Re: [Harp-L] The Woodshed

["Ken Wolman" <kwolman@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Pierre wrote:

> I ordered The Best of Larry Adler CD a few weeks ago when a Larry Adler post
> popped up and received it this week. I new his vibrato was amazing from
> hearing a few of his tunes a couple of years ago; but I was in disbelief
> when I carefully listened to the entire CD rewinding on occasion. His
> technique is unbelievable. He controls the harp so well that he can imitate
> clarinets, flutes and violins. When I listen to his vibrato, I start
> thinking that he must have practiced it hours a day every day for more than
> 20 years. It probably took him hundreds of hours of practice to learn to
> imitate a violin. He must have been fanatically dedicated to learn to play
> like that. I guess he had to, to gain respect and make a name of himself in
> the classical world.

This is the obituary from the BBC news service in August 2001:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/1477249.stm

The BBC article indicates that Adler was indeed self-taught.  If so, the talent
was prodigious.  But the "common wisdom" I absorbed over the years regarding any
kind of instrument is that self-tuition can also create some very idiosyncratic
"Don't try this at home" habits.  Has anyone noticed in Adler the sort of
technical oddities that might have worked for him but would be detrimental to
someone trying to learn the harmonica and who does not necessarily have Adler's
phenomenal talent?

Probably everyone's heard the nasty story of Adler, all of 14, going to audition
for Borrah Minnevitch's Harmonica Rascals and being summarily dismissed with
"Kid, you stink."  Adler must've had the ego of a pro quarterback to have
handled that and kept on going.  I have to wonder what Adler--who was reputed
not to be Mr. Nice Guy and whose later interviews (transcribed online, I recall)
disclosed an acid tongue--thought of how Minnevitch met his end in 1955: thrown
down a flight of stairs in Paris by the boyfriend of the woman he was sleeping
with.  Whoever thought playing the harmonica could be a dangerous business
unless it was a chromatic and you got your tongue caught while moving the
slide?....

Ken
----
Kenneth Wolman
Proposal Development Department
Room SW334
Sarnoff Corporation
609-734-2538