Happy Hour Harmonica Podcast

Marcos Coll interview

• Neil Warren • Season 1 • Episode 86

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Marcos Coll joins me on episode 86.

Marcos is a Spaniard who has been living in Berlin for the last twenty years. Marcos rose to fame at a young age on the Spanish blues scene playing with the Tonky Blues Band before forming the the Los Reyes del KO band, touring the world and sharing the stage with many famous names.

Moving to Berlin in 2004, Marcos became a regular on the vibrant blues scene in Germany and recorded with many great artists.

In addition to playing blues, Marcos likes to mix modern beats such as hip hop into the blues, as well as playing traditional Spanish and Latin music, including cutting a Latin song with Charlie Musselwhite.

Marcos has an online tuition site called Harp and Soul, has been a judge at the Trossingen World Harmonica Championship and is a regular at Seoul, and other harmonica festivals.


Links:
Marcos’s website:
https://marcoscoll.com/

Online tuition website:
http://harpandsoul.info/en

Videos:

With Los Mighty Calacas at World Harmonica Festival 2013:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLcLlgcJHLU

Latin workshop at Hohner masters 2022:
https://youtu.be/9Qi0nxFsJbg

Chan Chan song, playing chord harp (and others) also effect part way thru
https://youtu.be/_sBZj8CoB6Q

Marcos rapping on basketball anthem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yHcGFfXVTg

Harp and Soul tuition introduction:
https://youtu.be/ErHO7pI64HE

Seoul festival, playing with Antonio Serrano:
https://youtu.be/ks88GMCDj_s


Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB

Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com  or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS

Support the show

SPEAKER_00:

Marcus Cole joins me on episode 86. Marcus is a Spaniard who has been living in Berlin for the last 20 years. Marcus rose to fame at a young age on the Spanish blues scene, playing with the Tonki Blues Band, before forming the Los Reos del Keol Band, touring the world and sharing the stage with many famous names. Moving to Berlin in 2004, Marcus became a regular on the vibrant blues scene in Germany and recorded with many great artists. In addition to playing blues, Marcus likes to mix modern beats such as hip-hop into the blues, as well as playing traditional Spanish and Latin music, as well as cutting a Latin song with Charlie Musselwhite. Marcus has an online tuition site called Harp and Soul, has been a judge at the Trossingen World Harmonica Championship, and is a regular at Soul and other harmonica festivals. This podcast is sponsored by Zeidel Harmonicas. Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world, at www.zidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Zidel Harmonicas. Hello Marcus Coll and welcome to the podcast. Hello, it's a pleasure to be here. You are Spanish and now living in Berlin, but you were born in Madrid, yeah?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, that's right. I grew up between Madrid and Santiago de Compostela and since almost 20 years I live in Berlin, Germany. It's

SPEAKER_00:

good to pick up on your Spanish influences, your playing, and you brought some of that into your playing as we'll get into later, but what got you started in harmonica? I was reading your uncle was your first inspiration to take up the harmonica

SPEAKER_05:

yeah that's right as you said i come from spain and and the background of my parents for instance was flamenco music but my parents at that time with the franco years they was trying like looking at flamenco or spanish music like associated with that which is totally not true you know but so they was listening to the rolling stones jimmy hendrix the who you know anglo music that comes from the blues so like when i was around 13 more or less i was fooling around with different instruments in fact i started with violin but i didn't like it too much and especially the the way they were teaching me anyway so my uncle is a musician too and at that time he was really into the blues and at that time i was 13 12 13 something like that and i was really into the 50s rock and roll little richard chuck berry all of that so you know the classic he went to me and told me hey if you like this you gotta hear where it comes from so that's how it was I remember listening in his room to a Reverend Gary Davies album and especially a Sonny Boy Williamson the second with Jimmy Pates and Brian Auger so that really turned me on I've really got in love with the harmonica and until now

SPEAKER_00:

Did you have many sort of Spanish music influences besides the flamenco at this point?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah I mean I don't play flamenco at all I mean the only real player that I know who plays flamenco is Antonio Serrano and he plays really good by the way i mean i was listening most mostly anglo music you know rock and roll i also like punk and but obviously i grew up there and i always listen in santiago in galicia in the in the local parties you hear galician music spanish music but you also hear a lot of latin american music so i listen also when i was kid to cumbia to corridos norteñas and merengue, salsa, so it sounds familiar to me, you know, when later on I developed and more into playing more my roots music besides the blues.

SPEAKER_00:

And then talking about the blues scene in Spain as well, so I believe you were influenced by a Spanish blues player called Naco Goni.

UNKNOWN:

Naco Goni

SPEAKER_05:

Jaco Coñi was like, for the people, my generation, like beginning of the 90s, that we were starting playing, he was like our god, you know. Him and Mingo Balaguer and a very few others was like the first real blues harmonica players who could really play, not just classic guitar player who brings the harmonica for a couple tunes. I was crazy for him. He was like my idol when I was like 15 or so. And yeah, he influenced me a lot. a lot because he was playing with Malcolm Scarpa, the traditional blues, but very personal. Of course, obviously, the great Sonny Boy Williams, James Cotton, Walter Horton, you know, the classic blues players.

SPEAKER_00:

But you did get to play with Nako. You've got a song, you playing big raw blues on your

SPEAKER_02:

album. Oh, you got me crying Oh, you got me crying I'm traveling all alone, I'm traveling light, I'm traveling this big road.

