Reflections. Gary Italiaander

      At the age of 15 he was effectively ‘kidnapped’ off the street by a well-known gangster who was married to the singer, Ruth Etting. He drove Larry to the studio where Ruth was creating a record and insisted that Larry be included in the recording. She tried to object but clearly that was not an option and the band, which included Benny Goodman as well as Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, agreed to put him on the record.

      That same week, Paul Whiteman was playing in town and so Larry hung around the stage door and whenever he saw someone about to enter he would play in their face, hoping that someone would say ‘what a talented kid’ and give him a job. Whiteman’s saxophone player, Frankie Trombauer, liked what he heard, led him into the dressing room and told Paul to listen to the kid.

      He played a popular song and when he finished it, Whiteman said, “…play the Rhapsody in Blue.” At 15 years of age it was technically beyond his ability but he wouldn’t admit that there was anything that he couldn’t play so he replied, “I don’t like Rhapsody in Blue.”

      Whiteman then turned to a young man that Larry hadn’t noticed before who was sitting at the piano and said, “How’d you like that George?”

      And that’s how Larry met Gershwin!

      Larry auditioning for Paul Whiteman - the first meeting with George Gershwin

      © Illustration by Michael Italiaander

The relationship between the Hohner Company and Larry Adler by Clayman B. Edwards – CEO of Matth. Hohner AG.

      I believe that Hohner’s early advertisements for harmonica’s ‘Don’t be a loner, get a Hohner’ describes the beginning of a life-long relationship between Larry Adler, the greatest harmonica player in the world, and Hohner. At the age of 13, Mr Adler entered a harmonica contest sponsored by the Baltimore Sun and was awarded a silver cup as first prize. Having been thrown out of multiple schools and with a passion for the harmonica, Mr Adler ran away to New York in 1928 to audition with Borrah Minevitch’s Harmonica Rascals, a top vaudeville act at the time. Unfortunately, Minevitch told him he stank, but undeterred Adler stopped by the Paramount Theatre where Rudy Vallee gave him a chance and so the story begins of a talented and motivated man and an instrument of inspiration, the Hohner harmonica.

      In 1934, Adler held his first appearance in London. By 1935, Hohner had introduced two Larry Adler chromatic models for international sale. Adler’s music had driven Hohner’s sale of harmonicas to England to increase by two thousand percent in a single year. Larry Adler’s worldwide influence on the popularity of chromatic harmonica playing sold millions of Hohner harmonicas and inspired generations of players.

      During the 1940’s the Larry Adler model chromatic harmonica was the largest selling instrument in the world and the team of Adler and Paul Draper became one of the highest paid concert attractions in America. It was Adler’s amazing gift with the instrument and in promoting his music, his friendships, and his collaboration with Hohner that propelled him to become the greatest.

      As for Larry Adler’s friendships, his letters to Hohner and his statements in the media illustrate his mastery of talking about himself, revering his many high profile friends, and making you feel like you are just as important in the conversation. In one letter to Hohner’s Marketing director, he writes, “Now I am organizing an 80th birthday album. George Martin will produce. Sting and Elton John have volunteered to appear on it. I only want artists I know personally. How’s your singing voice?” In a casual name dropping contest with Walter Cronkite, Adler mentions that Charlie Chaplin called him in Beverly Hills and asked him to come and make up a foursome for tennis, Bill Tilden’s dropped out. So Adler arrived and Chaplin motions for me to get on the court. Not long thereafter, Adler learned that the woman badly dressed for tennis was Greta Garbo and the man with the weird moustache was Salvador Dali.

      Larry Adler’s sole goal in playing the harmonica was to develop a ‘singing tone’. He said, “If you can get a singing tone in your playing, that’s as far as you can go. Miles Davis does it on the trumpet; Johnny Hodges did it on the saxophone. That’s what I loved about Rachmaninoff when I heard him play the piano when I was a kid in Baltimore. Years ago, I played Sophisticated Lady with Duke Ellington and his band at the club. Billie Holiday was there and afterwards Duke introduced me to her at the table. She said, “You don’t play that thing, Man, you sing it.” Now I cannot think of a better epitaph than that.”

      The Hohner Company is extremely proud to have had such a lifelong relationship with Mr Larry Adler. He made our mouthorgans sing and he became the pied piper of his generation.

Larry Adler: Brilliant ambassador of the Hohner-Chromonica - Classical harmonica soloist of world-class calibre by Arnold Kutzli

      The harmonica is played in over 140 countries worldwide. But what if it hadn’t been for the musicians that gave this little musical instrument the voice it deserved. Creativity, ingenuity, virtuosity, as well as persuasiveness were the most important factors here.

      The company founder Matthias Hohner chose his slogan to be “my field is the world”, and this attitude was to lead to many a win-win situation in the company's long history.

      The example of ‘Mister Harmonica Himself’, Larry Adler, makes this especially clear. He must have been the most famous harmonica soloist of the 20th century; he made the harmonica fashionable. In this context one should point out the CD, The Glory of Gershwin he recorded for his 80th birthday together with Sting, Elton John, Cher, Kate Bush and many others. Adler’s masterpiece then: Rhapsody in Blue.

      It is remarkable that the marketing of Hohner-USA itself contributed to Larry Adler's interest in the harmonica in the first place. Already as a little boy in Baltimore he won his first competition. He was the only one who chose to perform Beethoven on the harmonica; an absolute novelty. No wonder that at the age of 14 he was already at the beginning of his stage career.

      The year 1930 was a benchmark for Larry Adler. It was the beginning of a lifelong connection to Hohner in Trossingen, the city of the harmonica. With this, he had established himself as an advertiser for Hohner.

      This heyday of his artistry was dominated by performances ranging from Swing to Classic; amongst other things, he played as a soloist accompanied by a symphonic orchestra. It was therefore all the more painful to see him ‘blacklisted’ during the McCarthy era, thus practically banned from his profession - an unbelievable decision.

      It went quiet about Larry Adler and surely this was partly due to the change in people’s musical taste. However, this made the World Harmonica Festivals that took place in Trossingen in 1989, 1993 and 1997 all the more impressive: there he was performing again, the world-class musician with his unmistakable charisma.

      So until this day, even beyond his 100th birthday, Larry Adler and his Hohner-Chromonica mark a milestone in musical history. A history, this exceptionally gifted musician has co-written.

      Arnold Kutzli initiated and organised the World Harmonica Festivals in Trossingen, as well as the World Music Festival in Innsbruck. He was Procurator and Director of Culture Marketing in the Matthias Hohner AG, Germany.

      (Translated from German by Verena Rechmann)

Dr Antony Dannecker

      “I have always felt honoured, but humble, when working with such a genius as Larry Adler”.

      All top concert artists, whichever instrument they have mastered, require the backup of technicians with the experience and technical ability to maintain the instrument being used with a consistency of all its working parts, while enabling the artist the opportunity to create the best sound.

      Antony