Blowing the Blues:
The Magicians of the Blues Harp
Although a variety of free reed instruments were common throughout Asia, the harmonica didn't make its appearance until the 1820's in Vienna. When a German clockmaker named Mattias Hohner (yes, that Hohner) began mass producing the harmonica in 1857, shipping some to his relatives in the United States, I wonder if he could have imagined that it would become enormously popular in this country, that it would provide solace to both the Union and Confederate armies in the Civil War--and eventually gain it's greatest popularity in the hands of African American blues players? Could this 19th century German businessman even conceive of the haunting wails, the percussive rhythm chops, and the stirring human sounding moans and groans that emerged from this instrument as the magicians of the blues harp made it their own? This week, Spinning Tales will take a tour through the early years of the blues harmonica as it was recorded in the heyday of blues recording in the later 1920's and 1930's. Although recordings artists like DeFord Bailey (1926), Palmer McCabee (1929) and others used their uncanny ability to make the recently developed diatonic harmonica replicate the sounds of a locomotive, the blues harmonica as we know it began its development as a central part of the the popular "jug band" ensembles of that era and other combinations of guitar and vocals.
During the show, we'll hear from harp players like Will Shade of the Memphis Jug Band, Noah Webster of Cannon's Jug Stompers, Jaybird Coleman and the Birmingham Jug Band, and Jed Davenport and his Beale Street Jug Band; artists who often provided both vocals and harmonica leads over a rhythm section of guitars, jugs, washboards and assorted hand claps. We'll also hear from the likes of Eddie Mapp and Buddy Moss who provided harmonica accompaniments in the recordings of the Georgia Cotton Pickers and the Georgia Browns with Barbecue Bob, Curley Weaver and others in their historic sessions in 1929 and 1930. Some of these players like Noah Webster went on to form their own groups, others went on to record their own cuts, or accompanied other blues players in on the road and in studio sessions.
Like in the case of other blues players of that era, little is known about some of these magicians of the harmonica. Some, like Eddie Mapp and Sonny Boy Williams I (John Lee Curtis Williamson), who many folks cite as the "father of the modern blues harp", died all too young, victims of violence as the blues moved from the country into the urban areas. Others, like Sonny Boy Williamson II (Aleck "Rice" Miller) and Sonny Terry played their blues through long careers. To be sure all of them laid the foundations for the likes of Junior Wells, Little Walter and Paul Butterfield to work with well into the era of electrified blues and rock.
I thought it was quite interesting to read that another harp player from the early days, Robert Lee McCoy, after playing with the Memphis jug band then played with Big Joe Williams, Henry Townsend and others before picking up the slide guitar and, after electrification, resumed a career playing and recording as Robert Nighthawk on the Aristocrat and Chess labels in the 1940's and 50's! As I thought about it though, that didn't really surprise me. The slide guitar, electrified, is perhaps the only instrument that could come close to the human sounding moans and wails of the harmonica as it was played by these magicians of the blues harp!
