Tommy Reilly was a prolific musician with a vast set of recordings and many live concert appearances. Some performances are in the archives of TV and Radio companies like the BBC and NRK, but here are some which I have edited that can be enjoyed.
World Harmonica Championships in Jersey 1987
Festival Concert – One hour
Program – Gymnopedie no.1 (1 min) – Medley, Seventeen Come Sunday, Drink to me only, Strawberry Fair (7 mins) – Jacaranda (14 mins) – The Swan (23 mins) – Duettino with Sigmund Groven (27 mins) – Medley, Smoke gets in your Eyes, Misty, The Way you look Tonight, Begin the Beguine (33 mins) – Lazy Lullaby (43 mins), Toledo (46 mins).
Workshop at the festival – 45 mins
Tommy and Jimmy enjoy an informal workshop in front of friends like Jerry Murad.
Main Teachings – from 3 mins – Don’t move your head, note production and moving between notes.
BBC Radio Broadcast from The Old Market Arts Centre, Hove, Sussex, UK – One hour
Program – 5 Pieces for harmonica by Gordon Jacob (0 min) – Harmonika Joke (14 mins) – Gymnopedie no.1 (15 mins) – Bulgarian Wedding Dance (18 mins) – Medley, Seventeen Come Sunday, Drink to me only, Strawberry Fair (21 mins) – Toledo (28 mins) – Fairy Tale (35 mins) – Valsentino (37 mins) – The Swan (40 mins) – Porgy and Bess Medley, I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin, Bess You Is My Woman Now, It Ain’t Necessarily So, Summertime (43 mins) – The Entertainer (46 mins) – Plaisir d’amour (51) – Hava nagila (54 mins).
There are not many true videos online. Here are a few.
There are many audio recordings on line
Search YouTube and Spotify etc. but avoid a much younger Scottish musician.
Written by Roger Trobridge with major contributions and research from Mark Weber.
I first came across this story a few years ago when examining some reel to reel tapes in Tommy Reilly’s study. In amongst recordings by Arthur Benjamin and George Martin was Romenza, a piece of music by Anthony Burgess. Was he the infamous British Cambridge spy – no that was Guy Burgess. This had been composed by the author of The Clockwork Orange.
In December 2024 Mark Weber wrote to tell me about a book he had just read, A Clockwork Counterpoint, by Paul Phillips. He said one chapter in the book focused on Anthony Burgess writing music for three of the most renowned harmonica players: John Sebastian, Tommy Reilly, and Larry Adler.
Anthony Burgess wrote: “God has put me on earth to, among other things, write for the harmonica.”
Mark has the sheet music for the pieces pieces he composed for the three soloists but none had been recorded.
Paul Phillip’s book includes a reference to a 1977 BBC broadcast of Oscar Peterson Invites, where Anthony Burgess talks about Romanza, the piece he wrote for Tommy Reilly, which they then played live together on the show. This is the video of the TV program, edited for harmonica players. It turned out to be the source of the audio recording I had found in Tommy’s study.
Here are some of links Mark collected when researching this the background to this unreported and fascinating story about Anthony Burgess and his connection to the three supreme harmonica players: John Sebastian, Tommy Reilly, and Larry Adler.
Anthony Burgess was a famous English writer and composer, best known for his dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange .
Mark’s interest in this story began some time ago when he came across this article on the International Anthony Burgess Foundation website: Larry Adler and Anthony Burgess’s Harmonica
As it turned out, Burgess composed several works – six in total – for the harmonica and he remains the only composer to have dedicated pieces to all three of these major harmonica virtuosi.
Works Composed by Anthony Burgess for the Harmonica
For John Sebastian: Burgess, who considered Sebastian “an all-around Renaissance man, a lover of art and literature,” and good friend, wrote two works for him in the 1970s:
1972: Panique (also known as Faunal Noon) for harmonica and guitar
1972: Sonatina in C for harmonica and guitar
For Tommy Reilly:
1977: Romanza for harmonica and piano – performed on the BBC Oscar Peterson Show in 1977 – see above.
