Feb. 8, 2025

Corky Siegel interview

Corky Siegel joins me on episode 129. Corky played was central in the emergence of the popularity of the blues to a white audience. His Siegel-Schwall band gained a residency at Chicago’s Pepper Lounge, sharing the stage with blues giants such as Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters and Little Walter. The band were also part of San Francisco’s 1967 Summer of Love, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Joni Mitchell and Janis Joplin. Corky has a unique place in harmonica history with his blues / classical...

Corky Siegel joins me on episode 129.

Corky played was central in the emergence of the popularity of the blues to a white audience. His Siegel-Schwall band gained a residency at Chicago’s Pepper Lounge, sharing the stage with blues giants such as Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters and Little Walter. The band were also part of San Francisco’s 1967 Summer of Love, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Joni Mitchell and Janis Joplin.

Corky has a unique place in harmonica history with his blues / classical collaborations. After performing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1966, he has gone on to enjoy a platinum selling classical record, composed numerous blues / classical orchestral pieces, recorded with a Chamber music ensemble and performed with orchestras around the world.

Links:

Website: https://www.corkymusic.com/

Siegel-Schwall band: https://www.corkymusic.com/siegel-schwall

Chamber Blues: https://www.corkymusic.com/chamber-blues

Symphonic Blues: https://www.corkymusic.com/symphony

Echo Audiobook: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Echo-Audiobook/B00VS6N4ZI

Corky’s lesson on dynamics: https://www.corkymusic.com/harmonica-lesson

Videos:

Chamber Blues: https://www.corkymusic.com/video-chamber-blues

Lullaby, composition by Dr L Subramaniam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty1ri62uBuU

Corky playing with Howard Levy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjnYE-jIprc

Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB

Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS
--------------------------------
Blue Moon Harmonicas: https://bluemoonharmonicas.com

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01:38 - Corky was born in Chicago

01:53 - Also plays piano and played other instruments (including saxophone) before picking up the harmonica 20, with it’s portability the initial attraction

02:35 - Still performs on the piano as well as the harmonica, and sat in on saxophone with Mike Bloomfield and also Billy Boy Arnold in the 1950s

03:19 - Was inspired to take up harmonica after hearing harmonica on records by Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed

03:57 - Had classical piano lessons when young, but wasn’t a very good student, and mainly plays blues on piano

04:38 - Corky is currently 81 years of age

04:58 - Was part of the emergence of the white blues boom in Chicago in the mid-1960s

05:10 - Formed the Siegel-Schwall band with Jim Schwall at university (with Corky playing saxophone)

05:56 - First played with Jim Schwall in a coffee house and there met James Rado and Gerome Ragni, and started working on the musical ‘Hair’ with them

06:37 - Then got a residency at Pepper’s Lounge in Chicago, and were taken under the wing of blues greats such as Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters and Little Walter and others

07:54 - Little Walter turned up and asked to sit in but Corky didn’t know who he was!

08:28 - Corky thinks he was asked to do all these amazing things early in his career because he didn’t take anything too seriously, put all his energies into it and focused on expression in his music

08:51 - Produced Joni Mitchell’s first demo tape

08:58 - Seiji Ozawa asked Corky to bring blues to classical music

09:11 - Had a residence with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra

10:10 - Was fearless in what he took on and didn’t worry about what other people thought

10:43 - Was friends with Charlie Musselwhite, Paul Butterfield and other white pioneers in the early days in Chicago

11:35 - A memory of Paul Butterfield playing Corky his new record in New York

11:55 - What he learnt from sharing the stage with the blues greats is they put their maximum energy into every performance, and focus

12:14 - Howling Wolf said the Siegel-Schwall band was his favourite band as they were different from the other blues bands

13:02 - Blues greats loved the blues symphony starting (although it wasn’t popular with everyone)

13:19 - Siegel-Schwall band’s first album was released in 1966

13:44 - Went to San Francisco and was there in the 1967 ‘Summer of Love’ and became the ‘hot band’ there, with Janis Joplin counted as a fan

14:35 - Kept the music of Siegel-Schwall simple and focused on expression, and an example of the shuffle they played

15:38 - Siegel-Schwall band made a lot of use of dynamics

16:05 - Became involved with classical music through the composer William Russo and the conductor Seiji Ozawa

16:33 - More on the importance of dynamics and how the band’s use of it probably attracted the classical conductor Seiji Ozawa

17:15 - Started collaboration with Seiji Ozawa in 1966, not long after forming the Siegel-Schwall band

17:47 - Corky was involved with composing alongside William Russo for the Three Pieces for Blues Band and Symphony

18:44 - Performed with the Chicago Symphony orchestra in 1968 and the classical audience loved it

19:26 - This was probably the first time there was a collaboration of Chicago blues with classical music, and even if not, it’s a collaboration, rather than a symphony backing up a blues band

20:22 - Even Gershwin didn’t do this in his jazz / classical collaborations

20:52 - Only recently heard something done similar to the collaboration with classical which Corky recorded back in the 1960s

21:06 - Symphony was playing from a written scores in the Three Pieces for Blues Band and Symphony, with the Siegel-Schwall band mostly improvising while also using a ‘mapping’

21:50 - The Siegel-Schwall band split (temporarily) the day of the 1968 concert with the Chicago Symphony orchestra

21:58 - Released ‘Street Music’, which went platinum on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon classical label

22:53 - Has played with about fifty different orchestras with this blues / classical collaboration

23:14 - Only a diatonic harmonica used with the orchestras, no chromatic, or any overblows on the diatonic, with a little reading of music scores

23:41 - Playing blues with an orchestra on a diatonic (rather than classical music on chromatic) harmonica is unique

24:13 - Siegel-Schwall band reformed a few times before finally disbanding, and last album with them was in 2005

24:49 - Corky has released four albums on the Alligator label but didn’t sell lots with them as Corky doesn’t go on the road to help sell albums, which is Alligator’s typical model

25:38 - Made some solo albums which were more folk and pop than blues

26:22 - Has written many songs with a lot composed on piano, with some composed on harmonica

27:02 - Will overdub a harmonica solo when playing piano on recorded albums, and will sometimes play piano and harmonica together (one with each hand)

27:21 - Why piano players, including Howard Levy, prefer not using a rack (perhaps because the harmonica is playing the right hand part)

27:38 - Corky has toured a lot with Howard Levy and is also good friends with Joe Filisko, with one of the songs on his latest orchestra album entitled Filisko’s Dream

