Harmonica and piano doyen Adam Glasser is set to take three Cape Town stages by storm and conduct several harmonica workshops when he concludes his 2025 South Africa tour. KEANETSE FOTHOANE reached out to him in the UK to get information about the workshops and the inspiration for his performances with Bokani Dyer.
Please tell us more about your tour?
Thanks to Concerts SA, I have the opportunity to return to South Africa and do a series of workshops and gigs in several different parts of the country. Starting in Johannesburg with shows at The Library Café and Chiesa di Pazzo Lupi I will be playing with a variety of musicians including Bokani Dyer, Keenan Ahrends, Basi Mahlasela, Peter Auret and Concord Nkabinde. This will also give me an opportunity to promote my latest album (the 3rd under my own name) Adam Glasser SA & Beyond, which was released last year by Gallo Records and is available to hear on all streaming platforms.
What inspired you to hold harmonica workshops?
I am passionate about the harmonica as a stepping stone to musical literacy – not everyone wants to go about the long route of learning to play the fully chromatic harmonica that I play that is made famous by great artists like Stevie Wonder and Toots Thielemans. To most people the harmonica means the blues of Bob Dylan or the Chicago blues players. But the kind that I play has all the black and white notes of the piano. You can play anything on it.
So, for the workshops I have a simple harmonica which is ideal for learning music basics and having a lot of fun. I have in the past done many workshops around the country – mainly one-offs but this time I am looking to find music teachers and experienced educators who would see the value in adding the harmonica to their teaching tools, like a recorder.
The little harmonicas I use are ideal for learning a lot of melodies and music theory. Imagine a learner who can demonstrate the basics of their music knowledge after a short harmonica course – they could then ask for a trumpet or a saxophone – so the harmonica is a path to music literacy – hence the workshops are called ‘Music Literacy via Harmonica’ – my main objective is to gather a cohort of teaches willing to be supported by me for sustained harmonica teachings which I can support remotely. Hopefully teachers will see it as another string to their bow in terms of being able to offer an additional service as part of their teaching skills.
What other projects are you currently engaged in?
My attention is fully taken with this tour and promoting album and workshops and when this is over, I will be evaluating the result and deciding what comes next!
How did the performances with Bokani Dyer come about?
I first met Bokani Dyer around 2014 at the Orbit Jazz Club in Johannesburg – and we got on well. The next year I had some funding for the SA/UK season and was able to bring him to London where we did a series of gigs and workshops at schools and music colleges and he connected with some key musicians here in the UK including the brilliant flautist Gareth Lockrane who was the last person to work intensively with Bheki Mseleku.
Bokani has always worked internationally from early on and he was already doing gigs in Europe with his own projects at that time. So when he would come over, I would sometimes assist him with organizing details and at one time in 2017 he came over with his great trio that included Romy Brauteseth and Sphelelo Mazibuko – and while they were here I managed to get some studio time and in one day we recorded a bulk of my album Adam Glasser SA & Beyond, released last year by Gallo Records.
I was very lucky this April with the timing of the gigs as Bokani Dyer has been very busy with a tour of the USA and by good fortune my time in SA coincides with his availability so we are able to do the Johannesburg gig on 18 April and the gigs in Cape Town at the end of the month.
With a career spanning more than 40 years, what are the secrets to your enduring run in the jazz industry?
You can sustain your motivation to be a musician or active in the industry in some ways – you have to be resourceful, patient and take the long-term view. You have to be prepared for ups and downs. You have to develop networking skills and keep on the lookout for others who are on your wavelength.
You have to be multi-skilled these days – not only playing or writing music but all the business activities that involve self – promotion. You have to keep navigating towards the music that moves you and that you feel connected to and not judge your own tastes or those of others that you feel do not touch you. Each to their own.
What can workshop attendees and concert-goers look forward to?
Because I started late in music, I have a huge amount of time for people who want to learn music or just play a bit or just listen and be connected. I love talking about my musical world, sharing it and encouraging people to discover what is important to them musically.
To be in Cape Town where I spent my early years and do gigs is a really exciting prospect because I have not performed here since the Cape Town International Jazz Festival in 2012. So at my gigs you will experience hopefully a lot of passion and melody – I am a kind of fisherman of South African jazz standards always pulling up a catch with unusual treasures. I think people will experience that when they come to an Adam Glasser gig.
If you come to a workshop you will experience a completely fresh passionate approach to learning jazz – I hope this trip will be the beginning of regular returns in the future!
Adam Glasser Live in Cape Town
Private Constantia residence (RSVP for location details)
Thursday, 24 April, 2025, from 7pm
R350 (suggested donation, directly to the artist)
Booking and RSVP: 083 200 8708
Youngblood Africa
Saturday, 26 April, 2025, from 3pm
R200
70, 72 Bree Street, Cape Town CBD
Tickets: Quicket
Guga S’thebe
Sunday, 27 April, 2025, from 11am
R200
Washington Street, Langa
Tickets: Quicket
Who: Adam Glasser workshops concerts
Discography: Free at first, Mzansi, SA & Beyond
Social media: Facebook: Adam Glasser, Instagram: adamgharmonica, YouTube: Adam Glasser
Website: adamglassermusic.com
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