Harmonicast with Bob Kessler

Peter Madcat Ruth is a Grammy Award-winning virtuoso harmonica player who draws from a wide range of styles and creates his own unique sound. He's also this year's special guest at the Harmonica Hoedown at Martyrs' in Chicago on March 13th. We talk about taking lessons from Big Walter Horton, his years performing with jazz legend Dave Brubeck, how he incorporates humor into his music and his current projects with The Madcat Midnight Blues Journey, Chris Brubeck's Triple Play and his solo performances.

Chromatic harmonica player Grégoire Maret hails from Switzerland, grew up in a musical household and at age 17 took the advice of legendary player Toots Thielemans which shaped his approach to the instrument ever since. He went on to record and tour with Jacky Terrasson, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Steve Coleman, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves and many more. We caught up with him backstage in Chicago where he was performing with the Monk'estra. 

Harmonicast is back!  Ross Garren, somewhat like Tommy Morgan before him has become the go-to guy for recording sessions for albums, singles and soundtracks recorded in Los Angeles. That's just part of the story. As a middle-schooler he was encouraged by the legendary Toots Thielemans, he's produced albums, plays keyboards and has several interesting projects in the pipeline including an album with guitarist Andre LaFosse. I caught up with Ross while he was on the road with singer/songwriter Chelsea Williams.  (by the way, if you're curious about what I've been up to during the Harmoncast hiatus, check out Margaret Larkin's interview on her podcast  Radio Girl.)

Martin Lang has backed up Chicago blues icons for decades. He first learned what it takes to be a real-deal player by spending time with blues masters on the West and South Sides of the city. He talks about what he learned by having contact with these great blues artists, how its essential to have "weight" as harmonica player in both soloing and accompanying others, and his overall blues philosophy.  The Kickstarter campaign to get me to Nashville to interview three of the greats: Charlie McCoy, Buddy Greene and Jelly Roll Johnson is well on its way to being funded. However, there's just a few days left! Contributing $10 or more is the only way to get this exclusive content and $25 contributions get you a Harmonicast coffee mug! 

Phil Alvin, in addition to being harmonica player, is an incredible singer, advanced set theorist and great storyteller. His powerful voice was first heard by much of the public in the Blasters, a band he and his brother Dave Alvin founded in the late 70s. This, after years of tutelage performing alongside Big Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker, Lee Allen and other musical greats Dave and Phil met while growing up in Downey, California. Phil talks about taking harmonica lessons from Sonny Terry, his years of study in mathematics, his latest duo albums Common Ground and Lost Time with his brother and their potential follow-up recordings. This is also week 2 of the Kickstarter campaign to get me to Nashville to interview three of the greats: Charlie McCoy, Buddy Greene and Jelly Roll Johnson. Contributing $10 or more is the only way to get this exclusive content and $25 contributions get you a Harmonicast coffee mug!  

Karen Mantler is a singer, songwriter, pianist, organist AND chromatic harmonica player who got her professional start at age 10 playing glockenspiel with Carla Bley (the jazz composer and arranger who also happens to be her mother). She's made a handful of wonderful records including her most recent, Business is Bad which showcases her highly personal, often humorous and sometimes deeply touching lyrics along with her piano and harmonica playing. We talk about her musical upbringing, her frustrations as a major label signee in the early 2000s, how she came to discover and fall in love with the sound of the harmonica, her recordings with Robert Wyatt and much more. I've also launched a Kickstarter campaign in order to fund a trip to Nashville I'm hoping to make in early November to interview three harmonica greats: Charlie McCoy, Buddy Greene and Jelly Roll Johnson. All three have agreed to be interviewed for Harmonicast and if it's funded through Kickstarter, I'll head to Music City to meet up with them. You can contribute here.

Yuri Lane combines beatbox and harmonica, traveling the globe bringing this art form to streets, clubs, and theaters. As an actor, his one-man plays use beatbox, acting, mime, dance and harmonica to tell a story. He's a compelling performer and a fine vegetarian cook too! We talk about being one of the first performers to "go viral" on YouTube, his fusion of beatbox and harmonica, and how his years as a child actor inform his career today. The news of Toots Thielemans' passing at age 94 came just as I was putting this episode together and includes a tribute to the man and his music. We'll spend more time in a future episode celebrating his contribution to harmonica and music in general, which cannot be overstated. 

John Shirley is an active composer in multiple genres, a recording engineer, record producer, software designer, singer, guitarist, and…harmonica player! We talk about his love affair with the harp, the many styles of music he explores (on many harmonicas) on his latest EP Not So Blue and posted on his YouTube Channel, the art of recording harmonica, and Blue Daddy, an app he designed allowing harp players to emulate amplifiers and various effects when recording themselves.   

