[Harp-L] Famous Harmonica players

[John Kally]

Since Seb wrote: " I'm wondering if harmonicists know the other good harmonicists, generally speaking, or only the good blues harmonicists” . My response to that question would be, beats me, I can only speak for myself but there is so much information out there now, plus a million youtube videos even of guys that never play outside of their houses,  that it would almost be hard to restrict your knowledge of players to just one genre.  I’d say that’s a more general question than building a list although it’s always good to know who is out there (and I always see names of guys that are new to me).  For me, early on I mostly knew only the blues guys   (or rock guys who  played a little harp) with a few exceptions, like Toots, Charlie McCoy, Mickey Raphael and Larry Adler, prior to getting a copy of the first edition of Kim Field’s excellent book many years back.  Kim really went wide with his interviews and the lists in the back of the book, covering jazz, pop, blues, folk, rock, etc.  Just to add a name to what will probably be a rapidly growing list, the guy who came out with the Chromatic Method awhile back, Max De Aloe, is a pretty fine jazz player too.