28:30 - The influence of Joe Filisko and Howard Levy on the harmonica community

29:07 - Released two solo albums in 2022, one of them the Truth and Harmony album

29:58 - Chamber blues albums are made with great classical musicians from Chicago (and one from India) in a small ensemble

30:37 - 1994 album Corky Siegel’s Chamber Blues, again with blues and classical music complimenting each other

31:47 - How Corky got into writing symphonic music, something he had no experience in when he started

32:49 - Has been writing symphonies since the first one in the mid-1960s and the importance of bringing blues to a classical audience and keeping the blues alive

33:52 - The joy on the faces of the Chamber musicians as they play the plays with Corky

34:44 - The Chamber musicians have some scope to improvise

35:06 - Has recorded five Chamber Blues albums

35:25 - Released album Symphonic Blues No.6 in November 2024, which took Corky one year to write

36:38 - Has toured the world playing blues with orchestras and some of the famous concert halls performed in

37:14 - Has played at The Proms in London

37:44 - Is usually a guest performer with an orchestra, rather than touring with one orchestra

38:50 - Performed in India, including with renowned violinist Dr. L. Subramaniam

40:14 - Focus has been on classical music in recent years but also does solo shows and some with Howard Levy and a few others

41:15 - Has written a book called ‘Let Your Music Soar: The Emotional Connection’ after running workshops about dynamics, beginning in 1973

43:11 - Recorded harmonica on an audiobook called Echo, written by Pam Muñoz Ryan

43:53 - Corky plays one position on diatonic (second), and when using minor tuned harp plays in the same position

44:34 - Corky thinks you should do what makes you happy when it comes to your playing

45:32 - 10 minute question: use dynamics

47:08 - Has a harmonica course on his website which teaches how to apply dynamics

47:29 - Corky has a great website with lots of information

47:50 - Has won various awards, including the national award for Chamber Music Composition, which he almost didn’t enter the competition for

48:37 - Corky’s place as a composer is accepted by the classical fraternity

49:46 - How composing has influenced Corky’s harmonica playing

50:38 - Diatonic of choice is the Special 20, some of which are customised by Joe Filisko

51:01 - Plays some overblows

51:13 - Mainly uses pucker (single note) embouchre, as this matched technique used when previously played saxophone

51:24 - Does play some tongue blocking, having learnt it from Billy Branch and Joe Filisko

52:12 - Plays some minor tuned harmonicas when orchestra is playing a minor section

52:53 - Just plays diatonics

52:59 - Amps: has a Fender Twin although has Bassman envy, but doesn’t use amps anymore

53:15 - Uses an EP boost in place of an amplifier, which sounds similar to the Fender Twin

53:30 - Now just plays directly into the PA uses a Shure 545 mic, which produces a clean sound, different than most blues players

54:14 - Doesn’t use any effects. Only ever used a volume booster for a short period of time

54:40 - When playing with orchestra plays mainly holds the the mic, but doesn’t on a few songs

55:04 - Doesn’t use many hand effects with the orchestra

55:20 - Future plans include a concert with a symphony in Illinois, some gigs in LA with a jazz saxophone player (Ernie Watts) and some solo dates

55:57 - Is trying to put his legacy in place and play music as long as possible

56:37 - Main legacy is the blues / classical ‘mash-up’, because nobody else is doing it

57:07 - The blues harmonica works in an orchestra setting

57:22 - No plans to write any more symphonies

57:33 - On latest album all the musicians played their parts in isolation from the orchestra, so they were performed like solo parts

58:04 - 45 instruments in the orchestra on the latest album

WEBVTT

00:00:00.226 --> 00:00:02.329
Corky Siegel joins me on episode 129.

00:00:04.051 --> 00:00:08.076
Corky was central in the emergence of the popularity of the blues to a white audience.

00:00:08.778 --> 00:00:17.068
His Siegel-Schwall band gained a residency at Chicago's Pepper Lounge, sharing the stage with blues giants such as Howling Wolf, Money Waters and Little Walter.

00:00:17.911 --> 00:00:25.701
The band were also part of San Francisco's 1967 Summer of Love, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Joni Mitchell and Janis Joplin.

00:00:26.658 --> 00:00:31.227
Corky has a unique place in harmonica history with his blues classical collaborations.

00:00:32.069 --> 00:00:47.921
After performing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1966, he has gone on to enjoy a platinum-selling classical record, composes numerous blues classical orchestral pieces, recorded with a chamber music ensemble and performed with orchestras around the world.

00:00:48.514 --> 00:00:51.060
This podcast is sponsored by Seidel Harmonicas.

00:00:51.521 --> 00:01:00.828
Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Seidel Harmonicas.

00:01:27.170 --> 00:01:29.031
Hello, Corky Siegel, and welcome to the podcast.

00:01:29.391 --> 00:01:30.492
Nice to hear from you, Neil.

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Yeah, great to have you on, Corky.

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And it'd be brilliant to talk through your long and illustrious career.

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So let's dive into that.

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So you were born in Chicago, and that's been an important part of your history and your story of the harmonica, yeah?

00:01:46.406 --> 00:01:49.129
Yeah, well, I was fortunate enough to be born here.

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So when I fell in love with blues, I was right here in the middle of it.

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Absolutely, yeah.

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So you also play piano.

00:01:57.135 --> 00:01:57.856
Piano as well, yeah.

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So which came first for you, the piano or the harmonica?

00:02:00.698 --> 00:02:02.781
Piano definitely came first.

00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:04.242
Harmonica was a late.

00:02:04.602 --> 00:02:11.328
It actually was piano, clarinet, saxophone, guitar, and then harmonica.

00:02:11.628 --> 00:02:11.848
Wow.

00:02:11.889 --> 00:02:15.072
So were those things, the other instruments, something you learned as a child?

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And did you focus in on the harmonica after those?

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I took some clarinet lessons when I was eight and probably some piano lessons around that time, but was a very bad student and so never really stuck with it.

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Then it was saxophone.

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But when the harmonica came around, I think it was probably 20, it fit so easily in my pocket.

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But you certainly perform on the piano, you know, through your career.

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Have you performed on those other instruments or did the harmonica take their place, saxophone, clarinet, etc.?

00:02:55.716 --> 00:03:06.855
Well, I was interested in music and I was playing saxophone and I would go sit and I actually sat in on saxophone with Mike Bloomfield and Billy Boy Arnold.

00:03:07.417 --> 00:03:09.139
Yeah, I actually played saxophone.

