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EASY REEDING
SUMMER 2013
HOHNER’S MAGAZINE FOR THE HARMONICA ENTHUSIAST
HOHNER’S
ICONIC
HARMONICA
THE ULTIMATE ACCESSORY ITEM
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
HOWARD LEVY
IN THE STUDIO WITH
CHARLIE MCCOY
HOHNER TIMES
2005 - PRESENT
Hohner Blues-n-Bones T-Shirt and Prints
available at hohnershop.com.
See back for details.
HOHNER News
CONTENTS
NEWS
Hohner Inc. Names Drew Lewis Product Manager
Hohner announces the April
1st promotion of
Drew Lewis to the
critical position
of Harmonica
Product Manager.
Drew originally
joined Hohner in
May of 2007 as
Drew Lewis
an inside telesales associate and was quickly promoted to
the Fretted Product Manager position where
he built Hohner’s acoustic guitar business
along with the Lanikai and Kohala ukulele
brands.
“Drew’s strong contributions over the past
5 years in making Lanikai the number one
ukulele brand in the world attracted the
admiration of the Hohner organization
worldwide as well as the respect of key
retailers across the country. He will now
bring his energy, experience, and expertise
to the all-important harmonica segment of
our business” commented Scott Emmerman, Director of Marketing & Sales. “We
expect many more great things from Drew.
It’s been my pleasure to watch him develop
and prosper over these last years with
Hohner,” he added.
An avid bass player, Drew attended the
University of North Texas Jazz program in
2002 and is comfortable with many music
genres. With the announcement of his new
position, Drew has recently jumped into and
embraced harmonica culture. He is working with his German counterparts on new
product development as well as new ideas
for product packaging and the next revision
of Hohner’s harmonica P.O.P’s.
HOHNER News
2
Artist Spotlight
3
Tech Notes
4
Our CD Pick
4
In The Studio
4
Howard Levy
Foreign Object Damage
Allegretto/Espinoza
with Charlie McCoy
Hohner’s Iconic Harmonica 5-10
The Ultimate Accessory Item
Hohner on Tour
HOHNER Times
2005 to Present
6
10-11
Picks Hohner Marine Band
this is the classic harp for the blues, country,
folk, and rock. Because it’s set up to play a
single key, you can’t really hit a wrong note
on the harmonica’s 10 holes and 20 reeds.
Getting started is as easy as breathing in
and out.”
Popular Mechanics magazine has selected
Hohner’s 1896 Marine Band harmonica for
their “Gears and Gadgets Gift Guide for
Christmas 2012. They described the Marine
Band harp in the following manner; “Played
by Sonny Terry, Little Walter, and Bob Dylan,
Popular Mechanics is an American
magazine, which was first published
January, 11, 1902 by H.H. Windsor, and
has been owned since 1958 by the Hearst
Corporation.
2
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ed!
S tay Connect
facebook.com/HohnerMusic
Hohner Donates Harmonicas To “Make Music Foundation” Events
Hohner, Inc. is proud to support the Make
Music Foundation’s efforts to bring music
to the masses by conducting harmonica
events in six major US Cities on June 21st.
The Make Music Foundation is running its
events in conjunction with the Fête de la
Musique; also know as World Music Day.
World Music Day first took place in Paris in
Visit
1982. Ever since, the festival has become
an international phenomenon, celebrated
on the same day in more than 460 cities in
110 countries. Amateur and professional
musicians are encouraged to perform in
the streets and in many free concerts making all genres of music accessible to the
continued on page 12
pinterest.com/HohnerMusic
youtube.com/HohnerUSA
twitter.com/PlayHohner
gplus.to/PlayHohner
Howard Levy Harmonica School has
afforded students of all levels the unique
opportunity to receive personalized
instruction directly from an undisputed
master.
Howard was already an accomplished
musician when he took up the harmonica
in his late teens. He describes being drawn
to the instrument for a number of reasons,
specifically citing the harp’s portability and
unique timber.
“When I was in high school, I was in a
band and the drummer taught himself
how to play the harmonica; he sounded
really good. He played all these records for
me – Paul Butterfield, James Cotton - and
he learned how to imitate them. Playing
the piano, you always had to go to the
instrument and you couldn’t bend notes. I
fell in love with the sound and whole idea
of carrying an instrument in your pocket. It
was a combination of all of those things.
When I started playing the harmonica, my
main motivation was to be able to play
blues. As soon as I bent my first note, I felt
like the instrument had changed me. I was
able to express all of these things through
the instrument that I had never been able
to express before. People fall in love with
instruments for these reasons, so it was
just an emotional thing in the beginning.”
Howard Levy
G
rammy Award winning multiinstrumentalist, composer, and
producer Howard Levy has reshaped the
vocabulary of the diatonic harmonica.
