 18, 2011

Everybody knows that Toots Thielemans IS jazz harmonica. He is the man. He phrases like a horn. Others have followed in his wake but he continues to lead the way. If you listen to the late George Shearing's Quintet in the early 50s, when Toots was the guitarist, you can hear in the few features for the Thielemans harmonica that he had gotten his style pretty much together by then. And he's kept going for the many years that have ...
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Big Walter Horton - Blues Harmonica Giant (JSP, 2010)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland
January 14, 2011

Big Walter “Shakey" Horton was an influential blues harmonica player and singer who recorded as a leader and a sideman for a variety of labels from the early 1950's until the late 1970's. Horton has a huge impact amongst blues players, but was rather reticent himself, preferring to play as a sideman rather than aggressively promote himself as a leader. This compilation has two discs that cover Horton's early records under his own name from 1951-1956, primarily for the Sun ...
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