00:03:09.400 --> 00:03:14.729
I sat in with him probably in the 50s or at least in the very early 60s.

00:03:15.330 --> 00:03:23.203
So you picked up harmonica age 20, you say, and so what inspired you to take up the harmonica, besides it being easy to carry?

00:03:23.764 --> 00:03:32.318
Well, it was first the fellow from the Christie Minstrels, and he said, you know, Corky, harmonica's a really cool instrument, you should play it.

00:03:32.979 --> 00:03:37.044
So I just started playing it a little like Bob Dylan.

00:03:37.985 --> 00:03:43.822
when a neighbor walked by and brought me three blues albums, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Jimmy Reed.

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And he said, that's how you play the harmonica.

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And that turned my world around.

00:03:55.693 --> 00:04:00.020
And so you play, obviously, piano very well, and you play blues piano.

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So we'll get onto this topic shortly, but did you have sort of, you know, classical lessons on piano?

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And is that something that we might talk about later on?

00:04:07.875 --> 00:04:09.437
Is that something we're pushing in that direction?

00:04:09.598 --> 00:04:09.617
I

00:04:10.920 --> 00:04:13.305
did study classical music.

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I studied on piano.

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But again, I was a very, very poor student.

00:04:19.093 --> 00:04:26.564
In order to get into college, I had to practice scales to get through the entrance exam, and I was able to do that.

00:04:26.644 --> 00:04:32.572
But beyond that, I couldn't play more than a few measures of any simple classical piece.

00:04:33.293 --> 00:04:35.495
It was very much blues piano for you then, was it?

00:04:35.855 --> 00:04:36.197
Oh yeah,

00:04:36.396 --> 00:04:36.817
totally.

00:04:37.838 --> 00:04:40.942
So you've had a fantastic career and a fascinating career.

00:04:40.983 --> 00:04:45.829
So if you don't mind me saying now, I think you're 81 years young now, is that correct?

00:04:46.242 --> 00:04:48.983
81, yeah.

00:05:16.208 --> 00:05:18.411
certainly those in the area and around.

00:05:18.490 --> 00:05:20.572
So tell us about how that got started.

00:05:20.773 --> 00:05:24.517
Well, I met Jim at Roosevelt University.

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He was playing guitar in the jazz band and I was playing saxophone in this big school jazz band.

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And we met in the elevator and I was really interested in blues and I asked him if he played blues and he went, well, not really a little bit.

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And so I went over to his place and he was mainly bluegrass and country music.

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but he played a little blues.

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And so, you know, we put some blues tunes together, some that we wrote, but mostly, you know, from Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters.

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Went out to play and one of the, just finding somewhere to play.

00:06:01.184 --> 00:06:35.939
And we walked into this empty, coffee house there were two people in it and we asked if we could pull out the guitar and harmonica and we did and i was just learning to play harmonic and these two guys came over and as it turns out to make a long story short they were rado and ragni who wrote hair and we started working on hair with them on the musical hair And that was literally the first thing in our story, which I call an innocent victim of incredible good fortune, where we just sort of, we weren't even playing yet.

00:06:35.980 --> 00:06:36.800
We weren't a band.

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The second thing we did was walked into this club and we had more material by then.

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And I always said, we'd like to play here.

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And it was on the other side of the tracks.

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We were the only two white kids for miles around.

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And it was in the afternoon.

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And he said, we'll just set up here on the floor.

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women are coming in you could play for them so we played for them and he hired us immediately to play every thursday night from nine at night till four in the morning so here here we were as i say in in my liner notes listening to holland wolf and muddy waters flying out of the grooves of our lp records and now here we are on stage at peppers first time playing any gig we still weren't the seagull schwa band it was just jim and i yeah and who shows up and hops on stage is holland wolf then muddy waters

00:07:29.747 --> 00:07:31.930
what like the first time you played were they there

00:07:32.350 --> 00:07:51.637
yeah then will then willie dixon hound dog taylor otis span otis rush all these great players night after night after night coming to take us under their wing and sit in with us and take care of us every thursday night from nine to nine to four in the It's not like we went to sit in with them.

00:07:51.658 --> 00:07:54.048
It's like they came to take care of us.

00:07:54.978 --> 00:07:56.098
And you'll love this story.

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One guy shows up, says, I'd like to sit in, but it looked like he had been drinking a bit.

00:08:01.202 --> 00:08:02.904
He said, why don't you come back another time?

00:08:02.985 --> 00:08:04.867
And the audience yells, hey, let him sit in.

00:08:04.906 --> 00:08:05.968
That's Little Walter.

00:08:06.588 --> 00:08:08.350
And it gets a lot worse, Neil.

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So the audience yells, excellent.

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I'm thinking, who's Little Walter?

00:08:12.192 --> 00:08:14.235
I have no idea who the guy is.

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And here he is, the father of modern blues.

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So I say, come on and sit in.

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And he sits in.

00:08:19.259 --> 00:08:21.980
And when I hear him, of course, I recognize it.

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And I go, oh, my God, that's Little Walter.

00:08:24.103 --> 00:08:29.850
So that's how I met little Walter and got to play with him like right there and I was just learning to play

00:08:30.470 --> 00:08:44.826
yeah that's incredible so how do you think you know the club owner obviously invited you to play every Thursday do you know why he did that clearly like you say you weren't highly accomplished right so was it something about you being young white kids he wanted that in there or I

00:08:45.447 --> 00:08:58.019
think this is my best explanation because the question is why did Radu and Ragni want us to write a play with them why did Joni Mitchell want us to produce her first demo tape with Circle Game on it.

00:08:58.600 --> 00:09:07.072
Why did Seiji Ozawa, you know, later on, why did he want to have me be the guy to bring blues to classical music?

00:09:07.833 --> 00:09:08.936
And on and on and on.

00:09:10.096 --> 00:09:10.477
Why?

00:09:10.518 --> 00:09:21.495
Why did the whole city of San Francisco and the San Francisco Symphony want me to have an artist in residency there when I was just learning to play?

00:09:22.557 --> 00:09:23.197
What was it?

00:09:23.778 --> 00:09:27.942
And the best thing I could tell you is I was really having fun.

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I wasn't taking anything seriously.

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I was putting every bit of energy and love into what I was doing.

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And I was all about not the notes, not the techniques, but trying to experience expression.

00:09:46.888 --> 00:09:51.673
So for me, my focus was I want to feel what this is like.

