I was sitting in a car when I first heard it. My family used to do long road trips around Thailand so having the right collection of CDs was essential; and this particular time, we decided to load a then unfamiliar record for me – The Glory of Gershwin, an album that featured various famous artists doing Gershwin songs, and of course, the one and only Larry Adler. I remember listening to Rhapsody in Blue wondering what instrument the lead was playing. Even after I was told, I could not believe that the sound came from an instrument as humble and as small is this. But it was true:
Now get this. When I asked my teacher, Mr. Yew, about his past and why he eventually decided to play the harmonica professionally, he mentioned one of the motivating factors came in 1965, when Larry Adler came in Singapore to perform. As a young man, when he saw Larry Adler took the instrument to a whole new level, he was sold. Mr. Yew is 67 this year, and I’m 21, so that’s about three generations worth of inspiration coming from the same guy.
Truly, if there was no Larry Adler, there would be no chromatic harmonica.
