Early French Canadian harmonica recordings (c. 1930)

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Early French Canadian harmonica recordings (c. 1930) Sept 26, 2019 20:05:56 GMT dezzy, Keith, and 1 more like this

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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2019 20:05:56 GMT

As I am sure many of you are, I am fascinated by early harmonica recordings. I did some digging to see what sort of history my country has related to harmonica and was pleasantly surprised to see that there is a very rich history of harmonica playing in traditional French Canadian music - especially in Quebec! Musique à bouche as it was commonly referred as. Via a few different government run archives I found some early recordings and uploaded them to YouTube in hopes it reaches more ears.

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLessAZZdYUpmOOm5tdvfnIQ03Z_YV11TL

This is just the tip of the iceberg! I tended to focus on diatonic players because that is where my interest lies but there are some very incredible octave and tremolo players that I heard as well.

Enjoy!

Last Edit: Sept 26, 2019 20:07:50 GMT by Deleted

crawforde2 Charter Member Posts: 41	Early French Canadian harmonica recordings (c. 1930) Sept 26, 2019 23:32:13 GMT via mobile Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by crawforde2 on Sept 26, 2019 23:32:13 GMT Nice. Thanks!

Malarz ut
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Early French Canadian harmonica recordings (c. 1930) Dec 29, 2019 18:04:46 GMT matt likes this

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Post by Malarz ut on Dec 29, 2019 18:04:46 GMT

I’ve just found this forum and was happy to see the post about Quebecois harmonica players. Yes, there is a strong tradition of harmonica playing in Quebec. Even though I’m not from there nor am I French-Canadian I love the music and play it on button accordion. Just recently I’ve started to play the tunes on a tremolo harmonica. Bruno Kowalczyk and Ray Lambert have written a book about the Quebecois harmonica tradition.

I’ll look at the youtube link you included.

Ken

Sarge Administrator Posts: 1,708	Early French Canadian harmonica recordings (c. 1930) Dec 29, 2019 23:07:22 GMT Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by Sarge on Dec 29, 2019 23:07:22 GMT Welcome Ken! Join in! Check the different threads.
	The older I get the more I know how little I knew when I knew it all.

matt Senior Member Posts: 192	Early French Canadian harmonica recordings (c. 1930) Dec 30, 2019 0:37:15 GMT via mobile Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by matt on Dec 30, 2019 0:37:15 GMT Great stuff, I agree. I enjoy this old time first position stuff. Also I am glad to here more old time banjo that I can learn on my tenor banjo.

malarz Junior Member Posts: 37	Early French Canadian harmonica recordings (c. 1930) Dec 30, 2019 23:49:21 GMT Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by malarz on Dec 30, 2019 23:49:21 GMT Tenor banjo? I play tb but only as rhythm accompaniment. Hoping to work up harmonica/banjo performances. The first one I’ll do will be Reuben’s Train. Stay tuned...

malarz
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Posts: 37

Early French Canadian harmonica recordings (c. 1930) Dec 30, 2019 23:55:20 GMT

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Post by malarz on Dec 30, 2019 23:55:20 GMT

Sept 26, 2019 20:05:56 GMT @drblues said:

As I am sure many of you are, I am fascinated by early harmonica recordings. I did some digging to see what sort of history my country has related to harmonica and was pleasantly surprised to see that there is a very rich history of harmonica playing in traditional French Canadian music - especially in Quebec! Musique à bouche as it was commonly referred as. Via a few different government run archives I found some early recordings and uploaded them to YouTube in hopes it reaches more ears.

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLessAZZdYUpmOOm5tdvfnIQ03Z_YV11TL

This is just the tip of the iceberg! I tended to focus on diatonic players because that is where my interest lies but there are some very incredible octave and tremolo players that I heard as well.

Enjoy!

malarz Junior Member Posts: 37	Early French Canadian harmonica recordings (c. 1930) Dec 30, 2019 23:56:48 GMT Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by malarz on Dec 30, 2019 23:56:48 GMT I had meant to add a thank you for those youtube listings. Is there anyway you could share the mp3’s with me? Ken

matt
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Posts: 192

Early French Canadian harmonica recordings (c. 1930) Dec 31, 2019 0:04:17 GMT via mobile

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Post by matt on Dec 31, 2019 0:04:17 GMT

Dec 30, 2019 23:49:21 GMT malarz said:

Tenor banjo? I play tb but only as rhythm accompaniment. ...

Yes I play mostly accompaniment as well. I have mine tuned “Chicago tuning” DGBE. It works well on my Gold tone. A few of those tunes you can here a banjo plunking along.

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Early French Canadian harmonica recordings (c. 1930)

Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2019 20:05:56 GMT

Post by crawforde2 on Sept 26, 2019 23:32:13 GMT

Post by Malarz ut on Dec 29, 2019 18:04:46 GMT

Post by Sarge on Dec 29, 2019 23:07:22 GMT

Post by matt on Dec 30, 2019 0:37:15 GMT

Post by malarz on Dec 30, 2019 23:49:21 GMT

Post by malarz on Dec 30, 2019 23:55:20 GMT

Post by malarz on Dec 30, 2019 23:56:48 GMT

Post by matt on Dec 31, 2019 0:04:17 GMT

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