00:09:52.258 --> 00:10:01.171
I don't want to try and play like someone else or play the notes or learn the techniques or play fast or play slow.

00:10:01.250 --> 00:10:02.072
None of that mattered.

00:10:02.152 --> 00:10:06.097
I just wanted to feel what it was like to play music.

00:10:06.818 --> 00:10:09.201
And I think that's what translated.

00:10:09.241 --> 00:10:16.993
And also, I've been very fortunate to not worry about what other people thought.

00:10:17.666 --> 00:10:23.594
you know, it was sort of fearless, just naturally fearless and I think, you know, a rebel I guess you might say.

00:10:23.614 --> 00:10:28.321
And I think that was attractive to everybody and I was happy.

00:10:43.169 --> 00:10:49.291
So you were, as I said, you were a big part of that young white kids getting involved in the blues in Chicago.

00:10:49.331 --> 00:10:54.673
So were you one of the first, you know, sort of, Charlie Musselwhite and, you know, and Jerry Pornhub.

00:10:54.692 --> 00:10:57.634
But I mean, you know, were they around at the same time as you?

00:10:57.674 --> 00:10:58.596
Well,

00:10:59.056 --> 00:10:59.917
they were ahead of me.

00:11:00.017 --> 00:11:06.743
Charlie was, Charlie Musselwhite and Paul Butterfield, Nick Revanitis, Steve Miller.

00:11:06.763 --> 00:11:08.163
I knew all of them.

00:11:08.183 --> 00:11:08.985
They were all friends.

00:11:09.605 --> 00:11:10.927
But I came in a little later.

00:11:10.947 --> 00:11:15.630
I came in a year later, maybe two years, in some cases, two years later.

00:11:16.091 --> 00:11:18.913
Like the Newport Folk Festival when Butterfield played that.

00:11:19.474 --> 00:11:34.604
He played it in, I think, 65 and I played in 67 I believe so but but you know Charlie who's by the way and one of the most amazing people you could ever meet he's just a beautiful guy loved Charlie so much.

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And I knew Paul Butterfield.

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Paul used to call me.

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Matter of fact, one of my great moments was I was staying at the Albert Hotel in New York and Paul Butterfield comes down with his record player and wants to play me his new record.

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It was so nice.

00:11:51.970 --> 00:12:03.044
oh yeah amazing stuff so obviously like you say you were getting money waters and howling wolf and little waltz were coming on stage with you and what was that like you know did they what did they teach you about the blues

00:12:03.946 --> 00:12:28.360
um well what i saw is that these guys put every bit of energy into everything they were doing and that was my my my lesson was a deep focus you know and that was it you know all these guys were playing with us but when we finally put together the seagull schwall band on the on the north side Howlin' Wolf came to the north side with his whole family to hear Siegel-Schwall.

00:12:29.022 --> 00:12:30.886
He wanted to introduce them to Siegel-Schwall.

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And he came up and he sat in with us and he came up to me and he said, I just want to let you know that I love your band.

00:12:38.155 --> 00:12:42.500
Siegelschwa is my favorite band, besides my own.

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He says, I love my guys, but your band.

00:12:45.883 --> 00:12:55.711
I mean, he didn't say this, but what I understood, and they told this to me, Muddy and Wolf had explained to me later, he said, we weren't like the other blues bands.

00:12:55.791 --> 00:13:01.176
We were doing something a little different, but it was still blues, you know, in an interesting way.

00:13:01.296 --> 00:13:19.460
So they really liked that, and they loved the idea of when the symphony thing started to happening they really love that idea too where all my a lot of my white contemporaries they didn't but the real guys did and they also were big fans of seagull schwall yeah which is amazing

00:13:19.820 --> 00:13:24.988
so you formed the the seagull schwall band i think you had your first album out in 1966

00:13:28.653 --> 00:13:29.374
i'll be the man i'll be the man i'll

00:13:35.809 --> 00:13:45.736
Yeah, and when we went to San

00:13:49.567 --> 00:14:04.269
Francisco We went in 1967, Summer of Love, and eventually we agreed to have Chet Helms manage us because we ended up being the hot band in San Francisco.

00:14:04.470 --> 00:14:06.071
Janis Joplin was a big fan.

00:14:06.150 --> 00:14:07.272
We were good friends with her.

00:14:07.613 --> 00:14:18.361
We were in the eye of the storm of the San Francisco Summer of Love, Siegel Schwall, because we were managed by the guy who started the whole thing, Chet Helms, and the owner of the Avalon Ballroom.

00:14:18.881 --> 00:14:19.042
Yeah.

00:14:19.482 --> 00:14:20.783
You weren't really playing the kind of...

00:14:20.783 --> 00:14:23.610
What sort of hippie music were you in San Francisco?

00:14:23.690 --> 00:14:25.774
What sort of stuff were you playing over there?

00:14:25.833 --> 00:14:27.717
Well, it was mostly blues.

00:14:28.219 --> 00:14:30.744
Blues was big, popular with the hippies as well, wasn't it?

00:14:31.183 --> 00:14:34.311
Yeah, blues-oriented, I would say, music.

00:14:35.513 --> 00:14:45.993
When Segal Shaw was formed and we got our audition at Big John's and won the audition, Big John's was ground zero of the blues rock explosion.

00:14:46.453 --> 00:15:02.668
What happened was when I put the band together, I wanted, because we weren't experienced players, I wanted to keep things very, very simple so we could focus on expression, you know, rather than worrying about complex forms.

00:15:03.207 --> 00:15:05.429
So I made it ultra simple.

00:15:05.610 --> 00:15:14.998
In fact, the shuffle, and I'll sing this to you, instead of the normal way of doing a shuffle, bum-da-dum, Right?

00:15:15.339 --> 00:15:20.163
The way we did it was...

00:15:23.806 --> 00:15:28.269
We kept the notes really short and it made the group sound really tight.

00:15:28.309 --> 00:15:35.135
And we would make sure we designed the beginnings and endings of the tunes and maybe something in the middle.

00:15:35.596 --> 00:15:37.977
Other than that, it was just really simple stuff.

00:15:38.197 --> 00:15:40.159
But we also used a lot of dynamics.

00:15:40.821 --> 00:15:47.298
And that was the key to Janis Joplin coming over and saying, you guys, you play so quiet.

00:15:47.678 --> 00:15:49.823
How come you get such an audience reaction?

00:15:50.326 --> 00:15:52.912
And I said, because we're not really playing quiet.

00:15:52.951 --> 00:15:54.897
We're just using a whole dynamic range.