SPEAKER_05:

I ended up even living in the same building because I arrived with 15 to Madrid like a little kid and I want to play harmonica like you, you know, the classic thing. And we got along very well and we became very good friends. And yeah, actually we ended up living in the same building in Madrid. Yeah, he's like my brother. Did he teach you things? Not really like sitting down and, hey, dude, this I do it like this this I do it like that no just by by living by in fact we we talk more about boxing or other things than about blues itself but we was like leaving it there you know like like hearing it all the time we was hearing a lot of music together but not really like talking about techniques too much of course sometimes yeah but but more like feeling it

SPEAKER_00:

interesting you should mention boxing there we got a link so we'll get onto that shortly but your first harmonica I think is a Horner Blues harp, was it?

SPEAKER_05:

Well, not exactly. My first harmonica was a Huang, this Chinese brand, which some of them were pretty good. Because I remember I went to the store and the Horner Blues harp was like 800 pesetas, which now is like, I don't know, five euros. And there was a Huang for 300 pesetas, which is like two euros. I don't know. Yeah, I could only afford the Huang harmonica, but my goal was to get the blues harp sooner than later. You

SPEAKER_00:

know, going on into your progression and into music and becoming a professional, you got your first paid gig at age 17.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, before, I think before, I think when I was like 15 already. Yeah, I started playing and like one year I started, okay, with my schoolmates. Come on, yeah, play guitar a little. Nobody in Santiago at the time played blues, like a blues band. I got together with some schoolmates, even Adrian Costa. To this day, I still play with him. We was kind of with a punk attitude and very funny partying. I So we started playing a lot almost every night in the local pubs and stuff. So it's like suddenly in one year I see myself playing from 9 to 4 a.m. five days a week and getting some money, getting free drinks and everything. So it's like I never thought about being professional or nothing. You know, we were playing in the street and suddenly I was saying like, hey, I'm playing five days a week. And as soon as I got 18 I said to my mother hey I think I can make it with what I'm getting doing this so I rent me a room with a friend and yeah that's how it started.

SPEAKER_00:

How did your mother react when you said you were planning to be a professional harmonica player? She was

SPEAKER_05:

very happy in one way because at least I was doing something because at that time not good in the school I was always just trying to have fun and she saw me so interested into it that she said hey at least he's doing something you know he didn't like obviously that I play until 4am in those dirty places but at least I was doing something she was happy

SPEAKER_00:

That sounds like a great training ground playing from 9 till 4am it sounds like this kind of classic you know jazz musicians you know they're playing all night in clubs it sounds like you had a bit of that scene going on

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah totally I mean that's what made my who I am in a way because you can imagine when those places we were playing there was no theaters or not like fancy clubs it was like wild and dirty clubs so you had to entertain those people that was rough people and you had to find your way to entertain so I developed more the entertaining thing than technique than studying theory you know because we were playing almost every day so it was playing playing playing finding ways to entertain the people and to make them laugh and and with the little technique we had. Yeah, that made me develop the stage knowledge.

SPEAKER_00:

I've seen you play live and that is something I really noticed about you. You're very energetic on stage. You know, you could really see that you're pushing the entertainment and any tips for how to do that?

SPEAKER_05:

I tell some students, for instance, or some people that you have to be like you are. If you're shy, that's cool too. There's some musicians that really make the stage full, you know, that they got a light because they are themselves so my main tip is be yourself and try to think that the people is there for having a good time and they don't care about overflows they don't care about if your microphone is crystal or you know so try to feel them you know it's like for instance even to this day in big festivals I don't do set list because I'm gonna not respect it at the end because I'm seeing what the people kind of like okay they like more funky maybe they like more slow songs you know so to feel the people to try to read the audience that's my main

SPEAKER_00:

tip what about the energy levels you know is that something you'll try and keep very high energy levels or you know you're happy to sort of bring it down and slow it down and you know you're reading the crowd in that way so how do you approach that

SPEAKER_05:

It's cool to play fast tunes and everything. We put all the energy, sweating and dancing and blah, blah, blah. But if you play a slow song, especially a slow blues, like, but with energy, oh, people really react to that. they really feel it. You know, even whatever country in the world or whatever, it's like, it's not about the language, it's not about the style of music. It's like, if you play it with all your heart, somehow they feel it and they get to it. I gotta say, also one thing that really influenced me and made a big change in 93, 92 and 93, we had the chance when we was 14, 15 to see like B.B. King three times, Charles Brown, Ray Charles, Prince the Rolling Stones, Sting, Lucky Peters. I don't know. It was like every day, something on that level. I mean, there was one concert that we saw. It was in La Coruña, in the Deportivo La Coruña Stadium. The first day, imagine being 15-year-old, and the first day you see Sting, Neil Young, Chris Isaac, and George Benson. The next day starts the Kings, then Bob Dylan, then Robert Plant, and then John Mayall. And the third day, Eric Barton, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Wilson Pickett, and Jerry Lee Lewis. So that was a huge influence for us.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, really sure. Seeing live music is a big inspiration, yeah?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, for me, it's the best inspiration. What you're going to learn seeing somebody live, you don't learn in any video or any book or nothing. It's a magic.

