Category: Concert

Toots Thielemans at 100

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Toots died in 2016 but he would have been 100 if he had lived until 2022. This year there was a series of events including concerts in Brussels and around the world to celebrate his life and music. You can see more on the event website – 100 years of Toots Thielemans .

I love his music and enjoyed his enthusiastic personality which came across in his interviews.

Here is a great edit from the many conversations he recorded over his long career as whistler, guitarist and one of the best harmonica players. The compilation was put together by a Belgian DJ, Nico Kanakaris, who goes by the name of BlueNotes (Facebook).

Here are some memories of Toots and his life broadcast in German by ‘Das Feature – Deutschlandfunk’ with contributions from harmonica players – Steven de Bruyn, Hendrik Meurkens, Yvonnick Prene, Gregoire Maret … – and many top jazz musicians. Download the music from their webspage –
Der Weg der Mundharmonika – Toots Thielemans und der Atem der Melancholie

Here, Julian Joseph and Julian Jackson talk about Toots Thielemans in the Jazz Legends series broadcast by the BBC in the early 2000s. Julian Jackson is one of the top UK Jazz harmonica players and a session musician. He was been inspired by and had visited Toots. They play a number of recordings by Toots.

A Tribute to Tommy Morgan (1932 – 2022)

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I met Tommy Morgan when I travelled to Denver in 2001 for my first visit to a SPAH convention. My friend Douglas Tate had just become President of SPAH and I was the new Chairman of Harmonica UK (then the NHL). Two proud Yorkshiremen guiding two great organisations.

Douglas and Tommy were friends as was evident from their workshops and concerts. I stayed in email contact with Tommy up to the end, finally through Tommy’s great friend Jon Kip.

Tommy’s long history and musical activities have been well chronicled in the obituaries listed below. He took up chromatic harmonica at school and was fortunate to have lessons from Jerry Adler, who later got him his first recording session. After spells with the U.S. Air Force band and tours on his own throughout the 1950s Tommy built up his musical skills from arrangers like Sammy Nestico and a Masters Degree from UCLA. He also added the chord and bass harmonicas to his armoury. Tommy’s site reading improved and he began to set up his own recording sessions.

The 1960s was the beginning of the Golden Age of film and TV themes and producers were looking for harmonica players. Tommy had the skills and would tackle anything. He became the “go-to” man for recording sessions, something he did for decades. Tommy said he had done over 900 film scores and 7000 recording sessions.

Jim Hughes “Live @ Stratford (UK)”, 1983

Archie

This concert was recorded by someone and a CD-R of the concert was found in the archive I got from John Bryan.

This was the second annual convention of the independent National Harmonica League run at that time by John Walton. He had taken it over from Hohner in 1981 and it was run by a committee of members.

The concert was a part of a day long event in the Queen Elizabeth Hall in Stratford-upon-Avon, the home of William Shakespeare.

Jim was accompanied by Harold Rich (piano) and Richard Wright (guitar). One of Jim’s pupils, World Champion Ivan Richards, joined Jim to play the Mozart Double Flute Concerto.

Jim Hughes “Live at Stratford-upon-Avon, 1983”

01, STAR EYES, 00:00
02, SERENATA FOR A VEILED LADY , 02:48
03, BULGARIAN WEDDING DANCE , 06:13
04. SPRING CAN HANG YOU UP THE MOST , 9:45
05, GIRL WITH THE FLAXEN HAIR, 13:25
06, FIREBRAND, 15:25
07, MOZART FLUTE DUO (with Ivan Richards), 19:56
08, GERSHWIN PRELUDE , 22:45
09, CAPRICE-CRADLE SONG by Gordon Jacob , 28:57
10, BACH GOES TO TOWN ,PRELUDE AND FUGUE by J. S. Bach, 33:54
11, MOON RIVER, 37:43
12, SERENADE FOR UNACCOMPANIED HARMONICA , 40:55
13, CONCERTO FOR HARPSICHORD by J. S. Bach, 44:00
14, MARCH HARE,49:06