I would like to give you an update on the status of the Sonny Terry Estate Harmonica project. As many of you know, Adam Gussow posted a video last September in which he reviewed a couple of the estate harps which had been delivered to him for appraisal.
When I watched that video, something struck me. As I have gotten older, I have become more intrigued by history. I’m not sure exactly what prompted me to contact Adam but I did to let him know that if there was anything I could do to be of assistance I would be happy to do so. Little did I know how involved in the affairs of Sonny Terry Estate LLC I would become. It took us a couple of months to connect but in November last year I began communicating with Delores Boyd, Sonny’s niece by marriage and 90% owner of the estate. Delores knew very little about harmonicas in general and even less about the harmonica community. Neither of us had any idea how much Sonny’s collection might be worth or how to go about selling it. But we put our heads together and over the period of a several months, we developed a working relationship, a formal business agreement and “best guess” strategy to move forward. I believed that because I was already set up to transact business on the internet via my website and eBay, and because of the relationships I had developed with various members of the harmonica community, including enthusiasts, professional artists and harp techs, that it was a good fit for both of us.
I will interject at this point that Delores Boyd is a wonderful lady. She is lawyer, retired Federal Judge, super detail oriented, amazingly articulate and brilliant. She is also one of the nicest people I have ever met. She is warm and caring and just a pleasure to work with. At the core of our project is our commitment to honoring Sonny’s legacy. The language which appears both in our written formal agreement and in our public information is as follows:
Our cooperative venture will be guided by three primary objectives:
1. To honor, enhance and preserve the distinguished career of Sonny Terry. 2. To offer those who have helped preserve and promote Sonny’s music an opportunity to “own a piece of history”. 3. To generate revenue for Sonny Terry Estate LLC.
It took us a little while to get everything organized but finally, in June we went public. We began reaching out to the harmonica community to let them know what we were doing. Of course, this involves offering some of Sonny’s harmonicas up for sale. It also includes contacting the artists we felt deserved some thanks for their contributions to keeping Sonny’s legacy alive. A lot has happened in the past four months. Sonny has fans from around the world and I have shipped some of his harmonicas to all corners of the Earth. In August, I happened to be in California on vacation so I visited Tom Ball at his home in Santa Barbara and presented him with one of Sonny’s harps. Tom wrote The Sourcebook of Sonny Terry Licks for Harmonica. He was very appreciative.
We were able to hastily organize a Sonny Terry Tribute at SPAH in San Antonio featuring Joe Filisko, Peter Madcat Ruth, Grant Dermody and Winslow Yerxa playing Sonny’s music on Sonny’s actual harps. Each of them have been gifted their choice of one of Sonny’s harps. It was a fantastic show that was captured on video and can be seen on my website. Delores’ remarks at the end of the tribute were especially moving. She had never actually seen her Uncle Sonny perform live so to hear his music performed so expertly on his harps was an amazing experience for her.
Working with my good friend Steve Baker we have facilitated the donation of several items from the collection, including a harmonica belt, clothing, posters, documents and harmonicas to the Harmonika Museum in Trossingen, Germany. The museum will be presenting a Special Exhibition to honor Sonny Terry at the World Harmonic Festival in November 2017. In addition, Steve contacted Hohner and they have posted a link on their website.
Not surprisingly, Sonny Terry had a profound impact on Steve and so he is now the proud owner of an Echo Super Vamper from Sonny’s Estate.
Another bit of good news is happening as I write this post. I have been in contact with Ben Hewlett who is Chairman of the National Harmonica League in the UK and it so happens that the 2016 NHL Festival is this weekend. The NHL is the UK equivalent of SPAH in the U.S. Sonny’s music has been the focal point of Ben’s teaching for many years. In addition to gifting a harp to Ben, the estate also donated a harmonica to the NHL which will be auctioned off this weekend.
In closing, we have been very busy. I have about 30 of Sonny’s harmonicas listed on my website now. As events have unfolded, I have updated the page devoted to the estate so that anyone who is interested can follow the story.
The Holiday Season is rapidly approaching and a Sonny Terry Estate Harmonica would make a great gift for that special harmonica player in your life. Thank you to all of you who have supported our project.
---------- Tom Halchak www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
Last Edited by florida-trader on Oct 31, 2016 3:15 AM
Goldbrick. I don't know if this is an idictment of the blues. There are are couple of factors to take into consideration.
First, this was the NHL Festival in the UK. Only about 2% of the population in the UK is black.
Second, we can't assume that the entire National Harmonica League in the UK are blues fans and more than all the people who attend the SPAH Convention here in the US are blues fans. In fact, many are decidedly not blues fans. The operative word in NHL is Harmonica. If this was an event promoted as a Blues Festival, it could very well have attracted a different audience.
Third, and you might find this surprising, but Sonny Terry was and is far more popular with whites than with blacks. Trust me on this. I have done my research and with good reason.
Fourth. Attending a convention like the NHL Festival or SPAH can be an expensive proposition. By the time you add up travel costs, hotel accomomadations, meals and registration fees, it can get pricey meaning that a lot of younger people can't justify or afford it.
Finally, in spite of this, the harp did fetch a pretty good price. 430 pounds or the equivilent of about $525 US. ---------- Tom Halchak www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
It’s just fantastic that his collection and legacy is being so well care for. Keep up the excellent work and posts. What an honor it must be being part of this piece of blues harmonica history.
And I love Adam’s assessment video. I was thinking the same thing when he mentioned the sweat and gunk that must be inside that one beat up old Marine Band. It honestly made me cringe a little when he drew on it. Then I was in awe, out of tune or not. I don’t know how these harps are assessed overall but that worn out Marine Band would be one of the most valuable harps of the bunch in my book.
I checked out the website and may have missed it somewhere but have you identified the oldest harp in his collection?
It was really nice to read that some of his personal items are going straight into museums.
Regards, Dave
---------- It's about time I got around to this.
Last Edited by dchurch on Oct 30, 2016 4:36 PM
Great to read this update, Tom. Yes, Delores Boyd is a great lady. When she delivered the harps to me, in person, and set down that plastic tub filled with baggies, inside of each of which was one harp marked with two stickers, each sticker of which had complicated letter/number combinations, I realized that I was dealing with evidence as presented by a Federal judge who had probably had a lot of experience in a DA's office. I mean, it was stone-cold expertise right there. I'm an honest guy; I didn't try to squirrel away a harp or two. But even if I'd had a criminal record, I would have hesitated. :)
She gave me a couple of harps--allowed me to choose my own, in fact--and I treasure them.
This is definitely a once in a lifetime thing. Little Walter didn't leave a big bucket of used (and mostly new) harps in a closet. Nor did Big Walter. This isn't goin to happen again. It's a chance to own a piece of history.
I still have the harp on which I recorded "CC Rider" and "Groovy People" in the first Satan and Adam session. I retired it that night, wrote on the box, and stuck it in my desk, where it still sits. Maybe it'll be famous some day.....
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Oct 30, 2016 7:11 PM
Well, Adam - interestingly enough, the little Post-It Notes that you jotted your appraisals on have become a part of the collection. I include them with every estate harp I ship. I have no idea what the new owners are doing with those scraps of paper but I suspect they being preserved. Some of them will probably wind up on display in the Smithsonian, the Blues Hall of Fame and the Harmonika Museum in Trossingen. ---------- Tom Halchak www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
