JAZZ CHROMATIC

[Winslow Yerxa <76450.3230@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

SOME CHROMATIC JAZZ PLAYERS

(answers to recent queries on this forum)

Hendrik Meurkens is originally from Germany (his father is
Dutch), but moved to New York about a year ago. He has 3 albums
out, 2 on Concord - Sambahia, the second, and Clear of Clouds,
the third and latest, which I reviewed in HIP No. 3. He's working
on a fourth, which will be the first not to concentrate on
Brazilian-style jazz. His first album is called Samba Importado,
on his own label. It has been picked up for distribution in the
U.S. and can often be found in Tower or other large record
stores.

William Galison is another excellent player; I met him at the
World Harmonica Championships last month in Trossingen, Germany,
where he gave a couple of workshops and played an excellent
concert. He also came to the blues jams, where he played alto sax
and electric bass(!)

William has had very bad luck with recordings. He's on the
soundtrack to Baghdad Cafe, and had an album out called
Overjoyed, on Verve Forecast (CD 837 700-2). Unfortunately, the
producers sucked all the life out of it and buried his harmonica
under other instruments. He did an other, only-in-Japan album,
called Calling You (the title ballad from Bagdad Cafe), which is
almost never seen here. He's also recorded here there, with Peggy
Lee and Ruth Brown. He appeared with Sting on Saturday Night Live
in February and was set to tour with him, but Sting's band didn't
like a new musician encroaching on their turf and William was
axed. One day he'll get a good break.

Mike Turk is another player you should check out. He's from
Boston and plays both diatonic blues nad jazz chromatic with
equal ease. He has his own record out, called Harmonica Salad,
(also reviewed in HIP No. 3). You can get it by calling
1-800-932-2108. Highly recommended.

Ron Kalina is another good chromatic jazz player out of LA. He
works a lot as a studio player. Both he and Hendrik Meurkens
(along with the legendary Pete Pedersen) appeared at the 1993
SPAH festival. He can be heard on some records by jazz tuba
player Jim Self (I kid you not - ever hear a jazz duet of tuba an
harmonica? I woke up to this one morning - my introduction to
Ron.

Yes, that is Stevie Wonder on Djavan's Samurai - my copy of the
record gives him credit.

Ivan Lins has recorded recently with Toots, on Toots' The Brasil
Project, Parts I and II. If he's recorded other things with
harmonica, I'd like to know about it. Could be Mauricio Einhorn,
Brazil's jazz chromatic player (he can be heard on "the day it
rained" on Sarah Vaughn's brazilian album, and on "A Woman" by
Brazilian jazz trio Azymuth.

There's more, much more, but this is enough for now.

Winslow T Yerxa
Publisher, HIP - the Harmonica Information Publication