Image from http://www.adamglassermusic.com/

Harmonica virtuoso Adam Glasser features at Jazz Hastings

Jazz Hastings’ session on 1 October will feature an instrument which is not seen often enough on the UK jazz scene. Adam Glasser is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading jazz chromatic harmonica players. A virtuoso on the instrument Adam’s playing is eloquent, subtle and constantly inventive (he is a fine pianist as well), says Julian Norridge.

Adam was born in Cambridge in 1955 while his father, South African composer Stanley ‘Spike’ Glasser, was studying music at King’s College. He subsequently returned to South Africa where he grew up influenced by his father’s role as a theatre musical director and surrounded by some of South Africa’s greatest jazz musicians.

He returned to Britain to study European literature at Warwick University, and after spending a couple of years in Paris, came back to the UK to begin a long apprenticeship playing hotels, weddings and cruises, all the while developing his jazz style.

Image from http://www.adamglassermusic.com

In April 1990 Adam began a 16-year stint as pianist and musical director of the South African vocal group The Manhattan Brothers, who had been household names in South Africa in the ’40s and ’50s before leaving for the UK as stars in the musical King Kong. The Brothers had reformed to appear at the Wembley concert celebrating the release of Nelson Mandela in April 1990.

Renowned as a leading exponent of South African township jazz, of which there will be a lot in this session, he has released two critically acclaimed albums on US Sunnyside Records, Free at First (winner of South Africa Music Awards Best Jazz Album 2010) and Mzansi (South Africa Music Awards Best Jazz Album nominee 2012).

Across a rich career spanning over four decades, Adam has perfomed with South African legend Dudu Pukwana, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Jimmy Witherspoon, Incognito and Hugh Masakela. He has twice stood in for the incomparable Stevie Wonder, once live on TV with Sting and once with The Eurythmics at the Party in the Park.

Adam’s latest quartet features some cutting-edge members of the contemporary UK jazz scene, with guitar virtuoso Ant Law (described as a ‘gamechanger’ by the Guardian), renowned bass player Steve Watts and Jazz Hastings veteran Corrie Dick on drums. It should be an amazing evening.

Adam Glasser Quartet Jazz Hastings, Tuesday 1 October, East Hastings Sea Angling Association (on the Stade behind the lifeboat station). Doors open 7.45pm for 8.30 start, tickets £15 on the door, £3 for under 18s.

Also in: Music & Sound