A founding member of Béla Fleck and
the Flecktones, Levy has also performed
or recorded with an astoundingly broad
range of artists, including Donald Fagen,
Rabih Abou-Khalil, and Dolly Parton,
among many others. In 2000, Levy com-
posed his “Concerto for Diatonic Harmonica & Orchestra”, the first concerto for
the ten-hole harmonica. Levy continues to
tour and perform internationally and is a
frequent guest on National Public Radio’s
“A Prairie Home Companion.”
In addition to maintaining active recording and performance schedules, Howard
is also a gifted educator. Since 2009, the
Levy often looks beyond the instrument
itself for artistic inspiration. “I learn from
everything; applying ideas from other
instruments to the harmonica is a really
big thing for me. One side of it is spirituality, and being inspired by great musicians
who had a spiritual component to their
playing…people like Bach or John Coltrane; those are probably my two favorite
musicians. Coltrane had a very spiritual
component to his playing, as did Bach. I
also play for Jewish services and I’ve composed music for Jewish worship services.
I’ve just put out a cd with Trio Globo and
a Jewish Cantor named Alberto Mizrahi
(“Matzah to Menorah”), which consists of
absolutely unique treatments of music for
the holidays of Passover and Hanukkah.
I don’t think anyone’s ever played any of
continued on page 12
3
Tech Notes
By Paul Lusk
E
very day Hohner technicians perform
a variety of services, from warranty repairs to complete refurbishment, to returning harmonicas to playing form. One common issue we encounter is Foreign Object
Damage or F.O.D. Borrowed from the aviation industry, F.O.D. refers to an object getting lodged in the small gap between the
reed and the slot in the reed plate. Often
this is dried moisture residue from previous
playing. It can also be from putting the harmonica in a pant or shirt pocket where it
can ingest pocket lint, small hairs or sand.
Bigger F.O.D. can get wedged between the
cover plate and reed plate. Our Technicians
have found paper, coins and even guitar
picks lodged inside harmonicas rendering
them unplayable. So what does the player
do?
Keep your harmonicas in a case. There are
many cases available from Hohner, from
multi-harmonica briefcases to a single harp
pouch. Cases are a barrier for foreign objects and the new soft pouch cases will often fit comfortably in your pocket. You can
also loop the pouch onto your belt, thus
keeping it handy for impromptu playing
sessions. When you are finished with your
instrument, lightly tap out any condensation that may have accumulated during
playing so the moisture doesn’t dry and
interfere with reed function. If you find
yourself with a stuck reed due to F.O.D. and
can see the culprit, use tweezers to gently
remove the offending item. Be careful to
avoid making contact with the reed itself.
If you must touch the reed to remove the
item, use something non-metallic to open
the space like a wooden or plastic tooth
pick. As always, you can send your harmonicas to be serviced by Hohner’s world-class
technicians when necessary. Thanks for
Playing Hohner!!
Cases are available from the Hohner
Service Department. Simply call us
toll free at 800-446-6010, send an email
to [email protected], or visit the
accessories section of www.hohnershop.com.
Our CD Pick
“
Allegretto/Espinoza”, a collaboration
between musicians Gary Allegretto and
Ian Espinoza, is an acoustic tour-de-force.
Consisting of primarily original cowboy music, the CD showcases Allegretto’s soaring
harmonica, Espinoza’s
masterful guitar work,
and a handful of special
guests. Both musicians
share lead vocal, composition, and production
duties.
“Ian and I have been
playing together for
probably twenty years;
he’s been in my blues
bands and recorded on my CDs”, says Allegretto. “We were always talking about doing an acoustic project together and were
both fascinated by cowboy music because
of the connection with the blues that cowboy music has. He brought some songs to
me that blew me away and I had a bunch
of songs that I’d written, so the project is
primarily original material.”
Fans of Allegretto’s electric blues albums will
warm to “Allegretto/
Espinoza” immediately;
his trademark vocal
delivery, clever lyrical
approach, and tasteful
harmonica soloing remain intact. Allegretto’s
rollicking “First Rodeo”
kicks things off and sets
the tone for the rest of the cd. “Kit Carson Blues” features Espinoza’s virtuosic
fingerpicking on a 1929 National resonator guitar previously owned by iconic Delta
continued on page 12
4
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In The Studio
with Jelly Roll Johnson
with Charlie Mc Coy
B
y the time Charlie McCoy was invited to participate in sessions for
“The Boxer”, Simon and Garfunkel’s
landmark 1968 recording, the harmonica
giant had also come to be associated with
an impressive array of other instruments,
including guitar, trumpet, keyboards, and
bass, among others. “They asked me if I
had a bass harmonica that I could bring
to the session”, he recalls.
