Larry Adler playing "Blues in the Night" in 1944

Larry Adler never played the diatonic. Born in 1914 into a Jewish family in Baltimore, he watched his plumber father digging a ditch one day and swore never to do manual labor. Instead, he taught himslef to play harmonica and as a teenager went on the vaudeville circuit of live variety theaters that existed in the first half of the 20th century, determined to stand out as a soloist. An aggressive and tireless self-promoter, he rubbed elbows with such big names as George Gershwin, Al Capone, Maurice Ravel, Bob Hope, and Ingrid Bergman. 

Several classical harmonica concertos were written for him by such prominent 20the centurey composers as Darius Milhaud, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Arthur Benjamin, and Malcom Arnold. He also recorded four sides with legendary gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt in Paris in 1938.

Adler was caught up in the red scare of the early 1950s, branded a communist despite suing his accuser for libel, and lived the rest of his life in England, where he died in 2001 after recording a "Glory of Gershwin" CD conducted by George Martin of Beatles fame and featuring a host of famous singers, including Cher, Elton John, Elvis Costello, and Sinead O'Connor.

This recording of "Blues in the Night" was made in 1944 with the John Kirby Orchestra. I remember hearing this on the radio as a teenager and being impressed with how sexy the chromatic could sound, and how many different tone colors it could produce. Also, note how he uses flutter-tongued blow chords (fluttering the tip of his tongue on the roof of his mouth, not on the harmonica) to create a growling sound.