For Larry Adler:
1980: Piece for harmonica and piano (unfortunately this work is partially unreadable – the original was never found)
1986: Sonatina for harmonica and guitar
Additionally, Burgess began composing a Concerto for Harmonica and Strings, but unfortunately, he never completed the work.
It is definitely worth reading this fascinating book. When he began writing “A Clockwork Counterpoint”, Paul says he started with the harmonica chapter, 28 “The Sad Suck-and-Blow“. Chapters 67 and 68 of “The Devil Prefers Mozart” are about Larry Adler and John Sebastian, respectively.
A personal tribute from Roger Trobridge – former Chairman of HarmonicaUK.
Gerry was living in London as a child and studied accordion at the Hohner run, “British College of Accordionists“. He preferred harmonica and ended up being very successful in the National Harmonica League (NHL) UK Championships in the 1950s.
This led to him being asked to join the Morton Fraser Harmonica Gang, a professional variety act. Gerry decided it was not what he wanted and after his National Service he established a business in his beloved Wales.
It was a big success and when he retired, he left it to his family and returned to the harmonica.
This was about the time I took over as Chairman of the National Harmonica League (now HarmonicaUK) in October 2000. We met up through the forum on my website and he immediately joined the committee, where his business and musical experience was invaluable.
Gerry was very involved with the transfer of the annual festival to the Folk House in Bristol in 2001.Ben Hewlett was teaching a blues class for musicians there and he thought it would be a great venue.
He took a back seat around 2010 but continued to support the Chromatic Weekend festival which he had set up in 2006.
Gerry had other interests and he became leader of the Mid Glamorgan Accordion Band, still playing his chromatic harmonica. He also enjoyed writing and the research that went into it. When we met up earlier this year he was about to visit Scotland to check out the background for his latest novel.
You can learn out more from Gerry himself in this 60 mins video based on a talk he gave to the Porthcawl U3A about his life as a harmonica player entitled “Remember when you got your first harmonica“.
Gerry Ezard, performer, musician and author
Gerry has recorded two CDS, (“Just My Stuff” and “More of My Stuff”) and is also an author (Gerald Ezard) of a self produced book, “Mar$”, available through Amazon.
When Gerry performed on stage he would always dress for the occasion. It was part of the performance. His playing was of the highest standard, something he tried to pass on to anyone wishing to learn. From the time he joined the NHL in 2001, he ran workshops on all aspects of playing the chromatic harmonica. In 2006 he set up the Chromatic Weekend Festival, in Birmingham, along with Steve Dooley, which resulted in an increased awareness and uptake of the chromatic harmonica.
Gerry was always happy on stage and would always have something to say. As the following examples will show, he loved to act out stories, often in the style of the characters from the stories of Mickey Spillane and Damon Runyon – gumshoes, gangsters and gamblers. Like Larry Adler – no opportunity was missed to make it a better story.
Bach in the Bar
with apologies to Mickey Spilane
Harmonica World Dec-Jan 2005
It was quiet, too quiet, when I crossed the reception at Jurys. The blond behind the desk wasn’t giving anything away through those baby blue peepers.
The lights were low and the noise of the gang drowned out the background music when I hit the bar. Wheels sat in his usual place eyeing the crowd, Babs, his doll, glanced up as I sashayed in hoping they wouldn’t notice the bulge of cold metal under my armpit.
I knew something was going down, but as long as it wasn’t me in a cement overcoat I was too tired to care. I flung myself into a chair in the shadows. They were all there – Babyface Jamie, Fast Eddie, and Fingers Lee and his Ma, Lady C.
Lady C slid the paper over to Wheels and his eyes narrowed as he glanced it over. ‘Hey Jamie, you handle this stuff?’ he breathed. Babyface sidled over, casual like, and the bar went silent as he slowly pulled out a silver 48. Yeah, “Wheels”, he nodded, ‘I can fix it’. Everyone’s hands were in the open, I kept mine there too, and smiled like I knew too much.