Though best known for his mastery of the
diatonic harp, McCoy was able to accommodate the request, despite the unique
technical demands of the bass harmonica. Charlie’s contribution to Paul Simon’s
timeless classic became one of the most
widely known examples of an instrument
rarely heard in pop music.
“Paul Simon really is a genius - he knew
exactly what he wanted me to play. Playing the bass harmonica is totally different;
it takes a lot of air and sometimes the
parts require a lot of jumping around to
get to the notes. My part was really just
one note!”
Equipment used: Hohner 265/58 Double
Bass harmonica
www.charliemccoy.com/
Hohner’s Iconic
HARMONICA
The Ultimate Accessory Item
Currently celebrating its 156th anniversary, Hohner
Inc. remains the world’s leading manufacturer of
harmonicas.
B
low-tube, hobo harp, French harp, Indiana mating call, reckless tram, harpoon, tin sandwich,
blues harp, Mississippi saxophone. By any of
its names, musicians might well call the mouth
organ, harp, and harmonica the ultimate accessory item. And in the world of harmonicas,
the name that has reigned supreme for more than a century is
Hohner. Founded in 1857, Matth. Hohner AG is currently celebrating its 156th year.
Conveniently compact and portable for consumers, and its low
cost makes it an attractive impulse purchase. Its gentle learning
curve is attractive to musicians and non-musicians alike, and it
has remained relevant in numerous genres even as generations
passed and popular musical styles changed.
In its 156 year history Hohner occasionally ventured into other
product categories, most notably accordions in 1903 and least
notably (and quickly abandoned) computers in the 1960s, but
also electronic keyboards including the legendary Clavinet (1952);
recorders; guitars, basses, and banjos; grand pianos; and amplifiers. However, free reed instruments— accordions, melodicas, and
especially harmonicas—have remained the company’s bread and
butter and a major source of its pride.
Hohner has dominated the harmonica world for so long, it would
be easy to assume that it invented the instrument. In fact, the
Mundharmonika or “mouth organ” was probably invented in Vienna around 1825, eight years before company founder Matthias
Hohner was born. A native of Trossingen, a small town near the
Black Forest in southwest Germany, Matthias was the son of a
humble weaver who briefly made his living handcrafting watches
and selling them door-to-door. According to Hohner family lore,
when Matthias began making harmonicas, the first six were rejected as tonally inferior to established brands. However, his wife,
Anna, suggested, “Just send them to cousin Hänsle in Canada.
They won’t be so finicky over there.” Indeed, sales to North America soared, serving as a lesson that instantly and forever impressed
upon Matthias Hohner the importance of international trade.
Recognizing his early instruments’ shortcomings, in 1871 Matthias
sent a trusted employee to work for a competitor to “discover” its
vaunted production methods. The employee returned six months
later with the critical information, and by the end of the decade
Hohner’s production methods and instrument quality rivaled the
best in the world.
Beginning in 1880, Matthias began equipping, configuring, and
managing his factory for industrial mass production. In 1882 he
commissioned a steam engine to power the reed-punching machine, and subsequent years brought similar advances that consistently produced instruments of state-of-the-industry quality. With
improvements in products and production efficiency, Hohner vaulted to the market’s lead position. In 1887 Hohner manufactured its
millionth harmonica, and in 1907 it acquired Hotz and Pohl, two of
its largest competitors.
Hohner continued to expand internationally. From 1885 Matthias relied heavily on exports to America, whose attraction with
the harmonica—which then sold for
ten cents—seemed limitless. In
the early 1890s a hike
in import duties
coincided with a
recession in the
U.S., impelling
the
company
to seek out new
markets. By the
turn of the 19th
century it had distributed nation-tailored advertisements
and products throughout Europe, England
and its colonies, as well as
5
HOHNER ON TOUR
FESTIVALS & CONCERTS SUMMER
UNITED STATES 2013
MICKEY
RAPHAEL
with WILLIE NELSON
7/20/13 Somerset, KY
