Fwd: [Harp-L] Question for harp historians

["Winslow Yerxa" <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Mike and Beverly Rogers" 
<mbrogers@xxxx> wrote:

When I was a teenager, in the 50's, just starting out, there was a 
chromatic player who I saw on TV.  He appeared on some live shows and 
played with a mic set-up.  I think his first name was Leo and his 
lastname might have been Diamond.  He was excellent and did 
standards.  Does anyone remember 
this guy?

Bullfrog

===========Winslow:

The chromatic old-timers sure do, and I believe there is a section 
devoted to him in Kim Field's Harmonicas, Harps, and Heavy Breathers, 
a book all about the history of harmonica and harmonica players in 
the U.S.

Diamond as a teenager performed with and arranged for Borrah 
Minevich's Harmonica Rascals. He went solo as an adult and wrote a 
couple of easy-listening hits and recorded several albums, often 
pushing the limits of recording technology with his inventive multi-
tracked harmonica parts - this was at least ten yers before Brian 
Wilson of the Beach Boys started maxing out the 8-tracks of his time.

Leo Diamond recorded several albums under his own name, usually 
concept albums of what for awhile in recent years was called "lounge 
core" (i.e. hard-core lounge music - Martin Denny, Louis Prima, 
etc.). Almost none of this has been reissued but you can find his old 
LPs on eBay and sometimes by diving and scrounging in dollar bins in 
your local used record store. It ain't blues, it ain't jazz, it's 
quasi-pop, quasi-easy listening, and always just a little quirky 
despite being ultra-smooth.

Winslow