Christian Marsh interview

01:33 - Christian is from Australia, just north of Sydney

01:45 - Plays diatonic and chromatic harmonica, starting diatonic first at age 14, inspired by rock records of his brother

02:05 - Initially liked the sound of the hammond organ but family couldn’t afford one of those so opted for the harmonica (which he also liked the sound of)

02:42 - Christian was a surfer and took the harmonica to the beach to play

03:43 - Self-taught on the harmonica, initially from playing along with records

04:18 - Norton Buffalo and Charlie McCoy were early inspirations

05:07 - Joined a high-school band where he learned the role of the harmonica in the band

05:45 - Perfectionist and always practising during these formulative years

06:17 - Lee Oskar in the band War was another inspiration and later Christian recorded Low Rider

07:28 - Started playing chromatic age 17, after first hearing Larry Adler on tv years earlier

07:48 - Record store owner played Toots Thielemans to Christian, which really turned him on to chromatic

08:36 - Learning scales was the first step on learning the chromatic

08:49 - Did the maintenance of Larry Adler’s harmonicas when he was touring Australia with the Glory of Gershwin album

09:52 - Story of how Christian acquired one of Larry’s silver slides from his Silver Concerto chromatic

11:10 - I have one of Toots Thielemans slides in one of my chromatics

11:29 - Started learning chromatic age 17, initially learning different scales

12:11 - Joined a group jazz class at the Sydney Conservatorium, to improve musical and jazz knowledge

13:04 - Worked equally on the diatonic and chromatic, and applied scale knowledge from chromatic practise to the diatonic practise. This helped in versatility and getting work

14:00 - Started learning overblows after discovering Howard Levy, who Christian do perform with at a workshop

15:14 - Did a jazz improvisation course following the foundation course at Sydney Conservatorium, playing with a range of different instruments

16:32 - This taught Christian the skills of how to navigate and learn jazz tunes and applied jazz learnings to pop and rock songs he was performing then

17:27 - Has recorded many sessions in Australia, appearing on over sixty albums, meeting several contacts at a Country music festival over there

18:41 - Developed the typical fast playing of the Country style, including performing Orange Blossom Special

19:17 - New album coming out in January 2024 (Christian Marsh and the Imagineers) uses Country musicians in a jazz genre, for a cross-over concept

21:14 - Being a multi-genre player of the harmonica gets Christian more work, and it’s all music to him

23:31 - First album release was in 1997, Planet Bound, where Christian experimented with different effects and sounds on the harmonica

25:13 - Second album, The Sketch, makes more use of the chromatic and has Frank Zappa’s drummer

26:10 - The Lilting is an album Christian released with a concert pianist and a didgeridoo player, following a tour of Asia

27:51 - Performed Sven Libaek’s Harmonica Concerto in 2007 & 2008 with the Newcastle Symphony orchestra

28:26 - Chromatic harmonica was used extensively on nature programmes in Australia through the composer, Sven Libaek

28:51 - How Christian got the gig playing the concerto

30:22 - How went about playing a concerto without being a highly proficient reader of music scores

31:34 - Played Henry Mancini’s Breakfast at Tiffanys with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House, which was terrifying

32:40 - Both Larry Adler and Toots Thielemans advised Christian to strive for his own sound

33:43 - Also developed tone by trying to emulate saxophone players, like Stan Getz, Pat Metheny’s guitar playing

34:34 - Chromatic playing reflects what he plays on diatonic, and vice versa

35:35 - Likes to play gently to get the best tone, and let the amplification cover the sound level

36:39 - Recorded bass harmonica with Ed Kuepper, a well known composer in Australia

37:25 - How got started on the bass harmonica, and playing it in a stage musical, Big River, which also included playing some harmonica on stage

39:23 - Has done lots of tv work in Australia

40:10 - Has won some awards, including the Hohner ‘Gold Harmonica Awards’ 3 times at Hohner’s National Harmonica Championship in Tamworth

41:06 - Competition was great for development as a player, and the prize money was good

42:05 - 10 minute question

42:57 - Works on getting the overblows and overdraws really clean

43:57 - Does own maintenance and set-up of harmonicas. Feels it needs to be done for his individual needs

45:13 - Larry Adler learnt to play his chromatics very hard (in order to be heard in large halls in the early days), so he wanted his reeds tuned to 445 as they would flatten to 442 as he played

46:44 - Reed gappings that Christian uses and solo from song ‘Hard To Understand’

48:17 - Tunes harmonicas to 442

48:27 - Doesn’t need to re-tune harmonicas much now as they stay in tune more than when younger

49:10 - Norton Buffalo gave advice to play gently and let the amp bring the volume

49:41 - Hohner endorser, playing Rocket diatonics (previously Meisterklasse and Special 20s)

51:01 - Started playing a Larry Adler chromatic, now plays the Super 64, only playing four octaves

52:18 - Owns a DM48 and has used it live for a hammond organ sound, using a Proteus 2000

52:49 - Doesn’t use the DM48 as a trumpet, etc. because feels he can’t play it to sound like a trumpet (or the other instruments it can emulate)

53:55 - Embouchre: mostly pucker

54:35 - Uses AER amp for chromatic and diatonic, with multi-effects processor for the sounds he wants

56:28 - Favourite mic is Beyer 88

56:44 - Future plans include plans to record an Americana album with Rory Ellis, as well as the new album coming out with The Imagineers