8/7/13 San Diego, CA 8/9/13 Los Angeles, CA
8/10/13 Los Angeles, CA 8/11/13 San Francisco, CA 8/13/13 Las Vegas, NV
8/14/13 Tucson, AZ 8/16/13 Wendover, NV 8/17/13 Laughlin, NV
8/18/13 Pozo, CA 8/20/1 Santa Cruz, CA 8/21/13 Sacramento, CA 8/23/13 Redmond, WA 8/24/13 Goldendale, WA 8/25/13 Boise, ID 9/18/13 Port Chester, 9/19/13 Port Chester, 9/21/13 Saratoga Springs, 9/27/13 Nashville, TN 9/28/13 Nashville, TN Master Musicians Festival
Humphreys
Hollywood Bowl
Hollywood Bowl
Outside Lands Festival
The Smith Center for the Performing Arts Center
AVA Amphitheatre
Peppermill Concert Hall
Edgewater Hotel & Casino
Pozo Saloon
Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium
Sacramento Community Center Theater
Marymoor Amphitheatre
Maryhill Winery
Idaho Botanical Gardens
NY Capitol Theatre
NY Capitol Theatre
NY FARM AID: Saratoga Performing Arts Center
Southern Ground Festival
Southern Ground Festival
G LOVE AND SPECIAL SAUCE
07/20/13 07/21/13 07/23/13 07/24/13 07/27/13 07/29/13 07/30/13 08/01/13 08/02/13 08/03/13 08/04/13 09/02/13 6
Atlanta, GA West Palm Beach, FL Tampa, FL Pensacola, FL The Woodlands, TX Morrison, CO Salt Lake City, UT San Francisco, CA Irvine, CA Chula Vista, CA Las Vegas, NV Indianapolis, IN | EASY REEDING
Aaron’s Amphitheatre @ Lakewood
Cruzan Amphitheatre
Mid FL Credit Union Amphitheatre
Pensacola Bay Center
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Usana Amphitheatre
America’s Cup Pavilion
Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
Sleep Train Amphitheatre
The Joint @ Hard Rock Hotel / Casino
Broad Ripple Park and Family Center
S teve Earle
7/12/13 Boulder, CO Boulder Theater
7/13/13 Telluride, CO Telluride Town Park
7/14/13 Jackson, WY Snow King Ball Park
7/17/13 Bozeman, MT Emerson Crawford Theater
7/18/13 Missoula, MT
Wilma Theater
7/20/13 Vancouver, BC Vancouver Folk Music Festival
7/21/13 Kelowna, BC Kelowna Community Center
7/23/13 Whitecape, SK Dakota Dunes Casino
7/25/13 Carlyle, SK Bear Claw Casino
7/26/13 Bengough, SK Gateway Festival
7/27/13 Calgary Folk Fest Calgary, Canada
7/28/13 Edmonton, AB Interstellar Rodeo
7/31/13 Winnipeg, MB McPhillips Station Casino
8/1/13 Apple Valley, MN Weesner Family Amphitheater
8/2/13 Fish Creek, WI Door Community Auditorium
8/3/13 Madison, WI Barrymore
8/5/13 Milwaukee, WI Pabst Theater
8/6/13 Bloomington, IN Buskirk-Chumley Theater
8/8/13 Kitchener, ON Kitchener Blues Festival
8/10/13 Fredricton, NB Fredricton Playhouse
8/12/13 Moncton, NB Casino New Brunswick
8/13/13 Halifax, NS Casino Nova Scotia
8/14/13 Membertou, NS Membertou Trade and Convention
8/16/13 St. John’s, NL Holy Heart Theatre
8/17/13 St. John’s, NL Holy Heart Theatre
8/30/13 Portsmouth, NH Prescott Park
8/31/13 Charlestown, RI Rhythm & Roots Festival
9/1/13 Jay, VT Jay Peak Resort
9/19/13 Tulsa, OK Brady Theater
9/20/13 Columbia, MO Roots ‘N Blues ‘N BBQ Festival
America, which was and has always remained its largest and most important
market (In the last years of the 19th
century, 90% of Hohner’s harmonica
production was exported to the U.S.).
It was around that time that Matthias
Hohner was credited with proclaiming,
“My marketplace is the world,” and by
the rapid growth of the company’s sales
and reach, he could hardly have been
accused of boasting.
In 1896 Hohner introduced its most
successful model of all time, The Marine Band. Its name refers to the U.S.
Marine Corp. Band, whose conductor,
John Philip Sousa, played harmonica
and endorsed Hohner instruments.
Aimed primarily at the U.S. market, the
Marine Band model has remained one
of the company’s best sellers for over
100 years.
By the time he retired in 1900, Matthias Hohner was a multi-millionaire.
His company, which by then employed
more than 1,000 workers, was not
only a treasure to Trossingen, but also
a source of German national pride.
Hohner promoted its trademark and
“Made in Germany” designation vigorously. Even early on it produced or
contracted production of lower-priced,
lesser instruments, but it reserved the
Hohner brand name exclusively for harmonicas of the highest caliber. Perhaps
because the harmonica market’s early
leaders had set the bar very high, Matthias Hohner became driven to achieve
new standards of quality along with
his superior manufacturing processes.
His quest soon became—and remains
more than a century later—a defining
part of the company’s culture.