SPEAKER_00:

I was reading that you moved to Madrid in 1999, age 21, joining the top The biggest blues band in Spain at the time. So this was your move to sort of go fully pro, was it?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I mean, at that time in Santiago, there was not really many blues players. And Madrid had a pretty good blues scene at that time. Now it's even much better, much bigger. And yeah, I had records from Tonki Blues Band and Ñaco Ogoñi was the former harmonica player of Tonki Blues Band. You know, at that time, it was very crazy that I could sleep whatever, you know, if we If I had to sleep in the street, no problem, whatever. So I said, I go to Madrid and I want to learn more and learn from Nyako, learn from Tonki and everything. There, I arrived there. And soon, I was lucky that in three months or so, Tonki called me to do some gigs. And well, he liked how I played, what I was giving to the band. He made me a full-time member. And after one year, we was backing up Buddy Miles. mick taylor from the rolling stones i didn't have time to process it you know i was like okay cool oh yeah nick in two months we play with with mick taylor oh okay cool now i think it and i said like what you know

SPEAKER_00:

actually you mentioned buddy miles so he was a drummer with jimmy hendrix right so these are the sort of names you're playing like you said when you're that young you probably don't quite appreciate these things

SPEAKER_05:

i appreciate a lot because as i tell you i mean since i was a kid i had records i was never a me toman that oh you No, but like, you know, I had a lot of respect for the old blues players from the, you know, from the top musicians. So I really had that respect. Don't get me wrong. It's not like, oh, yeah, I'm playing this. No. But yeah, it's like everything goes so fast that you don't have time to assimilate, to process it. Now I realize how it helped me develop my style or my musicality or whatever, just being with them and touring with them.

SPEAKER_00:

You were the harmonica player with them. You weren't singing or anything else.

SPEAKER_05:

No, no, I was just playing harmonica. You know, I was singing with my first band and then I realized to sing the blues, no, that's not, maybe you cannot really do it. So I stick to the harmonica.

SPEAKER_00:

Great. So you had a great success earlier on when you were young. And I think your next band then was your first main early band, Los Reyes del Cayo. Yeah. This stands for the Knockout Kings. So interesting story. And the boxing connection from earlier on is that you had to play a gig in a sort of boxing venue and you had to dress up like boxers. Is that right?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, that's me and one of these kids that I was telling you before from the school that we started playing together. Later on, after I was two years in Madrid, I talked to Tonki. Hey man, I got a friend. He made him join the band too. And after another year or so, we decided to make our own band because he's like my brother, you know. We was on the same page. We really like boxing, both of us. So they hired us to play in a box in event and we had a lot of contact with professional boxers so then one day we decided like hey why don't we dress like boxers and we do this show like with a presentation like and yeah and we got us even an endorsement with a boxing brand and that they gave us like all this the gear and the gloves and the trunks now I wouldn't do it you know to go on stage dressed like a boxer you know I would feel very embarrassed but at that time it was fun and yeah and people liked it.

SPEAKER_00:

But you didn't play the harmonica wearing boxing gloves, did you, Marcus?

SPEAKER_05:

No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00:

That's for sure. Yeah, that might get an interesting new sound, playing

SPEAKER_05:

boxing gloves. Well, that's how good war work is.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, brilliant. So, you know, with this outfit, you had a great success playing with Buddy Guy and Chuck Berry and John Mayle and Fabulous Thunderbirds.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, we started doing big festivals, especially in Spain, because we got kind of famous in Spain in Spain, in the blues scene, but also crossover to the rock scene. You know, we was hired to play even rock festivals or pop festivals because, you know, the boxing thing and everything, we was making party and we was playing like up-tempo blues, funky blues. So yeah, we was getting very good festivals and yeah, we had the chance to share the stage with our idols.

SPEAKER_00:

And so the first album I discovered of you is the live album in Berlin that you did. with Los Reyes del Queo, which is a fantastic album and loads of great, you know, high energy stuff and, you know, nice long solos. Born in Santiago is a song which is interesting on there. So this is from the Paul Butterfield song Born in Chicago. Yeah, your take

SPEAKER_03:

on it. I was born in Santiago in 1979

SPEAKER_05:

So, you know, we always like the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. I'm a big fan of Paul Butterfield because my favorite harmonica players are the ones like Charlie Marcel White, like, of course, the old blues legends that you hear two notes and you know that it's them. And Paul Butterfield is like that. I love the first albums from Paul Butterfield. They are great. But what I love most is when he had the horns and he was playing like American music, soul mixed with funk. Oh, I really... Or the Life album, Life at... love that i love his sound his style and and he was a very big influence for us that was our goal you know to make something because For us, that sounded fresh. You know, it sounded like very personal or like war. You know, it was like a mix between war and the Paul Butterfield better days. And of course, the old traditional black American blues.

SPEAKER_00:

So a really interesting thing that you do is you mix modern music into the blues that you do. So on the album Hot Tin Roof with this band, kind of got hip hop beats in there. There's some rapping on there.

SPEAKER_06:

Everything, mi corazón Thank

SPEAKER_04:

you. You know, what

SPEAKER_00:

about bringing that sort of music in with kind of blues and harmonica?