Mickey Raphael's playing has been an essential element of the music of Willie Nelson and Family for more than 40 years. He's also performed alongside some of the biggest names in music and has recorded on sessions for many of them. We talk about his open, organic approach to performing with Willie, his ever-expanding influences, his love road biking when he's on the road, and the new Highwaymen collection he produced.

John Kerkhoven is a great player from a great harp town, Montréal. In his visit to Chicago where he came to jam, meet other players and teachers we sat down in the studio for a conversation about his new CD from his band BluesReel, his other band KSB, how he got his start, his love of Mose Allison, short story writing and much more! 

Peter Hope-Evans has performed with Who songwriter and guitarist Pete Townshend since the 1970s but they've been friends even longer. He's also been a part of the blues duo Medicine Head, guitarist Robbie McIntosh's band, and the Blues Club Band. Peter's unbridled playfulness and joy is apparent not only in his music making but in how he speaks about making music with Townshend over the years, learning from harmonicas (or "organs of the mouth" as he calls them), and his ongoing practice of being in the present moment.  

Episode 10 - April 10, 2016  If you don't know Graham Nelson's harmonica playing, you should. He's performed with everyone from Lonnie Brooks to Gypsy jazz guitar great Alphonso Ponticelli to Donovan (whom he has a long history with being the son of Donovan's longtime road manager). We talk about his music-filled upbringing, his love of Middle-eastern and other ethnic musics, and his penchant for not only customizing harmonicas but making his own flutes. 

Marc Lempert is the director of the feature-length documentary Pocket Full of Soul, a "comprehensive exploration of the culture, the players, the politics, and of course the music" associated with the harmonica. He and the producers of the film are offering special free screenings on World Harmonica Day, April 18. We talk about what it was like interviewing the numerous star players, learning about the instrument and its community, and his personal transformation in making the movie.   

He's part blues master, part composer, part sage. Corky Siegel spent his early years in the Siegel-Schwall Band which performed with blues legends including Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters in Chicago. Since then he's brought blues music to the classical world, initially with Siegel-Schwall's collaborations with symphony orchestras and later with his exciting combo Chamber Blues. We also talk about his ideas on music and meditation, his writings and experience the concept and practice of dynamic variation and his views and experiences on music and life in general. 

Catriona Sturton "sings like an angel, plays like a beast." While her career started with the indie rock band Plumtree in the 90s playing bass, she's always been deeply connected with her first instrument, the harmonica. As a solo artist she sings, plays guitar and percussion in addition to harmonica. As this year's special guest at the Hideout Harmonica Hoedown, we held the conversation in Chicago a day after the big event and talked about her musical roots, her time in Plumtree, her love of Dolly Parton, her adventures touring Canada, Europe & the U.S. and much more.  

Steve Baker is an incredible player performing and recording in a diverse range of styles and genres. He's also a consultant for Hohner who's come up with many of the recent Hohner models including the Crossover, Thunderbird and Marine Band Deluxe. We talk about his musical journey that brought him from the U.K. to Germany in the late 70s, his teaching philosophy and the many harp innovations he's been responsible for. 

Todd Parrott was first exposed to the power of the harmonica when a traveling evangelist played at his church when he was 13. Maybe you’ve seen him playing in churches and religious gatherings around the U.S. in recent years or in his large collection of online videos demonstrating harmonica ideas and licks or reviewing and evaluating different harp models. His latest CD Songs from the Harp honors his gospel roots and we talk about his musical history, penchant for playing in spiritual settings and what he’s working on lately.

James Conway is a harmonica master specializing in traditional Irish tunes but he also incorporates musical ideas from blues harp masters. We sit down in his basement studio to talk about how he learned from Junior Wells and Sugar Blue as a doorman at Rosa's Lounge in Chicago, his Celtic "power trio" the Boils, his monthly music jam train trips from Chicago to Kenosha, and his current recording, Mouth Box. 

PT Gazell got his start playing bluegrass and later occupied the harmonica chair in outlaw country star Johnny Paycheck's band. He dropped out of music for about 15 years and came back after discovering the half-valved diatonic set up which he continued to perfect into what he calls the Gazell Method.  

We're joined by one of the most innovative, versatile and accomplished harmonica players of all time, Howard Levy. We talk about his discovery and mastery of the "Levy Techniques" (aka "overblows," which is a bit of a misnomer), other aspects that make up his sound, his many students around the world who learn from him thanks to his online teaching through ArtistWorks, and his latest composing and recording activities.