Matthias groomed his five sons— Jacob, Matthias, Andreas, Hans, and
Will—to take over the business. Even
before his death in 1903 they extended
his vision of a company with a truly
global reach. To adequately service the
rapidly expanding business, Hohner established distribution centers in New
York (1901); Toronto; London, England;
Warsaw (then Russia, now Poland); and
Vienna. Reflecting and further ingratiating its decidedly multinational clientele,
The 1896 patent for the top selling
Marine Band harmonica.
the company produced catalogs, advertisements, leaflets, posters, point of purchase
displays, and even post cards in different languages and specifically designed to appeal to
particular nationalities.
This awareness of, and sensitivity to, different
markets’ preferences is one of many examples
of Hohner’s adept marketing and advertising.
As far back as the early 1900s the company
was renowned for the high-quality color illustrations in its catalogs, and throughout the
20th century it produced consumer magazines
promoting interest in the harmonica. From
1928 until 1936 it published a monthly for its
dealers, and in the ’50s it produced HOHNER
Post, a magazine intended for school children.
Rather than a shotgun approach, whereby
a single message impresses a general audience, Hohner invested considerable attention
and resources to develop a multitude of niche
marketing messages that targeted and connected with groups of consumers and popular culture. The diversity and culturally specific
messages evidence the company’s genius for
listening, observing, and adapting to a multinational, multifaceted market. Harmonica ads,
brochures, posters, calendars, billboards, and
store displays were matched in imagination only by the instruments’ packaging.
Designed to associate the harmonica
with consumers’ hobbies and interests,
box, ad, and occasionally cover plate
motifs referenced fashion, music, dancing, sports, aviation, cartoon characters,
etc., as well as the destination country’s
identity or patriotism. Also featured
were major cultural trends and important world events ranging from monarch coronations to “Glasnost,” commemorated with a box depicting the
images of Ronald Reagan and Mikail
Gorbachev. One especially memorable
promotion cited astronaut Wally Schirra’s smuggling a Hohner Little Lady
miniature harmonica aboard the Gemini VI spacecraft and playing “Jingle
Bells” to the world from space!
In an attempt to buttress sales during
WWI, Hohner opened a second factory
in Switzerland to manufacture instruments for French and British markets.
However, a German competitor produced an inflammatory flyer that forced
Hohner to discontinue the “Alliance
Harp” and several other models.
In the decades between the two world
wars, Hohner was wildly successful in creating interest in harmonicas,
especially among young males. The
company instigated, developed, and
prospered tremendously from the harmonica orchestra movement. Begun in
1921 in Philadelphia, the movement
involved perhaps 100,000 participants,
multistate tours, and, for one of the
bands, a 1929 performance for President Herbert Hoover (numerous presidents including Hoover, Calvin Coolidge
and Abraham Lincoln also played harmonica.). Hohner documented the scale
of the movement in a 1931 tract titled
“The Harmonica as an Important Factor
in modern Education.”
In 1925, Hohner and other Trossingen
manufacturers were churning out 25
million harmonicas a year. (Hohner
assimilated its two Trossingen competitors, Weiss and Koch, in 1928 and
1929, respectively.) Hohner focused on
export sales in part due to rampant in-
7
No substitute for skilled handwork—special small plates and files are still
used to make precision adjustments of the reeds.
8
flation of the Deutschmark through much
of the decade. With prices starting at 50
cents, Hohner’s mouth organ continued to
sell even during the Great Depression, and
by 1938 Hohner employed almost 5,000
workers.
The United States’ entry of WWII curtailed
the harmonica orchestra movement, but by
then it had inspired a generation of young
people to play the instrument. One of them,
Larry Adler (1914-2001), would become
history’s most important harmonica celebrity. Acclaimed for his chromatic harmonica
playing on movie soundtracks and the concert stage with classical works including
Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Adler “legitimized” as a musical instrument what had
once been considered merely a novelty or a
toy. In 1939 he became the first harmonica
player to solo with a symphony orchestra,
performing Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in A
Major in New York. The Larry Adler Chromonica has been in Hohner’s product
range since 1939. Before and since Adler
and novelty groups exemplified by the Harmonicats (and many imitators in Europe),
the mouth organ’s profile and popularity
were boosted by an eclectic group of pop
music artists. Though the instrument’s roots
are in Austria and Germany, it became fully
assimilated into the United States’ culture,
even taking on its own American “persona.” Researchers agree that the migration
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of many Germans to the American South
introduced the harmonica to the cradle
of traditional blues. This movement was
popularized by such legendary players as
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and Little
Walter of the Muddy Waters band. Being inexpensive and easy to play, the harmonica
maintained its “blue collar/common man”
appeal. Hollywood reinforced this notion on
movie screens and soundtracks, where the
harmonica became an obligatory reference
to life in the Old West, the Civil War, both
World Wars, prison, and the South, old and
new.
