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Carlos del junco |
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Many people think Carlos del Junco is the greatest harmonica player alive - The Toronto Star claims that del Junco elevates the harp to the equivalent of a Stradivarius violin! |
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New CD from the Hohner World Harmonica Champion...
CARLOS del JUNCO ~ STEADY MOVIN’ September 2008 on NorthernBlues Music
“Excellent theater of the mind blues from the harmonica virtuoso and Havana-suave vocalist.” – Chicago Sun-Times
Cuba-born and Canadian raised, Carlos del Junco is a pretty good harmonica player. How good? He won two gold medals at the Hohner World Harmonica Championship in the Diatonic Blues and Diatonic Jazz categories. He’s been awarded Canada’s Maple Blues Award for Harmonica Player of the Year seven times in its ten year history.
del Junco (loosely translated "of the reeds") immigrated with his family from Havana to Canada early in life. He bent his first note at fourteen at the student talent show. In his 20's del Junco graduated with a degree in sculpture from Ontario College of Art. Sculpture has always had an influence on his outlook on music: "Music is just a different way of creating textures and shapes."
Carlos plays a ten hole diatonic harmonica and plays chromatically using the recently developed "overblow" technique taught to him by jazz virtuoso Howard Levy. The result is more expressive and communicative than the mechanized tone of the chromatic.
Admittedly the harmonica is often considered a fringe folk instrument. As a pioneer of the overblow method, Carlos feels he brings credibility to the harmonica.
The Toronto Star wrote “del Junco achieves an astonishingly complex yet seamless fusion of blues, country, funk, jazz, and swampy roots rock.” Carlos explains: “I produce a sophisticated sound which is sensitive, soulful, and sexy while maintaining the inherent rawness of blues music.” As a result he’s played all the major jazz, blues and folk festivals in Canada and many in the U.S. He has performed and recorded with a variety of Latin, Reggae, R&B, and Swing bands. In 1991 del Junco performed and composed the music for the Dora award winning play Dry Lips Oughta Move To Kapuskasing which toured nationally and ultimately held over for seven weeks at Toronto's Royal Alex Theatre.
In 1993 Carlos del Junco released his debut CD. Five of six reviewers in the Toronto Blues Society selected it for their top ten releases of the year. In 1995 del Junco went to Chicago on a Canadian Arts Council grant to study with Howard Levy. In 1996 he won Canada’s Blues Musician Of The Year Award.
His sixth release was an eclectic palette of music entitled Blues Mongrel which flirts with Latin rhythms (“Let’s Mambo”), rockabilly (“Run Me Down”) and even a quirky jazz-ska hybrid (“Skatoon”). It also proved, as a vocalist, Carlos’ voice is almost as singular as his harp playing. On Steady Movin’ the guitar duties are once again handled by Kevin Breit, famed guitarist for Nora Jones and Cassandra Wilson and one of the most sought-after session players in Canada.
www.carlosdeljunco.com & www.northernblues.com
Media Inquiries: Michael McClune at 310.319.1199 or info@michaelmcclune.net
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