Larry Adler

Lawrence "Larry" Cecil Adler, (February 10, 1914 – August 7, 2001), was an American musician, widely acknowledged as one of the world's most skilled harmonica players. Composers such as Vaughan-Williams, Malcolm Arnold, and Darius Milhaud composed works for him. During the later stage of his career he was known for his collaborations with popular musicians Sting, Kate Bush, and Cerys Matthews.

Biography

Personal life

Larry Adler was born in Baltimore, Maryland, into a Jewish family and graduated from the Baltimore City College high school. [cite web |url= http://www.nndb.com/people/174/000086913/|title= Larry Adler |accessdate=2008-04-28 |format= |work= NNDB] He moved to London in 1949 and lived there for the remainder of his life. Adler had four children, two grandchildren and two great grandchildren. He died peacefully in St Thomas' Hospital, London, at the age of 87, on 7 August 2001. He was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium, where his ashes remain.

Musical career

Adler taught himself harmonica (which he preferred to call a mouth-organ) [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/198252.stm] and began playing professionally at the age of 14. In 1927, the harmonica was popular enough that the "Baltimore Sun" newspaper sponsored a contest. His rendition of a Beethoven minuet won him the award, and a year later, he ran away from home to New York. After being referred by Rudy Vallee, Adler got his first theatre work, and caught the attention of orchestra leader Paul Ash, who placed Adler in a vaudeville act as "a ragged urchin, playing for pennies" [ "Current Biography 1944", pp3-5 ] . From there, he was hired by Flo Ziegfeld and then by Lew Leslie (again as an urchin). Adler finally broke the typecasting and appeared in a dinner jacket in the 1934 Paramount film "Many Happy Returns", and was hired by British theatrical producer C.B. Cochran to perform in a London revue. Adler found stardom in the United Kingdom and the British Empire; where, it has been written, harmonica sales increased twenty-fold and 300,000 people joined fan clubs [ Id., at p4 ] . Adler was one of the first harmonica players to perform major works written for the instrument, often written expressly for him: Vaughan Williams' "Romance for Harmonica and Orchestra", Milhaud's "Suite Anglais", and Malcolm Arnold's Concerto for Harmonica and Orchestra were all composed for him. Prior to these pieces, Adler performed transcriptions of pieces written for other instruments, such as violin concertos by Bach and Vivaldi.

Forced to leave the country by false accusations of communist sympathies during the era of McCarthyism (which made it impossible for Adler to find work), he moved to the United Kingdom in 1949. The accusations, although without foundation, led to a general sentiment of disregard towards him in the USA during the 1950s and early 1960s. Adler settled in London and lived there for the rest of his life. The 1953 film "Genevieve" brought him an Oscar nomination for his work on the soundtrack (though his name was originally kept off the credits in the United States due to blacklisting). He scored a huge hit with the theme song of the French Jacques Becker movie Touchez pas au Grisbi with Jean Gabin, written by Jean Wiener. In 1994 for his 80th birthday Adler, along with George Martin, produced an album of George Gershwin songs, "The Glory of Gershwin", on which Adler and Martin performed "Rhapsody in Blue". Adler was an entertaining performer and showman--the concerts in support of "The Glory of Gershwin" also revealed that he was a competent pianist, when he opened each performance with Gershwin's "Summertime", playing piano and harmonica simultaneously.

Other fields

Apart from his career as a renowned musician, Adler also made appearances in several movies, including "Sidewalks of London" (1938), in which he played a busker. He was also known as a prolific letter writer, with his correspondence with the satirical magazine "Private Eye" becoming very popular in the United Kingdom. Larry wrote an autobiography — entitled "It Ain't Necessarily So" — in 1985, and worked as a food critic for "Harpers & Queen" for some time. Larry also appeared on the Jack Benny radio program several times, entertaining disabled soldiers stateside during World War II.

References

* Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
* [http://www.ksanti.net/free-reed/essays/adler.html Classical Free-Reed, Inc:Interview with Larry Adler]

External links

* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/562856/index.html Larry Adler biography and credits at BFI Screenonline]
* [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10115699 Interview with Larry Adler, originally broadcast June 19, 1987]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/198252.stm BBC News report of death of Larry Adler, 7 August 2001]