The brilliant Toots Thielemans brought harmonica to jazz, and the instrument is represented throughout the history of rock and
pop in hits by everyone from Bob Dylan and
the Beatles to Blues Traveler, and from Stevie Wonder and the Stones to Billie Joel and
the Boss. Throughout the 20th Century star
players’ impact on Hohner harmonica sales
was significant through both indirect association and through the company’s almost
infallibly shrewd marketing. Ironically, the
notable exception coincided with one of
the music products industry’s most pivotal
developments.
John Lennon used a Hohner harmonica
prominently in “Love Me Do” (1962) and
“Please, Please Me” (1963). With Beatlemania just around the corner, any connection with the Fab Four could have produced
the same kind of riches showered upon the
guitar and drum industry. However, on the
box of The Beatles model harmonica, the
signatures of Paul McCartney and George
Harrison were juxtaposed under their likenesses, and no one spotted the error until
thousands of the $2.98 instruments had
been shipped to music stores. The boxes
were reprinted, Beatles store posters were
produced, and in anticipation of the Liverpool lads’ landmark 1964 tour, Hohner
promised its dealers, “Those loyal Beatles
fans go wild over anything that bears the
Beatles’ name— and they’ll stampede to
a store selling the Beatles Harmonica Pack
when they see Beatle John Lennon in person play the harmonica.” Unfortunately
for Hohner, Lennon elected not to play the
harmonica on that tour, and sales of the
Beatles Harmonica Pack were anything but
“fab.”
As groups like the Harmonicats slipped out
of vogue and the guitar’s dominance took
hold, harmonica sales began to slide. The
sales decline of free-reed instruments in the
’70s was initially masked by success in other Hohner product lines such as melodicas,
recorders, and clavinets. However, a
computer component assembling venture,
begun in the ’60s and abandoned in 1976,
lost millions and cost the company 1,100
jobs. By 1986 Hohner’s workforce dropped
below 1,000 for the first time in a century.
In 1983 parent company Matth. Hohner AG
relocated Hohner’s U.S. headquarters from
Hicksville, New York, to Richmond, Virginia. In 2000 it was moved again to a new
63,000 square-foot office and warehouse
facility in nearby Glen Allen, Virginia.
From 1993 to 1997 Hohner’s German
manufacturing operation relocated most
of its production to a new, smaller factory in Trossingen. In 1997 the majority
interest in Matth. Hohner AG was sold to
HS Investment Group Ltd. While the company maintains its much-consolidated operation in Trossingen to develop and design
its harmonica’s and other instruments, it
now benefits from resources and global
manufacturing capabilities. All professional instruments are still made in Germany.
Lower-priced Chinese instruments fulfill a
spontaneous purchase gift market niche.
Hohner’s century-long dominance of the
harmonica market is arguably without parallel in the music products industry. The fact
that Hohner has become a publicly traded
corporation with globally sourced products
doesn’t materially digress from its founder’s
original formula for success: make products
of impeccable quality; tailor advertising
and niche marketing messages to groups
of consumers, music genres, and cultural
events in individual markets; and export the
product to the entire world.
The beginning of Hohner’s second 150
years looks more promising than its first.
The company’s colorful history and gift for
creatively promoting the Hohner brand continue to make it relevant to today’s musicians and culture.
“There is no question that Hohner has
always targeted market niches, musical
genres, popular cultural developments and
themes, and players’ needs,” comments
Hohner U.S. President Clayman Edwards.
“The goal was for the Hohner brand to be
woven into the fabric of the music of the
time. Continuing this approach—and continuing to develop and market products that
fit customers’ needs and desires—will help
us stay relevant within today’s popular cul-
A 1920’s billboard hung over Second Avenue and 104th Street in New York.
ture and marketplace. We’ll achieve this by
adhering to the company’s global strategy
and striving to understand and serve customers in each of our local markets. Despite
major changes in the company’s structure,
there are several constants that will allow
Hohner to retain its lead position in the harmonica market. One is an understanding of
our customers’ needs, desires, and cultural
developments. Along with that is an ability
to make certain that our products relate to
those customers and become part of their
That’s A Harmonica?
In addition to innumerable variations in case designs, over the years
Hohner produced harmonicas with innovations that ranged from
merely novel to functionally significant.
•The Hohnerphone (1902-1931) had a sheet-metal “horn”with a
lid that could create vibrato effects.
•The Harmonette (1909-1925) featured a wooden, harpshaped
resonator box.
•Around 1910 Hohner offered a model with two bells, played with
tiny spring-loaded clappers, used to produce accompanying notes.
•The Bravo! Duplex (c. 1910) featured two hinge attached harps
tuned to major and minor keys
•The Trumpet call (c. 1910) had five vertically projectinghorns.
•The Encore (1913) featured a wooden horn similar in shape to a
clarinet bell.
