GENE NORMAN PRESENTS “JUST JAZZ”
featuring
LES THOMPSON and his HARMONICA
Recorded Live at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium
RCA Victor LPM-3102
February 2, 1952
A New Note in Music . . .
LES THOMPSON
“EMGE FLIPS OVER NEW JAZZ HARMONICA PLAYER” read the headline in the March 7, 1952 issue of Down Beat. The story that followed, by the Beat’s West Coast
correspondent, Charles Emge, reported the sensation created at Gene Norman’s Pasadena Jazz Concert of February 2nd by the first big-time appearance of Les Thompson. Emge “flipped”
to the extent of describing him as “a young and virtually unknown musician who might well turn out to be the biggest find of the year -- and maybe several years.”
Emge admitted that he and other reporters were intrigued by Norman’s advance announcement that the “special added attraction” on a bill featuring Billy Ekstine, Helen Humes and
the band featured in this collection would be a harmonica player.
A harmonica player! It sounded like a joke. Expecting an opportunity for some satiric reporting, Emge and other hep characters went, as the saying goes, to jeer -- and stayed to cheer. In fact,
Les “didn’t have to play more than a few bars before critical listeners were sitting up in their seats in amazement.”
The cause of all the excitement is a young deputy clerk in the traffic division of the Los Angeles Police Department who’s been playing the harmonica just for fun since he was seven. Until
that Norman concert, his music-making had consisted of occasional paid appearances at clubs, a few TV appearances, and sit-in shots at jazz sessions. One of those appearances brought him to Gene
Norman’s attention.
Les plays a standard four-octave chromatic harmonica attached to an electrical amplifier he built himself. He’s aware that much of the interest in him results from the novelty of hearing a
harmonica play jazz. “I always get a kick,” he says, “out of the looks I get when I show up with my harmonica some place where the guys don’t know me and ask them if I can sit
in. They always think it’s just a gag and decide to go along with the gag. I don’t blame them -- it is kind of funny.”
Back in Warwick, North Dakota, where he was born, about the only music he heard played was western and the usual pop music. But via records and radio, he listened to a lot of jazz -- the Goodman
Sextet, Johnny Hodges with the Ellington band, and Willie Smith -- whom he thought more of than any individual musician. Today, Ella Fitzgerald and George Shearing head the list -- a long one -- of
musicians he admires and likes to listen to.
The liking for Shearing is evident in his own playing. “His approach is somewhat like Shearing’s,” Emge reported, “in that he establishes and maintains firm melodic
contact, highly flavored with bop influences . . . which is not surprising inasmuch as Thompson learned everything he knows about music by listening to records and practicing on his harmonica . . .
like Shearing, he has real virtuosity and complete command of his instrument, plus a modern conception of rhythmic music, good taste and a natural sense of showmanship.
“On top of that, stage presence and a pleasant personality. The crowd loved him.”
One non-musical reason the crowd loved him is that they sensed -- correctly -- that Les is a normal, well-balanced young man who’s much too level-headed to be thrown off-balance by the
sensation he has caused. With a job that supports him, a home with his wife and two children in San Pedro, he’s able to take his music as a hobby, an avocation. It makes for relaxed living and
relaxed music-making.
Take The “A” Train
Stardust
Robbin’s Nest
I’m In The Mood For Love
Undecided
Over The Rainbow
Oh! Lady Be Good
Hot Harmonica Boogie
Personnel
Les Thompson - harmonica
Wardell Gray - tenor sax
Dexter Gordon - tenor sax
Conti Condoli - trumpet
Chico Hamilton - drums
Bobby Tucker - piano
Bob Harrington - piano
Don Bagley - bass
Red Callender - bass
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