SPEAKER_05:

We always liked a lot of different music from flamenco to punk to hip-hop, of course. So hip-hop and blues is kind of the same in a way, you know, for Afro-Americans. It's their culture and it's the evolution. We had a friend from Detroit that was in the studio and and hey come on why don't you rap something here and we liked it and yeah that's how we ended up

SPEAKER_00:

yeah no I think it's a great thing to do it really brings the harmonica into a modern set and I think a lot of you know a lot of people are yeah it would be great to hear some harmonica and the sort of you know hip-hop and other modern things so yeah it's fantastic to do that so you found it quite easy to sort of bring those people in to play with you and they were quite happy to do it

SPEAKER_05:

yeah I mean hip-hop people always respect and love the blues every time you propose them something they are up to it you know in other productions that i did with other rappers or what the other way around there's many blues players that are hip-hop that's part of music and blah blah blah you know but the hip-hop people normally 99.9 percent they they love the blues

SPEAKER_00:

and then in 2004 you moved to berlin so so what caused the move to berlin and to germany away from spain

SPEAKER_05:

what it happened for me from to move from santiago to madrid after those years it's like Like we knew all the blues players in Spain already. We had done all the festivals. It was like there was nothing much more to do like new, you know, like we wanted to keep on learning and getting better and better and better. So suddenly we got a request from a festival next to Munich. Really, this was like kind of a crazy thing, you know, was there in Almeria. That's the desert in Spain playing a festival. And we start seeing that blues clubs in Germany and everything. By the internet, that was the first years of really looking things in the internet. We say like, wow, Germany looks, they really appreciate the blues and that there's a lot of blues clubs and festivals and stuff. So, hey, if they hired us for this festival and they didn't see us, they just heard the record, which was a thousand times much better live than in records. Hey, if we go there and we do our thing, I'm sure we can work. And, you know, as Spanish, we were thinking, and yeah, and Germany, they got more money, you know. So it was like the ticket, we bought the ticket one way and we say like, come on, let's go there. It was at the end of the summer. We didn't have more festivals booked and say, come on, let's go there and try. And that's what we did.

SPEAKER_00:

Great. And you've stayed there ever since. So you found a good source to be able to play your music in Berlin and around Germany then, obviously.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. I mean, when we arrived, there was a lot of black American blues mainly living here, like Guitar Crusher. Champion Jack Dufresne was living here, Luciana Red. We were amazed with the scene in Germany because, you know, in Germany, in Europe, Northern Europe, they had the American Fall Blues Festival since the 60s. So they knew much more about the blues and about this culture than pain at that time. Now it got more even, but at that time it was like, wow, so many blues clubs, so many in every little town, they got a blues festival. There's a lot of Afro-Americans living here that find good drummers, good bass players and and everything so so yeah it was like wow great we are in the the right place

SPEAKER_00:

yeah fantastic and so was the first person you picked up with aaron burton

SPEAKER_05:

Oh yeah, Aaron Barton was living in Berlin. He's a legendary bass player. He recorded with Carrie Bell, with Junior West, with Albert Collins and the Icebreakers. So that kind of people, it was normal to meet them. In Spain, you always had concerts like, okay, B.B. King comes to play or whoever, but you didn't have so much interaction because they wasn't living there. But this musician was living here in Berlin, so you could play with them, you could be friends with them and that changed a lot. And so we decided to stay I mean I'm still here so

SPEAKER_00:

yeah great and you've got a great album out which is a kind of compilation called Under the Wings which is a double album which covers you playing with all sorts of different people and including some of the names you've already mentioned

SPEAKER_05:

that's an album that is like a compilation it's a double CD album that I did already more than 10 years ago I just took a lot of recordings that I had that some were previously released some not like half was previously released the other half note. I have one or two songs with Aaron Barton, with the people that I worked with in those years. And yeah, luckily, well, Tonki, the leader of the Tonki Blues band, he let me use one of the recordings that we record with Buddy Miles, another that we record with Nick Taylor. And yeah, I did a compilation to have a remembering of all those years and to put all those people together that has the name of the album say they took me under their wings.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so picking out some of the names, we mentioned a few on here. You're playing a song called Commonine, which is an Afro-funk band.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Yeah,

SPEAKER_05:

that's the band from Carlos Dalelane, that is Mozambique musician that lives here since many years. And he was the bass player from Los Reyes for a while. We was always hanging in different situations. And sometimes we was even in Congo together playing at jazz festivals. I said like, hey, I would like to have a little of this also on that record you know yeah it's an afrobeat song from his country

SPEAKER_00:

and then you do a song with keith dunn you'd play the hooker book with keith dunn there's a sort of harmonica duet so you know so what about Keith Dunne he's an American when did you meet him?

SPEAKER_05:

He lives in not in Germany in Holland but it's more or less the same you know like he lives six hours from me we had the chance to meet this kind of musicians you know and Keith is one of my favorite blues players you know I really love the way he his timing his sound I mean when he play alone it's incredible just him and his harmonica his foot as a friend he's a great friend you know we hang a lot, you know, talking about basketball for hours and hours, about boxing too. Big fan of him, plus he's a brother, you know, his family.

SPEAKER_00:

And then you do a bit of traditional Spanish music, La Paloma, on this

SPEAKER_04:

album too.

UNKNOWN:

...