•6-Fach Kreuzwender Virtuos (1920) featured a paddle-wheel
configuration of six harmonicas in different keys
•The Little Lady miniature harmonica (1924)
•Chromonica slide-button chromatic mouth organ (1925)
•The Jazz Band (1925-1930) featured two curved, back-to back
harmonicas
• Bass and accompaniment harmonicas were introduced in the 1930s.
•The Penta (c. 1955) was tuned to the pentatonic scale
•The Educator (1955-1978) eliminated octave jumps to facilitate “flawless rendering of melodies”)
•The Chordomonica (1965-1987), introduced by Chamber Huang,
whose button-activated slide produces chordal accompaniment to the
melody.
•The Chromonica IV De Luxe (mid-’50s) featured two slide buttons that
selected two harps tuned an octave apart. (The prototypes played, but
this model was never mass-produced.)
•The XB-40 (2003) is the world’s first and only chromatic harp that
facilitates note-bending.
The Echobell, introduced in 2006, harks back to
bell-equipped models sold a century earlier.
9
Hohner’s current flagship model, the Marine Band Crossover, was introduced
in 2009.
lives. We also have a longstanding dedication to manufacturing quality and consistency. These factors are complemented by
the continued use of Hohner instruments
by professional artists worldwide as well as
150 years of dedication to product development.”
Whatever you choose to call it, the Hohner
harmonica is well positioned for a vibrant
future.
Editor’s note: This article borrows extensively
from Hohner: The Living Legend, by Haik
Wenzel and Martin Häffner. (Häffner has
managed the German Harmonica and Accordion Museum in Trossingen, Germany,
since it was founded in the late ’80s.) Gloriously illustrated and written in both German
and excellent English, this book is rich in history, cultural reflections, and entertaining
observations and anecdotes. To order a copy,
visit www.harmonika-museum.de.
10
| EASY REEDING
Hohner from
2005 to the
Present
Hohner from 2005 to the Present
During this period, Hohner Inc. re-focused
its energies on marketing and improving
the visibility of the harmonica in music
stores. Historically, music retailers kept harmonicas in drawers or glass counters. Like
fine watches, you’d have to ask a store clerk
for help if you actually wanted to look at
one and most store personnel couldn’t answer even the simplest questions about the
instrument.
In response to this
situation, in 2009
Hohner introduced
new blister packaging and new
point-of-purchase
displays that allowed
customers to self-select
harmonicas. Both
freestanding and
wall-mountable
Marine Band blister displays were ofpackaging, circa 2009. fered to music
retailers and their
customers were now
free to browse, to read
about and choose a harp
that best suited their
taste and style. Hohner
has now moved on to
“rev 2” of our packaging featuring new attractive cardboard boxes
that feature embossed
images of the harmonicas on the cover and
new displays that come
in smaller footprints.
In trying to widen inter- 2009 Harmonica
est new players, Hohner Floor Display
created several multiharmonica packs including hard and soft
cases such as the Piedmont Blues, the
BluesBand 7-harp pack, the Blues Rocker
4-harp pack, and the Blue Ice and Hoodoo Blues 3-harp packs. Regarding special
projects, in 2008 Hohner embarked on its
first Signature Series in many years with the
Steven Tyler Signature harmonica. “For
this signature model we utilized the heavy
duty reed plate from the Meisterklasse, our
top of the line diatonic harp, combined it
with a Blues Harp comb and special black
cover plates with Steven’s logo on it” commented Scott Emmerman, Director of Marketing and Sales. “At first, Steven’s main
goal for this project was to just outsell
Joe Perry’s new Hot Sauce that was being
launched at the same time. I believe that
we achieved that and more.” A less expensive model of this harmonica called the
Steven Tyler Artist that retailed for $29 was
also launched shortly afterward and it did
very well amongst Aerosmith fans worldwide.
carved box at a price of $5,000 each. This
hand-signed product was covered in articles
in publications as diverse as Playboy Magazine, the Robb Report, the Washington Post
and Russia’s edition of GQ Magazine, all of
which really spread the Hohner brand name
around the world.
The most recent product in the series introduced in January 2012 is the John Lennon
Signature harmonica. Most Beatle fans
remember John’s harmonica playing on the
first wave of Beatles hits and his harp playing introduced the sound of the harmonica
to a whole new group of fans. Hohner created this beautiful product in tribute to John
and it is truly a unique product in Hohner’s
history. Firstly, unlike any other product
GET TREATED LIKE A PRO.
When a professional player requests
a new batch of harmonicas, we add a
final step before shipping -- our World
Class technicians personally inspect
each harmonica and fine tune them to
match the Artist‘s style.
Hohner Artists get the harmonica
of their choice personalized by an
expert technician.
NOW YOU CAN TOO.