Wheels raked the room with his eyes, nobody looked up, ‘Any of youse guys ready to roll’ he queried. The question hung in the air like a harmonic minor. The dame nodded ‘I’m in’ she drawled, ‘Me too’ added Fast Eddie, both producing mean looking 48s.
I shrunk into the shadows but it was too late, Wheels fixed me with his eyes. A long moment passed, ‘You’re in Pops’, he announced, and I knew there was no backing out. I was glad I’d packed my big 56 because this little number was going to be a doozy.
Then Fingers began to tinkle the ivories and Wheels began to play. Lady C narrowed her eyes and joined in with Babyface alongside. Me, I was with Fast Eddie, and we all watched each other to see what went down.
Well it went something like that after the festival concert, when, at 1am in Jurys lounge, five chromatic players. Carol Axford, Gerry Ezard, Jamie Dolan, Eddie Ong and Douglas Tate played Bach’s Double Violin Concerto, with Lee Axford at the piano. The bar was still crowded with hotel guests, and there were a few surprised looks as the elegant music silenced the conversation.
It was one of those magic moments, and Douglas, with his wife Barbara at his side, had somehow managed to raise us all from our post festival day stupor to enjoy playing Bach in the early hours of the morning.
I’m glad I was there. We will remember Douglas by playing this again one day.
Gerry (Pops) Ezard
Repeat performance at Douglas Tate’s Memorial Service (21 April 2006)
Here is a video of a repeat performance of the music that was played in the bar at Jurys Hotel in Bristol, on that Saturday night. Again Gerry Ezard is the narrator and a performer alongside Colin Mort, Philip Achille, Eddie Ong and Jamie Dolan. The 9 mins recording is taken from Douglas Tate’s Memorial service in Olney Parish Church, which added its own reverb to the chromatic harmonicas.
Gerry Ezard in Concert
Gerry played in many NHL/HarmonicaUK concerts and Chromatic Weekends. He loved the film music and Light Music of his youth. Here he plays two arrangements by Tommy Reilly from the Festival Concert in 2011 and also demonstrates his sartorial elegance.
Tribute from HarmonicaUK
It was with sadness and heavy hearts that we learned of Gerry’s passing. Everyone who had the pleasure of meeting him will miss him greatly.
Gerry played a major role in rebuilding HarmonicaUK and the teaching and promotion of his beloved chromatic harmonica.
A professional performer on stage – off stage he was warm and generous with an impish sense of humour.
The Gerry Ezard Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) Tribute Fund
There is a Gerry Ezard – Forever By the Sea Tribute Fund page for donations. Gerry was an avid Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) supporter. He loved life aboard his boat. Our first meeting was through a link to his Moonraker boat club.
Tommy’s father, Captain James Reilly, was a bandmaster at the Royal Military School of Music (RMSM), Kneller Hall in Twickenham, London. He left for Canada after WW1 to become the bandmaster of the Guelph Army Battalion and also the leader of the OAC Symphony Orchestra and a local choir. Tommy Reilly was born there in Aug 1919.
When the depression started in 1929, Captain Reilly moved to the local Elmdale Public School as custodian and in 1930 he started a harmonica band at the school. It was very successful. Tommy studied violin and also played harmonica and accordion.
In 1935, James Reilly returned to England with his family to become a Musical Director of Hohner’ new Harmonica Song Band League. Within a couple of years Tommy was performing in a circus troop as a musician and acrobat and touring in Europe. In 1939 he was studying violin in the Leipzig Conservatory when war was declared and he spent over 5 years in German POW camps. He used this time to develop his prodigious harmonica technique utilising his knowledge of the violin and the playing of Jascha Heifetz.
After the war, Tommy returned to the UK and began performing with John Still, a pianist he had met in the POW camps. He quickly built up links with the BBC and played regularly on radio shows like Variety Bandbox and Workers Playtime. Tommy joined the Clarkson Rose Music Hall Review, Twinkle, and met Ena, the Principle Girl. They married and had a son, David.