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I mean, La Paloma is funny because when we arrived to Germany, I remember we was playing the first gig we ever played there. It was in München in a blues club that is called The Hideout. So for us, we were nervous to see the reaction of the people. You know, we knew the reaction in Spain, but we always were putting some songs like that in our repertoire that in a traditional blues thing, they wouldn't fit. Or for a very purist blues audience, they would say, hey, what are they doing playing this? So we said like, oh, okay, should we play La Paloma like we always did in Spain? Okay, come on, let's go. So we played and we see that the people goes crazy and we are like, really? It looks like this song works in Germany. You know, the same day later on, they told us that it's a very famous song in Germany from the 40s because it was on a movie. So everybody know the song. So everybody went crazy to see a blues band doing it in, we was doing it kind of in Habanera mixed with New Orleans beat in a way suddenly from that day we became known as the hey did you hear these guys from Spain the blues band that they play La Paloma so it was like our our hit many times we say yeah La Paloma is this song that was putting food on our table in when we arrived to Germany

SPEAKER_00:

yeah fantastic and I think those traditional songs do sound great on the harmonica too don't they so it's good to hear them

SPEAKER_03:

yeah

SPEAKER_00:

yeah so as you said this is a great double album you have a great mixture of different you know styles and through your career so really good double album people to check out. So another album you've done is an album called Street Preaching, which you released with Stefano Ranchi, who's an Italian guitarist and singer. So again, similarly, you're sort of mixing blues with more modern beats on this one.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, Stefano is a musician from Italy that arrived in Berlin like 10 years ago. He played mostly, I mean, he studied jazz, he played everything, but he's mostly like favorite stylists like the Delta Blues with slide, but he also like love hip So we started playing duo here in Berlin and in Spain. So we said, hey, come on, let's put here some scratches or some hip hop beat. Then I call a rapper from Angola who lives here in Berlin and we made that album.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And there's a great song on there called Hip Hop.

SPEAKER_05:

That's an experiment we were doing. We hear it now and we would say, okay, maybe we would have done things different. But I think it was a good way to start trying things, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

And then you did an album with Will Jacobs, who's a Chicago player, called Taking Our Time.

UNKNOWN:

Taking Our Time

SPEAKER_05:

That's the last album that I released. And yeah, Will is a guy from Chicago, a musician from Chicago, great musician, great singer. He also plays every instrument. In fact, in this record, he also recorded drums and bass. Yeah, I mean, he's been playing blues in the Chicago Blues Club since he was 13. And yeah, we've been playing since seven years already. And yeah, we really enjoy playing together. And yeah, we do tour this summer. We got some festivals and we play a lot here in Berlin because he lives in Berlin. And yeah, it's another of my projects.

SPEAKER_00:

Your main band now, the Blues Durana.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, when I play here, especially here in Berlin, like under my name, that I mix like blues with Latin, with funk. That's like my jam band, you know, my band that I do the clubs and everything. Durana means fiesta in Spanish. So it's like the blues fiesta of Marcos. And they invite different players, guests, and we have a residency on Wednesdays here in Berlin.

SPEAKER_00:

Checked out an album of theirs. They seem to have Charlie Musselwhite playing with them. Is that right?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, yeah. That's with Los Mighty Calacas. Los Mighty Calacas is a band that I formed with Emiliano Juarez. Emiliano Juarez was also a guitar player from Los Reyes de Cao. He's from Mexico and he's also family to me. And after touring a lot in Mexico, we ended up many times in the fiestas in Mexico where you hear cumbia, where you hear norteñas and everything. So we decided to form a band in Mexico with Mexican musicians. Yeah, mixing blues with Mexican music, Latin music. Yeah, Charlie is one of the nicest persons that I know in this business. I'm a big fan of his music, but also a big fan of his personality. Talking with him, hey man, now I'm doing this new band and everything. And hey, send me something. I'm curious because he loves Latin music. I mean, as you know, he recorded with Elia de Sotoa and all these people. So he asked me to, hey, send me some songs, man. And he really liked it. Said like, yeah, if we do pretty good, and one day we got a nice recording deal, and I could pay you, maybe you would feel like putting some harmonica on one of the tracks. And he just said, hey, send me the track, man. It was one of his signature solos. Are

SPEAKER_00:

you playing on the same track?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I'm playing like the feels, and then he do the solo.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, so then I believe you have a new album coming out this July called Nomads.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, yes. It's an album that is coming out in Galileo Music with this record company. It took me like two years and a half or so to do it. Produced by Jairo Zavala and he also, him and his musicians playing the record. His band is called De Pedro, which is a very famous artist in Spain in the pop scene, but pop always with a lot of roots music. We know since more than 20 years We are good friends. While I was recording for his album like three years ago, he told me that he wanted to produce me an album in traditional music, but Spanish traditional music, Galician music, music from La Mancha. So yeah, he asked me to go deep into my roots, the songs I was hearing from my grandmas, the songs I heard everywhere. always in where i grew up yeah i'm really excited and and grateful for this album so i took uh yeah music from galicia music from la mancha also some latin music also a little touch of mexican and and i did like like the name of the album says this nomad is kind of like who i am you know i live in in galicia then my family come from la mancha but i born in Madrid and in Germany. I was also living in Mexico, in the States. So it's a mix of my influences that I was getting on all these years.

SPEAKER_00:

But great, again, to get harmonica in those traditional settings. So did you already know these songs? Did you have to learn them? How do you approach playing more traditional Spanish music on the harmonica?

