New Year's Eve 2014
Confetti and fancy dress are now memories. The Three Wise Men are gone back into our imagination till next year, vagaries of time which tirelessly pursues its path.
A host of events already shows up in our harmonica calendar. It is indisputable that the 2014 flagship event will be the 10th Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival (APHF) to be held in Hangzhou (China), near Shanghai; we'll talk more extensively about it later, in this website.
Back to the past, to the event that marked the end of 2013, the World Harmonica Festival of Trossingen, Germany. Furthermore the harvest of gold medals, 10 out of 13, attributed to our friends from the Lands of the « Rising Sun ». Three standing ovations occured during traditional concerts and they deserved it. Unfortunatly this festival takes place only every four years... Tribute from an enthusiastic audience was paid successively to Keith Dunn who delivered us pure blues, accompanied only by the heel of his boots beating time on the stage floor. Masterly return to the « big bang » of the mouth music... A century later, as time passes by, our instrument have not ceased to decline its score every where. With the recent appearance of the « Hong Kong Harmonica Association Orchestra », harmonica becomes symphonic !
During the last closing concert, Yasuho Watani plaid Chopin, Astor Piazzola, with this sensibility, this virtuosity that characterizes him... Last standing ovation, we would have liked to have more.
The alchemy « blow, breath-in », privilege of this only instrument in the world able to practice this technique, has perfectly worked once more, showing us that chromatic and diatonic are viscerally connected in the same beautiful instrumental family. Let it be said to every one around us.

Happy New Year

Jean Labre
Published January 1st 2014