Tommy was a household name by 1950 and he started composing for himself and Production Music companies like Conway and recording 78rpm records for the popular music market. His producer was George Martin who had just been made head of EMI’s Parlophone label. His best known recording is probably the Jack Warner 78rpm – An Ordinary Copper (Dixon of Dock Green), heard on the TV show and released as a single in 1958. These 78 rpm singles were never re-released.
Writing for the Production Music Libraries was very profitable and several pieces became well known as themes for TV and radio programmes in several countries. In the UK the best known were Family Joke (The Grove Family) and Trade Wind Hornpipe (The Navy Lark). Tommy wrote under several pseudonyms – Max Martin and Dwight Barker – and also with James Moody and his son, David.
Tommy’s concerts included popular and classical music, usually transcribed for harmonica. His fame led to pieces being composed for him by Michael Spivakovsky, Robert Farnon, James Moody, Gordon Jacob, Fried Walter, Graham Whettam, Alan Langford and Sir George Martin. He also performed works written for the harmonica by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Arthur Benjamin, and Villa-Lobos.
Another area where Tommy was active was on film soundtracks, The Sundowners, Yokohama Holiday and most notably, Midnight Cowboy, which is the subject of another of my blogs.
Tommy Reilly International Club (TRIC)
Tommy was always interested in education and like his father, Captain James Reilly, he wrote several instruction books. Tommy went further and decided to teach harmonica at his new home, Hammonds Wood, in 1977. He started TRIC and several musical events were held with some top players from around the world. It proved unworkable and lasted only for a few years. This is covered in detail in another of my blogs. Tommy Reilly International Club
Concerts and Workshops
Member of the Order of the British Empire – 1992
Queen Elizabeth presented Tommy Reilly with the MBE for ‘services to music’ in 1992.
Discography
Here are links to Tommy’s vast collection of audio recordings.
Filip Jers is one of the top harmonica soloists. He flew into the UK in October 2024 and stayed with us, near London, before we travelled up to the HarmonicUK annual festival on 25-27 October in Birmingham. On the way back we visited Jim Hughes.
I have been lucky enough to host many artists on the way to the NHL/HarmonicaUK festivals, helped by our proximity to to Heathrow and a spare bedroom now that the children have flown the nest.
After picking up Filip from Heathrow, we stopped off for some traditional food – fish, chips, mushy peas and curry sauce, before he was introduced to the Harmonica Hotel (spare bedroom) made famous by Rob Paparozzi on his Facebook page.
Next morning we drove to Hillscourt and spent three days with an enthusiastic group of harmonica players where Filip presented workshops and played a fantastic set in the Saturday Concert. The festival photographs are by Pippa Phillips.
On the return home I took Filip to meet the ‘legendary’ Jim Hughes – chromatic soloist, teacher of World Champions and writer of the best tuition book for Chromatic Harmonica. Jim is 95, has lost his sight and housebound but still playing – formerly a sight reader he has taught himself to play by ear. They talked for two hours about technical aspects of playing and practising, and played music together. They were separated by 60 years in time but were united in mutual respect and their love for making music.
If you are interested you can enjoy the meeting by watching a video of the visit. I split it into two parts for convenience – before and after our pause for a coffee.
The journey home in the dark was tiring but it was another chance to talk about music and musicians.
After looking at some guitar records in my music archive (Charlie Byrd – House of the Rising Sun) and a good night’s rest, Filip headed back to Heathrow Airport and his flight back to his family in Sweden.
Here are some videos I have restored or edited showing Larry Adler at the peak of his ability in 1971 and also from his final year in 2000/2001.
1971 – “Playing the Thing“
In 1971 Chris Morphet created his harmonica film “Playing the Thing” and this included visiting Larry Adler at his flat in Brighton (UK) where he was interviewed and recorded playing several pieces of music. Some of the footage was included in “Playing the Thing” but most of it was lost on the editing floor. I recovered most of the out-takes and reconstructed the original full interview and performances. Here are the resulting videos. The quality is not perfect as some of the 16 mm film was damaged or missing and was from different sources.