00:15:55.361 --> 00:16:04.894
Yeah, well, maybe that's what attracted the classical composer to you, because obviously dynamics is big in classical music, not so much in, like you say, blues and pop music.

00:16:04.934 --> 00:16:06.977
So let's touch on that.

00:16:06.998 --> 00:16:12.785
I think it was in 1968 that you first attracted the attention of the composer.

00:16:18.714 --> 00:16:18.813
MUSIC

00:16:27.330 --> 00:16:32.955
There was a composer, William Russo, and the conductor, Seiji Ozawa.

00:16:33.414 --> 00:16:37.578
Yeah, the dynamics were important because dynamics is the key to expression.

00:16:37.619 --> 00:16:38.980
That's what I found out.

00:16:39.461 --> 00:16:45.745
You know, that if you go, Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.

00:16:46.245 --> 00:16:55.274
Or you go to, Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.

00:16:55.894 --> 00:16:57.296
You know, all of a sudden, things start to change.

00:16:57.296 --> 00:17:14.755
open up so yeah we did use a certain amount not a lot and now I'm totally focused on dynamics but back then we were just discovering it and I'm sure Seiji Ozawa that that was part of the attraction again it was expression was coming up

00:17:15.355 --> 00:17:16.936
so this is in 68 so you

00:17:16.957 --> 00:17:18.598
don't actually 66 66

00:17:20.621 --> 00:17:21.342
Ozawa was it

00:17:21.761 --> 00:17:22.061
yeah

00:17:22.462 --> 00:17:26.586
wow so that's when you'd only really just after you'd formed the Seagull Schwell band

00:17:26.907 --> 00:17:47.214
just immediately after and at Big John's the ground zero where Butterfield and all these blues players came and there's Seiji Ozawa the conductor of the Chicago Symphony sitting there asking me to jam with his band and then we started talking about how are we going to do it and it all happened at Big John's

00:17:47.715 --> 00:18:11.056
so then you premiered this three pieces for blues band and symphony orchestra which is the first thing you did with Ozawa yeah Is that something you were involved with composing yourself?

00:18:11.336 --> 00:18:24.186
Well, I was involved with the composition because Russo, the brilliant composer who composed for Leonard Bernstein, he was a trombonist with Stan Kenton and also the arranger for Stan Kenton.

00:18:24.788 --> 00:18:29.571
So he wouldn't have known exactly what to do without having deep conversations.

00:18:29.652 --> 00:18:36.958
In fact, he does credit me, not as a composer, but he credits me in his notes.

00:18:37.157 --> 00:18:43.724
He says that I actually helped him write the work and that's where i started learning about composition

00:18:44.326 --> 00:18:49.892
so you performed with the with us with a symphony orchestra was that the uh the chicago symphony orchestra yeah it was the

00:18:50.011 --> 00:18:51.373
chicago symphony in 1968

00:18:51.973 --> 00:18:56.238
how did that go down with the classical crowd were you playing to classical crowds i assume or

00:18:56.659 --> 00:19:25.626
yeah it was a classical audience they loved it it was amazing we were surprised because when when uh russo and sagey asked me how are we going to do this i the first thing i said to them is we should make sure we we do something for everyone to not like in other words and they laughed and they love the idea in other words we should just write something that we want to write and not worry about it and that's exactly what what happened

00:19:26.227 --> 00:19:33.073
so as far as you know was this the first time that uh we you know we had chicago blues and uh and the symphony orchestra playing together

00:19:33.113 --> 00:19:44.728
well whether it it was or not which i think it was but whether it was or not The thing that's different about these works is that it's not a symphony backing up a blues band.

00:19:45.367 --> 00:19:52.836
It's a symphony and a blues band in a partnership where classical and blues are being presented.

00:19:52.875 --> 00:19:53.757
They're the stars.

00:19:54.538 --> 00:19:57.000
So you don't just have the symphony take a back seat.

00:19:57.359 --> 00:20:06.910
It's a constant involvement in how do we have these two seemingly really diverse genres actually work together.

00:20:07.074 --> 00:20:36.825
together so we could hear both of them as i say chasing each other around the room what is interesting about that is even gershwin isn't an example of that because gershwin was basically writing jazz music for symphony You know, it was a blend.

00:20:37.405 --> 00:20:48.701
Symphonic blues and chamber blues, they were never intended to be a blend or a fusion, but two separate things happening simultaneously.

00:20:48.781 --> 00:20:51.885
So in that sense, I guarantee you it's never happened.

00:20:52.646 --> 00:20:56.913
And I actually only recently heard something that was similar.

00:20:57.665 --> 00:20:59.073
but only recently.

00:20:59.193 --> 00:21:03.656
So for all these years, nobody has really picked up that ball and run with it.

00:21:04.058 --> 00:21:05.807
So yeah, it was the first time.

00:21:06.241 --> 00:21:11.846
So were the symphony when you were playing with your band, were they playing from written scores as an orchestra normally would?

00:21:12.007 --> 00:21:12.247
Yes.

00:21:12.827 --> 00:21:13.868
I mean, what were you playing from?

00:21:13.929 --> 00:21:16.451
Your own, you know, your songs you were already performing or?

00:21:16.490 --> 00:21:20.394
We had the mapping of the piece.

00:21:20.875 --> 00:21:27.000
Some places there were melodies we were playing, but mostly we were just completely improvised.

00:21:27.480 --> 00:21:29.821
And so you released an album in 1973.

00:21:30.163 --> 00:21:32.704
I think it was the first album you made with this.

00:21:33.025 --> 00:21:35.748
Okay, I think 73 was...

00:21:36.208 --> 00:21:38.939
three pieces for blues band and symphony and orchestra.

00:21:39.299 --> 00:21:40.786
And that was on Deutsche Grammophon.

00:21:41.328 --> 00:21:48.636
And then after that recording, I recommended to Bill Russo and Seiji, hey, how about if we do another piece?

00:21:48.757 --> 00:21:56.006
Because by then, Siegelschwa disbanded the day of the 1968 concert with Chicago Symphony.

00:21:56.366 --> 00:21:57.808
That's when we took a break.

00:21:58.470 --> 00:22:13.470
So I started putting solo material together in 1974 and suggested to Seiji and Russo that we could write another piece, and that was street music.

00:22:14.049 --> 00:22:14.365
Thank you.

00:22:21.602 --> 00:22:23.784
And that was also recorded on Deutsche Grammophon.