SPEAKER_05:

Depends on the type of style. For instance, for cumbia or a lot of Latin American music, I try to get inspiration from the accordion player or the horn section, because there are almost no references on harmonica, you know. For instance, Vamos palpiripipao, that's a Mexican norteña. Then I have a bolero too, which is La Feitunera, but that's like a bolero mixed with La Mancha music, with the deep Spanish music. Then also for the Galician music, the Galician is... where I grew up in Santiago, more close to Celtic music. It's that Celtic culture with the same as in France, in La Bretagne. It's mostly, first of all, 6-8 timing. Normally in Latin, in cumbia or in blues, of course, you go 4-4. So I had to kind of study a little how to do the solos in 6-8, how to... It goes close to Irish music. It's try to get influences from pipe In Galicia they use a lot of pipes, violins, accordion too of course. Tambourines is very typical in Galicia. The woman's playing like six, seven tambourines at the same time and playing and singing a cappella. And that song is tambourines and tambor and just harmonica. That was like some experiment.

SPEAKER_00:

So do you think you'll bring more of these influences into your playing after this album as well? Or are you going to return back to solidly playing blues?

SPEAKER_05:

That's the direction I'm going to take from now on, which I'm in fact already playing... any of those songs in my blues. Of course, I'm always going to be in love with the blues and always will like to play blues. Like we were saying before, I don't sing. So I like to play with real blues, man. I mean, with, you know, with people who can sing blues right and play it right. And I love to be backing them up and or, you know, doing duets with them, with my blues harmonica. But like for my music, for my compositions, I prefer to take that direction of my real roots uh from spain it's

SPEAKER_00:

great to hear you know i think it's great you know you're pushing harmonica in that direction you know there's a lot of blues harmonica right so it's great to hear some some new approaches some new genres and you know to get a different flavor of harmonica for sure so yeah you're always going to play the blues right so it's nice to bring that uh to bring that latin flavor and you actually did a latin workshop at trossingen not too long ago didn't you

SPEAKER_05:

yeah last summer in in the harmonica masters a lot of great players was there and yeah i did my my approach to latin music which is not like hey i i know about Latin music on harmonica because I'm also learning it. So what I was teaching was like my approach to it, my way of seeing it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, great. And so, yeah, there's some clips on YouTube. I'll put a few links on so people can check that out as well for people who are interested in some of the different Latin styles that you've mentioned. So, yeah, that's a great approach. And another nice YouTube video I've got of you playing a song called Chan Chan, which is you playing various harmonicas, bass, chord, chromatic, diatonic. So it's a kind of one man. Well, you've got some drum beat with you, but basically it's a kind of one man show you playing different harmonicas.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah. you

SPEAKER_05:

But yeah, that's bass harmonica, chord harmonica, chromatic harmonica, and diatonic, which I gotta say, I'm not a bass harmonica player, a chord harmonica player, even a chromatic harmonica player. I use the chromatic harmonica a lot in the Latin music, but I don't consider myself a great chromatic harmonica player at all. I use it with my limitations. I can play good enough to play that song. I can fool around with the bass harmonica and the chord harmonica, but they are so different to play. I mean, first of all, the bass harmonica, you just blow, and to get this sound good is so complicated that, yeah, I would love to play it better, but yeah, it's how it is.

SPEAKER_00:

So you've done quite a lot of session work as well as playing with all these different great musicians you have. So you did this song, which is a Mexican block busker called Suave Patrias.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, it's a movie, a very famous movie from 10 years ago in Mexico, and And now they just use one of my songs for it. And well, that's always good for some royalties.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So how did you get a song in a Mexican film?

SPEAKER_05:

I was spending like three months at least in Mexico a year playing with my band with Los Mighty Calacas or playing blues festivals because there's also a blues scene. And the director of this movie, he's a blues freak. He loves blues. He also plays bass. So he saw us. He really liked what we was doing with los reyes so he fell in love with the band and he yeah i want to have los reyes in my new movie blah blah blah and he chose one of my songs and yeah i'm happy for it

SPEAKER_00:

and you also had another song which became the anthem of the basketball team that you played with in your youth

SPEAKER_05:

when i started playing music i was really into basketball playing competition and everything i wanted to be professional player what happened that then when i was 16 17 i had to choose between playing from 9 or 10 till 4 a.m. and the trainings. You know what I mean? It was a very easy choice at that time, you know? You had free beers, girls again giving you attention, party and everything, or a trainer making you sweat. So I choose music, obviously. But I always kept my love for basketball and especially this team from Santiago, which is a team of the town and we are very proud of. it and i went to the arena since since i'm a kid a very good friend with the actual trainer and with play i'm always involved a little there and so one day i just i had some studio time for free and i'd say come on let's try this with a hip-hop beat a little and and i started rapping some verses about team and about the basketball and

SPEAKER_04:

You

SPEAKER_05:

know, I just did it for fun and they liked it and sometimes they still put it, because that was like 10 years ago, sometimes they still put it in the games and that makes me happy too. And that's good also for the royalties.