The full story of my continuing reconstruction of “Playing the Thing” with the interviews with Larry Adler, Sonny Terry, Cham’ber Huang, James Cotton, Bill Dicey, Andy Paskas, The Herold Trio, Hohner ….. can be found on the “Playing the Thing” website.
The website also has a video of the original film, “Playing the Thing“, which was released in 1972.
2000-2001 – Larry Adler’s final years
Here are some other videos from Larry’s last year before his death in 2001.
One is from his appearance at the Millennium Festival in Bournemouth (UK) in 2000 organised by John Walton and the IHO.
The others are from his last days when he secretly left his hospital bed to play in the Albert Hall, and the tribute concert held a few months after his death.
Despite his poor heath, Larry did what he always did. He played until he finally had to leave the stage.
I first got to know Larry when I joined the National Harmonica League (NHL, HarmonicaUK) committee in 1999. Larry was our President and needed help with his office. Gout had frozen his fingers making it very difficult for him to answer emails and write his articles and reviews. I visited Larry regularly and made his computer more accessible.
I had set up the NHL website which had a page listing his many gigs around the country and in his favourite location, Larry’s Room in The Pizza in the Park , London, where his bronze was on show.
Larry Adler Bronze
Larry returned from a successful concert with Cham’ber Huang in Hong Kong in December 1999 and after a series of UK gigs he made a short tour in Australia in May 2000. On his return he wrote, “I’m playing at the Edinburgh Festival Aug 5 and 6, later in September at the Palace Theatre, London as part of the Soho Jazz Festival. Found a sensational piano accompanist whom I’m importing for these events.” This was the 18 year old Simon Tedeschi from Australia. He looked after Larry’s musical needs until his death, a year later.
Simon Tedeschi
Larry was set to tour Australia in 2000, and for whatever reason his pianist was indisposed. When he found out that a teenager was due to accompany him instead, he wasn’t happy in the slightest, and as anyone knows, Larry came from an era in which feelings were not held back. But when we met, the music flowed instantaneously. He called me son, and I called him pop. We exchanged Jewish jokes and talked about the world. He was a complex man, with many sides, some of them difficult, others charming and affable.
We went on, after that tour, to travel the world together. As his health failed, I had to do more and more to ‘fill in the gaps’ musically, but I never stopped learning from Larry, simply from being around him. I never quite worked out which of his stories were 100% true and which were confabulated, and I don’t think he quite knew either.
We performed at Pizza on the Park in Knightsbridge at least twenty times, and each time was a joy. We travelled on the Orient Express together, which I will never forget. We argued and laughed, jostled and teased. He was the first ‘legend’ I ever worked with.
Until only a week or so ago, I had no idea any footage of us playing together existed. I was his last pianist and according to him, the finest Gershwin exponent he’d ever heard. I still like to use that quote wherever I can!
Videos of Larry’s last performances
Larry Adler and Simon Tedeschi performed together on many occasions including at the IHO Millennium Festival Concert in Bournemouth, UK, 7-10 September, 2000. Larry was very ill but he did not want to disappoint his harmonica friends – he was President of the NHL. He arrived in a wheel chair and was assisted to and from the stage.
After Larry’s death in August 2001, there was a Tribute Concert in The Arts Theatre in London, 30 October 2001. It was attended by lots of Larry’s friends and colleagues from the entertainment industry, including his brother Jerry, and Sir George Martin. Music was provided by Simon Tedeschi, Hot Club de Londres, Izzy Van Randwyck, and Harry Pitch.
This was Larry’s last gig. He was in hospital in June 2001 and there was a big musical birthday party for his old friend, Prince Philip. His doctors would not let him take part so he slipped quietly out of his room, went to the concert in the Albert Hall and returned to the hospital.