00:22:24.064 --> 00:22:27.866
So Deutsche Grammophon are a prestigious classical label from Germany, right?

00:22:28.307 --> 00:22:28.508
Yeah.

00:22:28.867 --> 00:22:31.990
Yeah, so, I mean, that was a big deal, right, getting with us.

00:22:32.010 --> 00:22:34.772
That was like a big record label for you to get on, yeah?

00:22:35.253 --> 00:22:36.035
Yeah, it was big.

00:22:36.414 --> 00:22:38.977
The three pieces was one of their biggest sellers.

00:22:39.538 --> 00:22:40.218
Went platinum.

00:22:40.458 --> 00:22:41.419
Went platinum, wow.

00:22:41.839 --> 00:22:47.203
So all the amazing classical musicians they had on their label, you were one of the biggest sellers.

00:22:47.243 --> 00:22:50.247
That must have been an amazing pride for you to get that.

00:22:50.926 --> 00:22:52.969
I just sort of I never thought about it.

00:22:53.789 --> 00:22:57.374
You've toured a lot with orchestras as a result of this, right?

00:22:58.315 --> 00:23:02.839
Was that in this time in the 70s that O'Reilly took off and you were playing with a lot of orchestras?

00:23:03.461 --> 00:23:07.224
I would say I was playing with a lot of orchestras for a blues guy.

00:23:07.825 --> 00:23:13.852
And I think it's about 50 orchestras up to this point.

00:23:14.412 --> 00:23:17.736
And so you're playing just diatonic harmonica, aren't you, in these?

00:23:17.776 --> 00:23:20.739
You're not playing written music on chromatic, are you?

00:23:20.778 --> 00:23:21.279
It's all blues?

00:23:21.299 --> 00:23:21.519
No.

00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:23.521
Yeah, no overblows either.

00:23:23.561 --> 00:23:25.744
You said there were some melodies written out for you.

00:23:25.765 --> 00:23:30.009
I mean, were you doing any sort of reading for these parts, or is it mainly improvised that you're playing?

00:23:30.450 --> 00:23:40.079
Yeah, a little bit of reading, but I'd memorize it, because I can't sight-read, but I could know what the notes are.

00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:40.740
Yeah.

00:23:41.361 --> 00:23:52.712
So, I mean, clearly this has been done a lot with chromatic harmonicas playing classical music with orchestras, so to do it on a blues setting, like you say, is really unique and a great place that you've got in the history of that

00:23:52.973 --> 00:24:12.855
yeah the point is that the diatonic harmonica is the blues instrument and that was the point of the piece to use a different technique to fit in more with classical wasn't wasn't at all the point the point is to play the blues licks that i knew and find a way of having them work with a classical format

00:24:13.134 --> 00:24:48.817
just talking about your seagull scroll like you say you took a sort of break in in 68 but you kind of reformed a few times didn't you you had some albums through the 70s and then you did a re union concert in 1968 which was on the alligator label so uh you know that's another great label for you to be on so is that the only one you did with alligator

00:24:49.250 --> 00:24:51.413
I did four albums with Alligator.

00:24:51.692 --> 00:24:54.657
Two were Chamber Blues and two were Segal Schwall.

00:24:55.057 --> 00:24:59.545
And then I think you did your last album with Segal Schwall in 2005, Flash Forward.

00:24:59.585 --> 00:24:59.825
Yes.

00:25:12.021 --> 00:25:17.190
And what I could tell you is I never went on the road, you know, as such.

00:25:17.761 --> 00:25:29.461
It wasn't a good business partnership with Alligator because they really needed groups that were constantly on the road selling albums.

00:25:29.961 --> 00:25:31.103
So we weren't doing that.

00:25:31.182 --> 00:25:34.147
So we weren't there, a very big seller for them.

00:25:34.608 --> 00:25:37.554
And it was sort of disappointing because Bruce and I are really good friends.

00:25:38.114 --> 00:25:44.534
So, and then also after you had one of your breaks from Siegel's show, you had a solo career as well.

00:25:44.634 --> 00:25:47.824
So you had, you know, various solo

00:25:48.326 --> 00:25:48.445
albums.

00:25:49.794 --> 00:25:59.663
Listen to the midnight radio Listen to the

00:26:00.242 --> 00:26:04.366
midnight radio These were not so much blues, a little bit more mainstream.

00:26:04.846 --> 00:26:06.327
I don't know, what would you say?

00:26:06.608 --> 00:26:08.809
Full pop, I'm not sure.

00:26:09.351 --> 00:26:35.162
Today I just call them sagacious because they sort of just come out of nowhere and they don't follow so much of any trends or preconceived And a lot of these songs, you're playing piano on them?

00:26:36.023 --> 00:26:39.528
Yeah, a lot

00:26:39.548 --> 00:26:40.130
is piano.

00:26:40.481 --> 00:26:52.752
yeah and so you're you're um you're singing and playing piano on a lot of these and then there's there's harmonica on them as well obviously but are you are you writing the songs you know on on piano and is that how you're basing a lot of your compositions of your own songs

00:26:53.393 --> 00:27:02.461
yeah yeah it's it's mostly piano but when i feel like oh i need to have a tune for harmonica then i just work on the harmonica and write the song in the harmonica

00:27:02.961 --> 00:27:08.286
and so on the album were you overdubbing harmonica solos over the top or would you do them separately or

00:27:08.747 --> 00:27:13.550
when i when i do a live show i do a things where I'm playing piano and harmonica at the same time.

00:27:13.811 --> 00:27:15.472
But when I record, I overdo it.

00:27:15.794 --> 00:27:18.557
But when you're playing live, you don't use a rack and harmonica.

00:27:18.576 --> 00:27:19.897
You use one-handed piano, is it?

00:27:20.419 --> 00:27:21.319
Yeah, I use one

00:27:21.359 --> 00:27:21.579
hand.

00:27:21.859 --> 00:27:23.642
It seems to be the way with piano players.

00:27:23.662 --> 00:27:28.467
They seem to prefer that one-handed piano and holding the harmonica rather than playing on a rack.

00:27:28.728 --> 00:27:29.228
Why is that?

00:27:31.450 --> 00:27:32.632
We're not very smart.

00:27:34.953 --> 00:27:36.215
You're talking about Howard Levy.

00:27:36.336 --> 00:27:37.376
Howard Levy does that.

