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Jazz Gillum – (William Mc Kinley Gillum aka « Jazz ») Indianola, Mississippi, september 11 1904 – Chicago, Illinois, March 29 1966 For many years Jazz Gillum was the main and only harmonica player in the Chicago blues bands. He took part in modernizing the genre and opened the path for Little Walter and Big Walter Horton who eventually got much more famous than ...

The chromatic harmonica player Larry Adler (Lawrence Cecil Adler aka Larry) was born in Baltimore, Md, 2/10/1914 and passed away in London, UK, 8/7/2001. Chromatic harmonica player – Early Years Young Larry wanted to become a piano player after he attended a concert by Rachmaninov. His mother therefore registered him at the Peabody Baltimore music school from which he got fired for “bad temper ...

Blues Harmonica player BELL (Carey) (aka Carey Bell Harrington) Macon, Mississippi, November 14 1936 – Chicago, Illinois, May 6 2007. His godfather, the piano player Lovie Lee, brought him to Chicago in 1956 to join his orchestra. He soon became friend with Little Walter who’d let him sub for him at Club Zanzibar when he was unavailable or too drunk. He would also ...

Wayne Raney (1920-1993) One of the pioneer of Country-music harmonica, Raney often teamed up with another great player and his early mentor Lonnie Glosson. Instead of competing with each other they often played duos. Wayne Raney is famous for his participation in the Delmore Brothers band (see the picture above) who are credited for crafting Rockabilly back in the 40s. in 1946 ...

Harmonica jazz pioneer Rhythm willie (1905 or 1910 – 1954) Based in Chicago, Willie Hood remained an enigma for a long period of time before a few harmonica and blues fans did the digging. This is the only picture we have of him. He recorded a couple of tunes in the 1940s mostly jazz oriented that he was playing on the diatonic. ...

Deford Bailey is one of the true pioneer of the harmonica. He was part of the vast recording campaigns done in the 1920s that left us so many blues and folk recordings from artists who remained unknown or made a career. Deford Bailey was one of the most popular artist at the Grand ole Opry of Nashville. He made 2 major recordings in 1927 ...

Shakey Horton aka Big Walter is one of the most influential blues harmonica players of all times. His acoustic and electric tone set a milestone for all blues players. There are two striking facts in this rare video of him from 1970 while touring the American folk blues festival in Copenhagen : 1 – All the musicians play swing and relaxed in a ...

1951-2009 Norton Buffalo was one of the best harmonica players in the broad country related music genre. Born and raised in California he played with Commander Cody and his lost planet airmen, Steve Miller band, Bonnie Raitt, the Doobie Brothers to name a few. As a solo artist he recorded a few albums that are still available and always well ...

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