Toronto Blues Society - Harmonica Workshop 2014

The Toronto Blues Society put on another fantastic event with their annual harmonica workshop. The event was held at the Dominion on Queen, which has become the main location for this organization. The generosity of the artists was outstanding as they shared their knowledge with the audience, and openly tried to help any blues harp enthusiast to improve their skills. The demonstration was led by Carlos Del Junco, and supported by Jerome Godboo, Rory Platt and Mike Stevens. Each had a 45 minute slot to provided their insights into their harp styles.

Jerome has recently returned from Memphis where he won the Lee Oskar International Harmonica award. However, the secret that no one mentioned is that Lee Oskar is actually Oskar Levitan, a local Toronto boy who grew up in the Bathurst Manor. So there is no wonder that great harmonica people come from Toronto. Jerome was promoting new technologies in harps such as the 30 reed power bender and various other special tuned harps by a colleague of his, which will be coming to Massey Hall. Rory, was the simplest to understand, and he used regular diatonic harps, but played them on a 45 degree angle to increase air flow. His style was more classic blues and he was humble as he explained how he learned by listening to Paul Butterfield, over and over again. Mike Stevens, who has his own harmonica line, explained that the harmonica is a real instrument and just by talking into it you can make your own songs. He created a very cool melody by using a looper, and it had a very unique first nations sound to it. Carlos was the most technical in has depiction of harmonica. He appears to have studied from a variety of artists that play horn, sax etc. and combines those theories into the harp. He impressed me with his more academic approach to harp. He explained that he adjusts the reeds on all of his new harps to assist in bending and blow bending notes. He made mention of a blues harp legend Deford Bailey, who was an inspiration to all harp enthusiasts on the stage. Once again TBS did a great job in assembling the best harp players to share their craft. During this time of the Sochi Olympics, where Canada is doing such a great job, it appears that the Canadian way of humility and sharing, allows our society to really achieve great things in the arts from sports to music. Enjoy the blues Feeling, The Adventure Guy