I can’t believe it took me this long to mention it, but welcome back, Jason Ricci! Jason was a pretty regular contributor to YouTube but has been off the scene for awhile. Now he’s back and showing off the Suzuki Manji (a lot of great players seem to really dig the Manji… hmmm…). Jason was also part of the recent “Harmonica Week” in San Diego, California. I hear he did a great job playing and teaching some classes. Nice to see you back, Jason.
The Spring 2012 issue of Harmonica Happenings is in the mail. Many thanks to Nicolás Aros Marzá for the beautiful color shot. By the way, the new issue contains the registration packet for the 2012 SPAH convention. Not a member? Can’t wait for snail mail? You can register for the convention online at the new spah.org.
Blues harp player, customizer and all-around explorer Mike Fugazzi joins in the harpboxing revolution with his one man band treatment of the classic Hey Joe. This is just a practice run, so we can forgive the awkward video angle, but it sounds promising. Mike’s looking for some Midwest venues for his omb rock-harp show, so if you know of a place, hit him up.
One more reason to love Steve Jobs (even if you didn’t before): it looks like he may have been a harmonica player! Eagle-eyed Flickr user tqbrady noted the above photo from the new biography of Steve Jobs, a shot of his home office from 2004. We can only imagine what might be in his GarageBand library…
Ronnie Shellist, SPAH member, YouTube star and real-deal blues harmonica player is ready to record a new album, and you can help him. He’s got a Kickstarter campaign going to fund the recording, with lots of goodies to give away if you donate. Even if you can’t afford to fly him to the Ukraine to teach you and your best harmonica buddies to bend that 3 draw just right, you can pre-order yourself his new album and get him that much closer to his goal.
A recent discussion Harp-L brought a nearly-forgotten name to mind: Max Geldray. Geldray recorded with Django Reinhardt and has been called “the first jazz harmonica player.” The photo above is from this Swedish public radio piece which started off the whole Harp-L discussion.
Just like the video description says: “For the first time ever, SPAH awarded two of its most prestigious awards to one person. Our sincere congratulations to Al Smith the 2011 winner of The Bernie Bray Harmonica Player of the Year Award and The Pete Pedersen Lifetime Achievement Award.” Many thanks to Danny G. for putting this together!
Harmonica Happenings is originally a print magazine, the quarterly publication of SPAH, the Society For the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica. This is its blog.
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