00:27:38.478 --> 00:27:48.769
I've toured a lot with Howard Levy, just to the two of us and we would do a thing where we're both playing the piano the same piano and the harmonica but he'll switch hands you know stuff like that

00:27:49.229 --> 00:28:07.929
well I guess as a piano player you're treating the harmonica as your sort of right hand is that maybe that explains why you do it that way exactly yeah yeah so as you say though you're good friends with Howard Levy who also is obviously an amazing piano player as well as the amazing harmonica and also Joe Felisco you're good friends with yeah

00:28:08.329 --> 00:28:17.855
oh yeah in fact on the symphony work that i just wrote one of the pieces well it was based on a chamber blues piece but it's called felisco's dream

00:28:31.074 --> 00:28:33.137
Joe's influence stretches far and wide.

00:28:33.178 --> 00:28:37.066
He's definitely the most referenced person on all my podcasts.

00:28:37.105 --> 00:28:38.067
People mention Joe.

00:28:38.107 --> 00:28:41.114
He's got his finger in all sorts of harmonica pies.

00:28:41.294 --> 00:28:43.980
Joe, everyone knows him and he's touched on so many harmonica plays.

00:28:44.019 --> 00:28:44.961
He does an incredible job.

00:28:45.410 --> 00:28:47.751
yeah and Howard too of course

00:28:47.791 --> 00:28:57.760
Howard too of course yeah no so so yeah fantastic so you had this this solo period where you in the 70s and you did a couple more solo albums in in 2022 I think

00:28:58.240 --> 00:29:06.468
yeah in 2022 I released a chamber blues album and two solo albums all in the same month all in September of 2022 yeah

00:29:07.288 --> 00:29:22.521
and you did your songs for truth and harmony album so this was this is relevant because my last podcast episode was about Bob Dylan and so this This is, as I'm reading, I think, from your website, Lionel, invoking the energies of Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and the Dalai Lama.

00:29:22.821 --> 00:29:24.423
So quite relevant to that.

00:29:24.443 --> 00:29:26.625
And again, that sort of folk and quite political.

00:29:26.705 --> 00:29:29.407
And that was the album in 22, yeah.

00:29:30.088 --> 00:29:31.930
Yeah, very political.

00:29:31.950 --> 00:29:34.231
At least one song is very political.

00:29:34.271 --> 00:29:39.636
All the other songs, they're only political because why can't we just get along?

00:29:39.977 --> 00:29:52.317
Where human kindness leaves no trail or no clues Where the big time losers sing the big time losers blues.

00:29:52.769 --> 00:29:57.653
And then you've done a lot of classical stuff again recently, haven't you?

00:29:57.713 --> 00:30:00.477
So you've mentioned the chamber blues a couple of times.

00:30:00.537 --> 00:30:01.978
So let's talk about that one.

00:30:02.038 --> 00:30:08.503
So the chamber blues is a combination you've got of Chicago chamber music musicians.

00:30:08.523 --> 00:30:12.948
So again, the chamber music, if people don't know, is a sort of small ensemble classical music, right?

00:30:12.988 --> 00:30:16.009
So you generally get like four classical musicians playing together.

00:30:16.530 --> 00:30:22.736
Yeah, actually a string quartet with two violins, viola and cello and a tabla player.

00:30:22.736 --> 00:30:23.758
from India.

00:30:37.122 --> 00:30:46.710
I started writing that in 1983, and first recorded it in 1994.

00:30:46.750 --> 00:30:49.112
And that album just went out of print.

00:30:49.172 --> 00:30:51.994
Someone ordered it today, and I already ran out.

00:30:52.335 --> 00:30:53.856
I'll have to work with Alligator on that.

00:30:53.916 --> 00:30:55.337
But that was an Alligator record.

00:30:55.617 --> 00:30:59.000
So this is Corky Siegel's Chamber Blues, a 1994 album.

00:30:59.240 --> 00:31:00.281
Yeah, and same thing.

00:31:00.362 --> 00:31:03.944
It isn't a string quartet backing up a blues guy.

00:31:04.566 --> 00:31:29.412
It's a string quartet and a blues guy playing their own music genre and finding ways of working together and so my compositions it's sort of weird the way I write but one of the things I always have in mind is making sure the string quartet is very active and very classical and that I'm just sticking to my blues and finding how to write so that these things could complement each other.

00:31:29.872 --> 00:31:31.273
That's what chamber blues is about.

00:31:31.653 --> 00:31:34.416
Yeah, so what made you start the chamber blues specifically?

00:31:34.477 --> 00:31:38.122
Is it that smaller ensemble you wanted to The

00:31:38.201 --> 00:31:41.008
symphony was very difficult to get into a bus.

00:31:42.731 --> 00:31:46.779
I was writing a piece for the Grand Park Symphony at the time.

00:31:47.381 --> 00:31:51.288
I've written about seven or eight symphonic commissions.

00:31:51.874 --> 00:31:58.306
And again, you could ask the question, why did they come to me and ask me to write symphonic music?

00:31:58.766 --> 00:32:00.269
You know, it makes no sense.

00:32:01.090 --> 00:32:09.404
The first commission was in 1976 from the San Francisco Symphony, the City of San Francisco Symphony, and Arthur Fiedler.

00:32:09.826 --> 00:32:13.933
They wanted me to write something for Arthur Fiedler, and I had never written anything in my life.

00:32:14.402 --> 00:32:19.425
much less a symphony piece, other than sitting around with the blues band writing stuff, right?

00:32:19.987 --> 00:32:21.807
So I said, you guys are crazy.

00:32:21.847 --> 00:32:22.989
There's no way I could do this.

00:32:23.089 --> 00:32:24.310
Oh, come on, you can do it.

00:32:24.931 --> 00:32:25.711
So I did it.

00:32:25.731 --> 00:32:28.013
Did you write the parts for all the instruments?

00:32:28.273 --> 00:32:28.554
Yeah.

00:32:29.115 --> 00:32:29.375
Wow.

00:32:30.796 --> 00:32:37.041
I got a book on orchestration, you know, and I didn't read it, but I used it as a reference when I had a question.

00:32:37.602 --> 00:32:41.244
And it came out in a way that all of a sudden I got other commissions from that.

00:32:41.925 --> 00:32:44.067
Grand Park Symphony, the National Symphony.

00:32:44.367 --> 00:32:48.615
They all wanted me to write stuff, and it went on from there.

00:32:49.056 --> 00:32:52.362
So you did your first symphony in 1966.

00:32:52.603 --> 00:33:00.436
Have you continually been working with symphonies and chamber music since then, or did you come back to it in the 90s with the chamber blues?

