You don't have to be a bluesman to be known for your harmonica playing --
Stevie Wonder has taken his share of memorable harmonica solos, and the distinctive
Toots Thielemans (who is arguably the
Stan Getz of the harmonica) has demonstrated that a harmonica player can handle the most sophisticated of jazz. That said, no musical idiom has given listeners more first-class harmonica players than the blues. From the Mississippi Delta and the bayous of Louisiana to Chicago's South Side, the harmonica has long been the blues' most famous wind instrument. Spanning 1950-1999,
This Is the Blues Harmonica gives listeners an appealing taste of some of the harmonica soloists (many of them singers) to whom Delmark has had access over the years. At its best, this compilation is excellent -- and at its worst, it is at least decent. It's quite appropriate that the CD opens with
Little Walter's 1950 recording "Red Headed Woman," for the singer's harmonica solos had a major impact on many Chicago bluesmen of the 1950s and 1960s. This collection tends to favor Chicago-based harmonica players, who range from
Big Walter Horton on "Hard-Hearted Woman" (1954) and
Louis Myers on "Top of the Harp" (1968) to the obscure Harmonica George on 1959's instrumental (and poorly recorded) "Sputnik Blues." But
This Is the Blues Harmonica detours into acoustic country blues with
Sleepy John Estes' rare 1964 recording of "New York City Blues," which features the singer's longtime partner
Hammie Nixon on harmonica. There are some other rarities as well, including
Carey Bell's infectious 1972 instrumental "Deep Down South" and
Junior Wells' "This Is the Blues" (which is from the 1965 session that gave us his
Hoodoo Man Blues album). This disc is far from the last word on blues harmonica, but it's a good-to-excellent collection that is recommended to anyone who has admired Delmark's contributions to the blues. ~ Alex Henderson