Keith Bennett and David Sinclair, a duo of guitar and harmonica virtuosi, perform on Saturday, Feb. 6 at Presentation House Theatre, 333 Chesterfield Ave., North Vancouver. Tickets: $20, phtheatre.org.
Have harmonica, will travel - that is essentially North Vancouver musician Keith Bennett's mantra.
Ever since his father's prized Hohner harmonica was handed down to Bennett as a teen, he hasn't put down the diminutive instrument with the distinctive sound.
"I grew up in Deep Cove and in those days they didn't have a lot of buses so I would hitchhike to school and play harmonica waiting for cars," recalls Bennett.
After high school Bennett took a commercial music
program at Capilano College, as it was called at the time, and learned "basically all the stuff you need to know to be a working musician."
"In our day it was how to put a band together, make your own charts, how to rehearse a band, book a theatre ... " says Bennett.
With a lot of solo-act work in the late '80s, early '90s, that Jack-of-all-trades training came in handy when it came time for Bennett to book his first show - at a Medieval-themed restaurant in Gastown.
"That was very interesting, a lot of very drunk people," says Bennett. "There was no knives or forks or anything. People threw their food around. I was minstrel of the feast."
Bennett honed his harmonica skills like any other musician, through many years of practise. Over the years the virtuoso has amassed 100 harmonicas of different keys. Depending on the desired musical flavour, Bennett picks up a harmonica designed to achieve a certain sound such as bluesy or country.
"A lot of people when they think of harmonica they think of Bob Dylan or Neil Young, but the blues thing is a little different than that," says Bennett.
Bennett's musical mentor is world-famous harmonica player Toots Thielemans, who collaborated with all the jazz greats including Charlie Parker and Miles Davis.
"He's (Toots) the best exponent of the jazz chromatic harmonica in the world," says Bennett of the Belgian musician. "I wrote him when I was young and just starting harmonica. And he wrote me back and I couldn't believe it. And I still have it (the letter)."
The harmonica has taken Bennett to other parts of the world as he carves a niche career for himself. Last spring Bennett and his touring partner of late, acclaimed B.C. musician David Sinclair, played 19 shows spread out over 10,000 kilometres in Germany and Denmark.
"I guess one of the highlights would have been performing in a German bunker," says Bennett, explaining how the wartime shelters have been repurposed as art spaces. "The walls are four feet thick and you get the feeling of what it was originally intended for, that's for sure."
More than a billion harmonicas have been produced since
the mid-19th century in Germany, which is home to the annual World Harmonica Festival. The event attracts thousands of harmonica players from around the world, including Bennett who has placed in the Top 10.
Closer to home Bennett has lent his harmonica talents to film and TV soundtracks including McGyver, Neon Rider, The Black Stallion and Sesame Street.
Canucks fans, meanwhile, may have caught Bennett, a.k.a. "Harmonica Man" belting out the blues during home games for nearly a decade in the '90s.
"I was usually at the top of the stairs in the lower section," says Bennett, who would don a hat and play the part of a Blues Brother. "I would play for exactly one minute, it was during the commercial break."
Bennett's harmonica stylings were also featured in a soundtrack for the Calgary Stampede. It was through that opportunity that Bennett was asked to perform with Roger Hodgson of the rock band Supertramp on the harmonica-heavy tracks "Take the Long Way Home" and "School."
On Saturday Bennett will join forces with Sinclair for an entertaining show at North Vancouver's Presentation House Theatre, performing a repertoire that is a rootsy blend of jazz, blues, folk and pop.
"It's an athletic event for me when I do a show with him," says Bennett explaining how there is lot of breathing on his part. "It's the only instrument that you are literally drawing air into your body, which is interesting. It's a two-hour show, that's a lot of harmonica."
Juno-nominated singer-songwriter and guitarist Sinclair has played in bands with k.d. lang and Sarah McLachlan and recorded with Michael Bublé and Bryan Adams to name but four Canadian music greats Sinclair has collaborated with. When Bennett and Sinclair sync up in concert, anything goes.
"We do wacky stuff, a U2 version of "Only to Be with You" done in a Hungarian polka, Beethoven's Fifth (symphony), some crazy blues stuff," says Bennett.
When he's not performing or recording, Bennett teaches a "Harmonica in a Day" seminar.
"They totally get how to play the blues and a chance to jam with everybody else," explains Bennett of the great fun his students have.