SPEAKER_00:

I have met you once. I don't remember you being 7'6". No,

SPEAKER_05:

no, no, no, no. See, that was one of the reasons So now I'm like 182, something like that. And I said, look, I love the game, but I'm never going to make it that they even give me real money for it. On the other hand, every night they're giving me money here playing the harmonica. Well, and I also said like, hey, harmonica, you can play it until you're 80 or 90. And, you know, I was looking at the old bluesmen. But basketball, when you're 35, 40 at the most, you're gone. So, hey.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, good choice. You made the right choice. So you also do teaching. You've taught particularly various festivals and around schools in Spain. And you've got an online harmonica course called Harp and Soul.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I really like teaching when the situation is nice. I really love it. Many festivals, I do like blues festivals. They also hire me to do some things for the kids in the morning. And I really like it. It's fun. It makes me have a good time. I love to see people when they get amazed by, but, oh, how do you do this? Because normally I put them to play like a train at the beginning. Oh, wow. And to You see the kids' reaction and also the old people. Yeah, and I have this harmonica course online that they can visit it on my website. It's a link there. It's harpalsoul.info. And yeah, there I teach from zero to kind of like intermediate level. And this I did also like 10 years ago. Yeah, I kind of did like the book that I didn't have when I was studying, that was not available, that they teach me. I mean, my first book that I had for harmonica was the Steve Baker book. And it was like, wow, you know, a book that talks about amplifiers and about the famous musicians and about microphones and so I kind of like had that reference that influence and I said okay I'm going to try to do this in video you know and yeah talk about amplifiers microphones historical players and just starting from how to hold the harmonica to also how to repair it how to tune it try to do it as much complete as possible

SPEAKER_00:

yeah I'll put the link on to the podcast place for sure so people find that so you've attended various of the harmonica festivals as well so you've been a jury member at the Trussingen World Harmonica Festival. So you were judging in the competition there, weren't you?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I was judging a couple of times in the World Harmonica Festival with all these harmonica festivals. Now I did... I wouldn't say a lot, but I did quite a few, you know, in Asia and in Korea. I also was judging in Korea. And it's always the same. I gotta say that every professional harmonica player, when I hear them, I always think, oh, he plays better than me. He got much more technique than me, you know, because he do things different than me. So, you know, I'm humble in that way. I can be very cocky on the stage, but I'm a very humble person on real life. And I always think, every time I was there judging, it was like, damn, oof, but this guy kicks my ass. Next one, oh man, he also would kick my ass. I mean, I had to be judging, for instance, I had to be judging a lot of people who today they are top harmonica players, like known harmonica players and that they have a career. I'm not going to start saying names so I don't let others behind, but so I was like, every time it's like, what am I doing here? But Well, on the other hand, hey, I got my things, you know, and at least I got three decades of career, which that counts for something.

SPEAKER_00:

No, definitely not. It's a tough job, but yeah, you did well. And you played at Seoul Festival four times, including with Antonio Serrano, who you mentioned, who, of course, is a Spanish player and, of course, an amazing chromatic player. So you got a nice little duo with Antonio in Seoul.

UNKNOWN:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

And you played last year at the Harmonica Fend Festival with Marko Jovanovic.

SPEAKER_05:

Also, yeah. I mean, I love the harmonica festivals because, you know, when you grow up, like only having one little booklet that was showing you how to play or Susanna and the only harmonica player in town was you and another one. To go to these festivals is great. You know, it's like it still amazes me and it still excites me, especially in Asia. It's like it's another world. It's like crazy. There in Asia, for instance, in Korea, the harmonica is a normal instrument. It's like so popular that I have to judge kids competition, all women competition. I mean, like it's everybody plays. It's not like here that is more like music lovers who love the blues 80%. You know, it's more like such a normal instrument that is amazing. And I love to play these festivals. I'll go this year also to Seoul they they just booked me you know a couple weeks ago which I'm very happy because there was no festival in the pandemic year so and the World Harmonica Festival in Trotsingen what can I say you know it's just wow

SPEAKER_00:

the question I ask each time then Marcus is a 10 minutes question if you had 10 minutes of practice what would you spend those 10 minutes doing

SPEAKER_05:

yeah you know now most of the times what I practice is like for instance they call me to record this or to for this gig or whatever and what I do is learn repertoire

SPEAKER_00:

spend the time working on the repertoire that you've got to you've got to practice and perform for yeah

SPEAKER_05:

80% of the time is what I do or trying suddenly comes an idea maybe first I I'm not a piano player but you know I have a piano at home so maybe I played a little on the piano to see where the notes are or what position I should use more or less and that's what I would do but if I had 10 minutes I would just play whatever I feel like playing at that moment probably some something very rhythmic. Probably that's how I would use the harmonica, having the most fun possible. Because at the end, that's what music is all about, having fun and enjoying

SPEAKER_00:

it. Moving on to the last section now, to talking about gear. First of all, what's your harmonica of choice? I believe you're a marine band player.

SPEAKER_05:

Since 15 years, endorsed by Hunter, and really they treat me really good. The same as they hired me for these festivals or events. I have access to all the instruments. I have a I mean, a set of crossovers. I really like that. My wood harmonica of choice is the crossover. And on the other hand, I have a plastic set of rockets. Some things I prefer to play with wood and some others with plastic. I'm not like a person who needs the harmonicas customized because also I almost don't use overblows. Out of the box, you know, maybe I have to readjust here and there one thing, but mostly 90% out of the box. And yeah, Crossover and Rocket, I would say. Of course, I have all harmonicas that they sound great. You know, I'm looking right now at them and I love many, many, many kinds. The new Golden Melody, I really like it. On the other hand, Hunter just sent me the other day because I realized that I'm in the box. My picture is on the box on the Blues Bender, which is a cheap harmonica. And the new version, which is like with a crystal come wow it sounds really good that you can use it for gigs you can even overblow out of the box so i'm not very picky with with harmonicas maybe because in my younger days i had to play with whatever i could or you know whatever i had because i could not afford to buy new harmonicas many times so i had to you know find my way so yeah crossover and and rockets

SPEAKER_00:

and do you use different tunings as

SPEAKER_05:

well yeah i really like the harmonic minor tuning and for my last record. I'm not using it a lot, but there's some things that I really like it. Yeah, for flamenco, it fits very good.