The second product in the series released
in fall of 2009 was the Bob Dylan Signature harmonica. The Bob Dylan Signature model retails for $129 and featured
a gold plated reed plate that produced a
brighter than normal sound. Combining
this reed plate with the Marine Band-style
wood comb and coverplates warmed the
sound up as well. In addition, Bob agreed
to personally sign sets of harps that he had
played on stage and 25 hand-signed sets of
seven Marine Band harmonicas were created. These were packaged in beautifully
carved gift boxes, complete with a classic
photo and certificates of authenticity. We
offered these for sale to collectors at a price
of $25,000 each. We also offered a number of single signed harmonicas in a smaller
Simply send us your newly purchased
harmonica or choose from one of our
available models, then specify the style
that matches your own musical vision.
Visit
www.HohnerShop.com/artist-setups
that Hohner has ever produced in the past
160 or so years, it sports a rainbow Hohner
logo. It is the only Hohner harmonica to
ever be available with white cover plates
and it’s combination of a clear acrylic comb
and special reed plates produces a striking
tonal quality so, besides looking really cool,
it feels great in your hand and
sounds great too.
Most recently Hohner has
introduced three new
ground-breaking products, the Crossover featuring a water resistant,
cross-laminated bamboo
comb, the Thunderbird
featuring the same comb
with an extended low and
super-low range and the
FlexRack, the worlds first ergonomically
adjustable harmonica rack.
The FlexRack
11
“Of course, I read a lot, so there are
certain books that give me concepts about
physics and science that make me think
differently when I’m playing. Even reading
some science fiction books can inspire me.
Sometimes if I’m out on a beautiful day,
I’ll just be inspired to write a melody. And,
of course, love –that’s a big one!”
Continued from page 3
them. It’s something that’s musical, but
also cultural, spiritual, and religious.
“There’s something innately moving and
emotionally compelling about the sound
of this instrument. The diatonic harmonica
has this organic sound quality…it’s kind
of miraculous.”
An experienced educator, Levy was nonetheless a bit skeptical when approached
about teaching online. “I wasn’t sure originally, because of the invisible nature of the
harmonica. You can’t show people finger
positions like on a guitar, piano, or violin; I
wasn’t sure it could work. I am here today
to say that it does work! I am incredibly
proud of this school. I have hundreds of
students from all over the world, and it’s
the first time I’ve ever taught every level.
I get such a kick out of seeing people
improve from one week to another.”
“There’s something innately moving and
emotionally compelling about the sound
of this instrument. The diatonic harmonica
has this organic sound quality…it’s kind
of miraculous; it sounds so alive. That’s
what’s driven me, really – the sound of the
instrument and the effect it’s had on me
and the people listening.”
Our CD Pick
Continued from page 4
bluesman Bukka White, as does Espinoza’s
“Hard Times.”
“Hard Times” also presented Allegretto
with the opportunity to record with a bass
harmonica for the first time. “I had one and
was kind of intimidated by it,” says Allegretto. “I tried it, just playing a very basic
bass line with the harp. It’s all blow notes
and nothing like playing a regular diatonic
harp. We liked it so much that I also played
it on a song called “Cowboy Waltz”, a traditional song that Woody Guthrie also re-
corded. It’s just cool; I love the sound of it.”
that one”.
“I try to use the harmonica to serve the
song. On the vocally oriented material, the
harmonica is there to accent the storytelling. On the instrumental ‘Cowboy Waltz’, I
play in first position; the song comes from
the 1800s, and first position playing captures the Civil War-era sound. On ‘Cripple
Creek’, another traditional song that I play,
I cut loose a little bit instrumentally. I play
washboard on it, two harmonicas, a tin cup,
and a Jew’s harp. We had a lot of fun with
“The first time we got together, Ian was
playing Blind Blake and Mississippi John
Hurt on the guitar, which blew me away. He
draws on the blues and I draw on the blues.
Because of the crossover between blues
and cowboy music, there’s really not a lot
of difference”.
“Allegretto/Espinoza” is available at
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/allegrettoespinoza
and www.garyallegretto.com.
Make Music Foundation - continued from page 2
public. Two of the caveats to being sanctioned by the official Fête de la Musique
organization in Paris are that all concerts
must be free to the public, and all performers donate their time for free.
Hohner donated harmonicas to each of the
US city organizers who are coordinating
group harmonica lessons for aspiring musicians. “It is truly amazing how this event
has grown since its beginnings,” commented Drew Lewis, Harmonica Product
Manager. “This mass celebration brings
communities closer together through
BLUES-N-BONES
new T-SHIRT
music. Hohner supports music-making
activities whenever and wherever we can
and we’re proud to be able to participate.”
These events will be held in New York,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, Madison
and Portland ME on June 21st 2013.
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99
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Hand signed 18” x 24”
“Born in Chicago” Limited
Edition Print also available.
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