Larry Adler, All Mouth Organ  

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Larry Adler - All Mouth Organ

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Larry Adler, All Mouth Organ

25/06/2016

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Larry Adler - All Mouth Organ

A tribute to the virtuoso musician Larry Adler

Nick Baker pays tribute to virtuoso musician Larry Adler, deconstructing his life and presenting rare archive recordings.

Nick Baker explores the remarkable life of American virtuoso musician Larry Adler.  

Larry's achievement was to take the harmonica, until then thought of as a children's toy, onto the concert stages of the world. He did this with a parallel career as a celebrity, a raconteur, writer and funny man. 

This celebration of his work includes rare archive and new contributions from broadcaster Paul Gambaccini, author Michael Freedland along with musician Philip Achille and those close to him. 

* "The Adler Archives" - a selection of hidden gems.  

* "Nice Work if You Can Get It (part one) - The Tin Sandwich" 
Russell Davies explores Adler's early days in Baltimore, tours of the United States and how his virtuoso harmonica playing inspired composers. From 2001.  

* "Deconstructing Larry"  
A new programme sees Nick Baker attempting to unravel the mercurial world of the infamous mouth organist.

* "Blow Suck - The World's Most Successful Instrument"
Nick Baker traces the history of the harmonica. From 1987.   

* "Nice Work if You Can Get It (part two) - It Ain't Necessarily So" 
Russell Davies concludes his series on Adler with more anecdotes and musical tales. From 2001

Larry Adler died in 2001 aged 87.  

Producer: Stephen Garner 

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in June 2016.

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