SPEAKER_00:

This is on your traditional Spanish music, is it, you're using the minor tune?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I use the harmonic minor tuning on a couple of songs. I like overblows when they are well played, but I always will prefer a note that is not even bent. You know, bent is cool for the blues and for some things and everything. The best is a note that sounds without a bent, clear, and perfect tune and everything so I prefer to use a harmonic minor harmonica than if I need to overblow something okay if it's just one note okay I'll use the normal one with the overblow but I think alternative tunings are I wouldn't say like they are the future or nothing but they are great Really, because it makes it easier, but it's not that it makes it easier for playing in a way of saying it in a lazy way. I don't want to learn Overblow's good. No, it's just that it sounds better. Point.

SPEAKER_00:

The

SPEAKER_05:

notes sound better than being Overblow'd.

SPEAKER_00:

And what about your embouchure? You were tongue blocking or puckering anything else?

SPEAKER_05:

Both, both, both things. It depends from what, even for what style. I would say like in the last album, 80% is tongue block. I use both. I use more tongue blocking since some years. I started more being a single note player. And then, you know, when you start with that blues that you really need that tongue blocking to do those, you know, those rhythms. And then I learned, but yeah, both, both.

SPEAKER_00:

What about amplifiers? What amps do you like to use?

SPEAKER_05:

Well, amplifiers, I used to be like really, I just had one amp, but that amp, I had to take it with me everywhere. It was a Princeton Reverb with a tube, silver face. And I was really, no, because I was very unsure of my sound. Like if I went to a jam session or to play, I guess, with somebody and they put me through the PA, I was like, oh no. So I remember carrying that amplifier on the plane when you could bring like heavy stuff with you and luggage. I remember walking kilometers with that amplifier everywhere and now it's like came to a point that give me whatever and I'll make it sound sorry I don't want to sound pretentious but everything changed in my head it's like I really realized that the tone is in you in a 90% of course if you want to emulate that sound of the of the 50s yeah you need that gear but now these days with digital stuff you can have some pedals now from Lone Wolf or also from grot from chile that many times i just have a pedal like a heartbreak and i go through the pa and it's totally okay of course you have if i go to a festival and they put me the nicest silver face fender great but i'm not gonna do a special effort for that

SPEAKER_00:

yeah but when you're traveling the ease of uh using you know exactly or pedals yeah so i know you do use effects quite a lot you mentioned pedals but you know the fact for example on this street preaching album you've got me and the devil's quite a lot of uh quite a Yeah, what about

SPEAKER_05:

using effects? Yeah, I like them. I like them. Obviously, you have to learn to use them right. Don't abuse. It's like sometimes I say, yeah, great. But on the other hand, what I like is the sound of a harmonica, you know, acoustic harmonica. You know, I was thinking many times like, wow, if I put this effect, the people are going to freak out because they're going to say, whoa, I never heard a harmonica play like this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But at the end, the people freak out with the real sound of the harmonica. So, yeah, I fool around with some. effects, but not that much. I like the Octaver from Electro Harmonix. Then there's this man, Richard Hunter, and he's really into digital things and everything, and he was giving me a lot of tips.

SPEAKER_00:

The Digitech pedal.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, the Digitech pedal. But normally I have just a vocal microphone, and I use the new Honor Heart Blaster microphone. They were even hiring me to tie prototypes along with Marco with obviously Steve Baker who was the real the person who really developed that microphone with SE Electronics and I really love that microphone because you can get the blues sound but it's also clear because I love the old blues distorted sound and everything but not for all the songs so I also need clearness that I can play clear

SPEAKER_00:

yeah so final question then just about your future plans so looking at your website you've got plenty of gigs coming up in Germany and Spain over the summer so is that that's what's keeping you busy

SPEAKER_05:

yeah mostly it's that I've been in Spain and Germany I also go to Korea in August for the International Harmonica Festival and yeah my record comes in July so let's see what it brings because it's a record that is oriented in the world music label in fact it's a world music company recording record company I guess maybe I'll play other kinds of festivals with this new record somehow but you know I always keep in busy there's always ways to I'm a person who got the eggs in different baskets you know here are some classes here's some gigs with this blues project here's some recordings with so you know keeping busy

SPEAKER_00:

yeah no fantastic so so much for joining me today Marcus Cole

SPEAKER_05:

thank you so much and it's a real pleasure to hear your podcast I really enjoy it so thanks for doing it and thanks for bringing us such great players that they can tell their own things and I really enjoy it

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks to Zydle for sponsoring the podcast and be sure to check out their great range of harmonicas and products at www.zydle1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Zydle Harmonicas. Thanks to Marcus for joining me today. It was great to hear his story, as well as his high-energy blues playing in his Spanish and Latin harmonica. And thanks to all of you for listening again. Please check out the podcast website at happyhourharmonica.com. Any donations to the podcast, help me keep it ad-free. I'll leave you with Marcus playing us out with another traditional track of his upcoming album Nomad.

UNKNOWN:

.