Unfortunately for Larry the concert was televised by the BBC…
Jim Hughes was 94 when Rob and I decided to make an unplanned visit to his home in Birmingham. Rob knew about Jim’s years of session work including ‘Last of the Summer Wine‘ and many radio broadcasts, but they had never met.
Jim is possibly the best teacher of the chromatic harmonica and two of his students were World Champions.
Rob uses Jim’s highly regarded course books when teaching his own pupils.
Jim’s teaching materials, CDs, and a huge list of written scores for harmonica by James Moody and other composers are available through email – jamesmoodyscores@gmail.com . There is a list at the end of this blog
Jim was a great advocate of learning to sight read music and did so all his working life – a great asset for recording sessions. Unfortunately he is now totally blind but he practices many hours a day and has become very good at playing by ear. This has also led to him now to concentrating on his love of jazz standards.
Rob and Jim got on very well and they had a mutual respect for each other. After some discussion, they started to play together as can bee seen in the 20 mins video below. This was not a performance. It was all spontaneous and as is easy to see, a very enjoyable time for both of them.
A musical meeting of minds (and chromatic harmonicas)
You can watch chromatic harmonica maestro, Filip Jers, talking to Jim Hughes in 2024 here
Here is a list of the music which can be purchased from Jim’s son.
My uploaded harmonica video archives can be found in several places.
YouTube – My first attempts at video production were to capture the annual National Harmonica League (NHL, now HarmonicaUK) concerts in the Folk House in Bristol, starting in 2001 until they were moved after 2018. I also began to digitise some earlier NHL concerts from VHS tapes and early camcorder tapes mainly from recordings by Victor Brooks. Around 230 videos can be viewed on my YouTube site.
Here is the video introduction for this channel.
Vimeo – I prefer the videos to be viewed without ads, and I like the control that a paid Vimeo account allows. The downloading and embedding of the videos can be specified and if a video needs updating or editing it can be uploaded over the original without affecting the original link/url.
My more recent harmonica videos have been uploaded to Vimeo where they can be linked to my websites like this blog. There are over 75. You can view them here
The videos are organised into Showcases where similar videos are grouped together.
Playing the Thing – One group of the Vimeo videos is part of a project to reverse engineer a harmonica film from 1972 – ‘Playing the Thing‘ – directed by Chris Morphet. These are now embedded on a dedicated web site for this project which is recreating the original interviews which were edited to create the original film – Larry Adler, Sonny Terry, James Cotton, Cham-Ber Huang, Duster Bennet, Bill Dicey, Andy Paskas, Hohner’s Factory, Dutch Harmonica Championship … You can watch the original film here,
This video contains all the chromatic harmonica music played during the Memorial Service held on April 21st, 2006, in Olney Parish Church. Douglas Tate was a charismatic UK harmonica player, engineer and teacher. He had played in World Championships, broadcast on the BBC, and written books on the maintenance and playing of the chromatic harmonica. He became President of SPAH in 2000 but his term was sadly ended by cancer.
Douglas had been involved with the National Harmonica League (now HarmonicaUK) for most of his adult life and the musicians who took part in the Memorial Service were friends from the organisation. Gerry Ezard, Colin Mort, and Harry Pitch were long time friends and Philip Achille, Eddie Ong and Jamie Dolan were youngsters that Douglas had encouraged.
01:20 mins – Douglas Tate – Sonata for Harmonica (Peter Jenkyns)
06:00 mins – Jamie Dolan – Mulberry Cottage
09:00 mins – Harry Pitch – Last of the Summer Wine
13:00 mins – Philip Achille – Ashokan Farewell
17:50 mins – Jang Ming – No Place Like Home
19:00 mins – Ensemble – Bach Double Violin Concerto
27:40 mins – Jamie – Dark Island
30:00 mins – Douglas Tate – Trio Sonata in F major (Jean-Baptiste Loeillet)
You can learn much more about Douglas Tate and his life from my articles in the Harmonica World magazine issue shown in the video above. It can be viewed here.
