Month: June 2018

SPAH – The first 20 years

Archie

The Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica, SPAH, was founded in 1963 by Earl Collins (1924-88), Gordon Mitchell (1927-2001) and Richard Harris (1938-2015). Fortunately, the youngest member of the trio, Richard Harris, was an enthusiastic photographer and recording engineer so you get a chance to hear the history of SPAH as it was happening.

This blog post is taken from a cassette tape of the soundtrack of a video that Richard made in 1983, from his vast archive of recordings, to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of SPAH. It is tribute to Richard Harris as well as SPAH. Richard was ahead of his time. Without his foresight and hard work this detailed audio history would not have been possible.

Here are Richard’s notes which accompanied the cassette he sent.

SPAH – The First 20-Years – featuring “THE HARMONICA MEN”, trio. Produced and narrated by: Richard Harris.
History of SPAH via music and the spoken word. Relive excerpts from the first SPAH meeting, Dec. 1962. Here the voice of founder Earl Collins, words of wisdom from harmonica greats like Tommy Reilly, Blackie Shackner. Remember firsts such as Richard Hayman’s Harmonica Concerto, April 1978, the first CanSPAH concert November 1965. And the radio and TV programs – a sampling includes the “I’ve Got A Secret” Show and the 8′ harmonica that stumped the panel. But, that’s history – history that will be remembered by early SPAH members and now 20 years later by you. All on a premium cassette in stereo (recorded 1983 converted to digital in 2018).

You can read more about the history of SPAH by visiting the excellent SPAH Archives webpage written by Manfred Wewers.

Tommy Reilly – In his own words

Archie

Tommy Reilly set the standard for playing chromatic harmonica and he was mainly responsible for the acceptance of the harmonica as a solo instrument on the classical stage. He had a prolific recording career. He was born in Canada in 1919 but spent most of his life in the UK.

Here Tommy talks about his musical life and plays some music on two BBC radio programmes – Music Weekly (Michael Oliver, 6 May, 1979), and Studio Portrait (Wilfred Parry (piano), 10 February, 1967).

Tommy’s silver chromatic harmonica was developed before the first radio programme in 1973 and after the second one in 1967.

Tracklist
1 – Music Weekly – Talking about the harmonica – Tommy Reilly
2 – Music – James Moody
3 – Talking playing the harmonica and repertoire – Tommy
4 – Villa Lobos Concerto for Harmonica – Tommy Reilly
5 – Talking about his Silver Harmonica – Tommy Reilly
6 – Parash’s Aria – Stravinsky
7 – Studio Portrait – Talking about composers – Tommy Reilly
8 – Caprice – Gordon Jacobs
9 – Scherzino – James Moody
10 – Talking harmonicas – Tommy Reilly
11 – Strawberry Fair – Leonard Morris
12 – Seventeen Come Sunday – Leonard Morris
13 – Talking history and harmonicas – Tommy Reilly
14 – Chanson Russe – Stravinsky
15 – Talking film music – Tommy Reilly
16 – Après un Rêve – Faurè
17 – Talking about Polish customs – Tomy Reilly
18 – Bulgarian Wedding Dance – James Moody

Larry Adler – In his own words

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Larry Adler was the first harmonica superstar. He was born in 1914 and  he took the chromatic harmonica onto the concert stage and into films, playing popular and classical music.

This recording was made in 1998 for the BBC when Larry was 84. Larry Adler’s Century was broadcast as seven weekly programmes but Larry produced an edited version on a tape cassette which he gave to his fans.

Larry was an entertainer in the full sense of the word and he enjoyed playing the harmonica, writing in magazines and appearing on radio and TV shows. He had a fantastic knowledge of classical and popular music and would play with anyone, anywhere.

Here he talks about his life and plays some of his recordings.

Tracklist
1 – Introduction – Larry Adler
2 – Smoke gets in your eyes – Jerome Kern
3 – Beginnings – Larry Adler
4 – Minuet in G – Mozart
5 – First jobs -Larry Adler
6 – I want to be loved by you – Stothart
7 – Al Capone – Larry Adle
8 – Playing the harmonica – Larry Adler
9 – Summertime – Gershwin
10 – Playing the chromatic harmonica – Larry Adler
11 – Bach goes to Town – Alec Templeton
12 – Meeting Ravel – Larry Adler
13 – Bolero – Ravel
14 – Meeting George Gershwin – Larry Adler
15 – Rhapsody in Blue – George Gershwin
16 – Musical Joke – Larry Adler
17 – Lets call the whole thing off – George Gershwin
18 – Harold Arlen – Larry Adler
19 – Blues in the night – Arlen
20 – Musical Joke – Larry Adler
21 – Somewhere over the rainbow – Harold Arlen
22 – World War II Jack Benny – Larry Adler
23 – The Continental – Conrad
24 – Meeting Ingrid Bergman – Larry Adler
25 – Song for Ingrid Bergman – Larry Adler
26 – Gettysburg Address – Larry Adler
27 – Relationship with Ingrid – Larry Adler
28 – As time goes by – Hupfeld
29 – The House Un-American Activities Committee – Larry Adler
30 – It ain’t necessarily so – Gershwin
31 – The blacklist – Larry Adler
32 – Genevieve – Larry Adler
33 – Writing Genevieve and the blacklist – Larry Adler
34 – Genevieve – Larry Adler
35 – Yesterdays – Larry Adler
36 – The effect of music – Larry Adler
37 – Ode to Joy – Beethoven
38 – Speech in Australia – Larry Adler
39 – Meeting with Sting – Larry Adler
40 – Ten Summoners Tales – Sting
41 – Glory of Gershwin with Elton John – Larry Adler
42 – It’s very clear – Elton John
43 – Programme credits – Larry Adler
44 – Nice work if you can get it – George Gershwin

Larry Adler and The House Un-American Activities Committee

Here is Larry talking to Dick Cavett in 1989 about the the actions of the The House Un-American Activities Committee. They created blacklists which made it impossible for left leaning artists, like Larry, to get work and resulted in his move to the UK.