00:33:01.438 --> 00:33:03.121
Well, it was always symphonies.

00:33:03.701 --> 00:33:07.669
I was always turning down offers to write because it took too much time.

00:33:08.130 --> 00:33:11.133
But eventually it would catch up with me and I'd end up writing.

00:33:11.833 --> 00:33:31.549
And that went on until 83 when I thought, you know what, it'd be much easier to write this kind of music bringing blues to classical, which I felt was important because I'd be exposing the element of blues to classical audience that would have otherwise never heard the blues or be interested in it.

00:33:31.871 --> 00:33:41.400
And after my shows, I would have people running up to me and I'd get to tell them about Holland Wolfe and all these other people So I was, what's the slogan?

00:33:42.342 --> 00:33:43.563
Keep the blues alive.

00:33:44.144 --> 00:33:50.893
I felt like I'd been contributing to that for my whole career, practically, in a very big way.

00:33:52.194 --> 00:33:58.502
Well, watching some of the videos of you with the chamber blues, you can really see the joy on the chamber musicians' faces.

00:33:58.563 --> 00:34:00.965
They seem to really be loving playing the blues.

00:34:06.594 --> 00:34:06.814
piano plays

00:34:14.434 --> 00:34:16.804
Yeah, I mean, they love this combination.

00:34:16.824 --> 00:34:21.063
Of course, if you listen to what they're doing, it's mostly classical.

00:34:21.634 --> 00:34:23.456
Once in a while, they sneak in a little.

00:34:23.476 --> 00:34:27.338
Even their shuffles are written in a way that they're classical shuffles.

00:34:27.980 --> 00:34:29.681
So they're very straight, are they?

00:34:29.721 --> 00:34:31.021
They're straight against the...

00:34:31.202 --> 00:34:43.693
Yeah, and it really swings because the contrast between straight and not straight creates a lot of energy and actually creates a big swing feel, just naturally.

00:34:44.032 --> 00:34:45.474
So are they improvising at all?

00:34:45.594 --> 00:34:50.659
Because obviously, kind of famously, classical musicians are not sports people to improvise, even though they're amazing musicians.

00:34:50.699 --> 00:34:54.402
So do they have a Do they have some scope to improvise with you?

00:34:54.963 --> 00:35:05.536
Yes, a few of them have improvisation skills, and therefore, once in a while, though it isn't the purpose of Chamber Blues, I do have them do some improvisation now and again.

00:35:05.577 --> 00:35:07.338
Yeah, so that's fantastic.

00:35:07.358 --> 00:35:11.744
So you've done, I think, four Chamber Blues albums, is it, you've done in total?

00:35:11.784 --> 00:35:12.945
Five.

00:35:25.601 --> 00:35:40.318
And so as you touched on earlier on, in 2024, just November, I think, so just a couple of months ago, you released Symphonic Blues, which is your latest, you know, symphonic, which has got the Felisco's Dream on, which is one you mentioned earlier on.

00:35:41.880 --> 00:35:44.902
Yeah, and this has been a, it got great critical success.

00:35:45.003 --> 00:35:47.686
And, you know, again, you've just done it again, right?

00:35:47.746 --> 00:35:50.168
So this is your latest one with a symphony, yeah?

00:35:50.748 --> 00:35:50.989
Yes.

00:35:51.929 --> 00:35:54.813
Well, first of all, it took me a year to write.

00:35:55.393 --> 00:36:08.300
It was originally commissioned by the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra with Steven Gunzenhauser, and it was 2007 that I wrote this piece and premiered it in 2008.

00:36:08.340 --> 00:36:15.755
And by the way, I wrote another one a few years later, but this one was my favorite, and that's why I chose this to record.

00:36:28.161 --> 00:36:35.092
So I performed it all over around the world and loved it so much, and everyone loved it so much, I thought, boy, I better record it.

00:36:36.257 --> 00:36:47.867
yeah no definitely yeah so this has been around for a while so you talk about touring the world I know you played in the US and Canada and Mexico and Europe so have you played in some you know the famous concert halls in those places

00:36:48.389 --> 00:37:06.557
well I played at Kennedy Center and I played at Lincoln Center okay so we got those out of the way I played the Aspen Music Festival at the Big Ten with Chamber Blues in India I played at the National Center for the Arts I think is what it's called and Mumbai Thank you.

00:37:06.657 --> 00:37:08.278
with Dr.

00:37:08.358 --> 00:37:08.440
L.

00:37:08.480 --> 00:37:10.340
Subramaniam because I toured with him too.

00:37:10.942 --> 00:37:12.342
I never played Carnegie Hall.

00:37:13.304 --> 00:37:13.603
Not yet.

00:37:14.625 --> 00:37:16.726
We'll have to get you to the proms in the UK.

00:37:17.387 --> 00:37:17.447
I

00:37:17.527 --> 00:37:19.768
did a prom in the UK.

00:37:20.170 --> 00:37:23.733
A very suburban symphony here in Chicago.

00:37:24.393 --> 00:37:26.675
I performed with and they loved it so much.

00:37:27.175 --> 00:37:29.818
The guy had some connections in England.

00:37:30.438 --> 00:37:42.030
So the whole symphony took me to England with them and I did two concerts, one in tronberry or something like that but one was in in in london and we did the prom in london

00:37:42.170 --> 00:37:52.820
in the royal albert hall oh fantastic yeah so when you're touring around like this are you playing with the orchestras in the countries you're going to or are you you know touring with a one orchestra generally

00:37:52.860 --> 00:38:07.878
no and you know just to clarify i'm not really touring i wouldn't call it touring because you know i may play four four concerts a year with orchestras yeah yeah i mean i went to germany and i played six concerts with them.

00:38:07.898 --> 00:38:14.166
I went to Germany another time and played nine concerts with the same symphony but in different places.

00:38:14.567 --> 00:38:21.896
But the only time I ever toured with a symphony was that one I just told you about when we went to England.

00:38:31.554 --> 00:38:32.155
Hey, everybody.

00:38:32.195 --> 00:38:45.898
You're listening to Neil Warren's Harmonica Happy Hour Podcast, sponsored by Tom Halcheck and Blue Moon Harmonicas out of Clearwater, Florida, the best in custom harmonicas, custom harmonica parts, and more.

00:38:46.378 --> 00:38:50.485
Check them out, www.bluemoonharmonicas.com.

00:38:50.849 --> 00:38:56.885

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