Brendan Power
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Brendan Power is a
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...
harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica in ...
player, composer and inventor, living in Britain. Born in
Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town ...
,
Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...
, Power's family moved to New Zealand in 1965 where he later attended
Canterbury University The University of Canterbury ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was f ...
at Christchurch, gaining a
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
in English & Religious Studies, and a
Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
in Religious Studies. Power wrote his thesis on the Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu. Power discovered the harmonica at university after hearing
Sonny Terry Saunders Terrell (October 24, 1911 – March 11, 1986), known as Sonny Terry, was an American Piedmont blues and folk musician, who was known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers and oc ...
play at a concert by the blues duo Sonny Terry and
Brownie McGhee Walter Brown "Brownie" McGhee (November 30, 1915 – February 16, 1996) was an American folk music and Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaboration with the harmonica player Sonny Terry. Life and career McGhee was ...
. Power subsequently taught himself to play harmonica by ear and music soon took over from academia as his main passion. Power moved to London in 1992 where he worked for three years as a soloist in the
Riverdance ''Riverdance'' is a theatrical show that consists mainly of traditional Irish music and dance. With a score composed by Bill Whelan, it originated as an interval act during the Eurovision Song Contest 1994, featuring Irish dancing champions Je ...
Show. He was later employed by
Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation The is a Japanese company that produces a range of musical instruments. History Suzuki was founded in 1953 by Mr. Manji Suzuki. Initially the company manufactured Harmonicas and later developed the Melodion which in 1956 was officially adopted ...
of Japan as their International Harmonica Specialist in 2008, a position he held for five years. In April 2013, along with his business partner Zombor Kovacs, Power started X-reed Harmonicas, a project devoted to making custom harmonicas. As of 2023, the products are no longer available and the website states it is for archival purposes only.


Music

Power is well known for his extraordinary technical playing ability on the harmonica.
Jools Holland Julian Miles Holland, (born 24 January 1958) is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer and television presenter. He was an original member of the band Squeeze and has worked with many artists including Jayne County, Sting, Eric C ...
introduced him as "a wonder on the harmonica" when Power played live with Tim Edey and Lucy Randall, on ''Later with Jools Holland'' in 2004, while
Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...
describes him as "a master of the chromatic harmonica and blues harp". Power has recorded more than 20 albums beginning with ''Country Harmonica'' (1984) and the latest being ''New Chinese Harmonica'' (2012), and has recorded with many well-known Irish artists, including: Altan, Arcady, Mary Black,
Paul Brady Paul Joseph Brady (born 19 May 1947) is an Irish singer-songwriter and musician from Strabane, Northern Ireland. His work straddles folk and pop. He was interested in a wide variety of music from an early age. Initially popular for playing ...
,
Dónal Lunny Dónal Lunny (born 10 March 1947) is an Irish folk musician and producer. He plays left-handed guitar and bouzouki, as well as keyboards and bodhrán. As a founding member of popular bands Planxty, The Bothy Band, Moving Hearts, Coolfin, Mozai ...
, and
Arty McGlynn Arty McGlynn (7 August 1944 – 18 December 2019) was an Irish guitarist born in Omagh, County Tyrone. In addition to his solo work, he collaborated with different notable groups such as Patrick Street, Planxty, Four Men and a Dog, De Dannan ...
. Power recorded harmonica on
Sting Sting may refer to: * Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger * Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself Fictional characters and entities * Sting (Middle-earth ...
's ''
Ten Summoner's Tales ''Ten Summoner's Tales'' is the fourth solo studio album by English rock musician Sting. The title is a combined pun of his family name, Sumner, and a character in Geoffrey Chaucer's '' The Canterbury Tales'', the summoner. Released in 1993, ...
'' (1993), on Andy Irvine's '' Way Out Yonder'' (2000), on
Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single " Wuthering Heights", becoming the first female ...
's ''
Director's Cut A director's cut is an edited version of a film (or video game, television episode, music video, or commercial) that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit in contrast to the theatrical release. "Cut" explicitly refers to the ...
'' (2011), and has recorded music for several movie soundtracks, including the Oscar-winning '' soundtrack for Atonement'' (2007) and ''
Shanghai Noon ''Shanghai Noon'' is a 2000 martial arts western action comedy film starring Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson and Lucy Liu. The first in the ''Shanghai'' film series and marking the directorial debut of Tom Dey, ''Shanghai Noon'' was written by Alfred ...
'' (2000)


Inventions and innovations

Power has created several new harmonica tunings including Paddy Richter and ''PowerBender'', and has introduced several new harmonica types, including the ''Slide Diatonic'' and ''ChromaBender''. Power invented the concept of 'Half-Valving' in 1980, and was a co-inventor with Will Scarlett of the 'extra-reed' concept for achieving greater pitch bending ability in harmonicas. In 2014 he took out a provisional patent on what he calls the 'Twin-Harmonica System', a design enabling two harmonicas of any type to be linked together behind a master air-shifting slider for enhanced musical possibilities. In 2021 Power released the Modular-Reed Harmonica system, enabling players to change individual reeds in their harmonicas, facilitating both easy replacement of damaged reeds and the changing of the harmonica's tuning. The author Pat Missin wrote on his website: "I think this is potentially the biggest thing to hit diatonic harmonicas since Lee Oskar introduced replaceable reedplates back in the 1980s."


Awards and accolades

In 1993, Power won the All-Ireland competition in the mouth organ and miscellaneous instrument categories. Power was voted ''International Harmonica Player of the Year 2011/12''. by The Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica (SPAH) organisation of America. In February 2012, Power and Tim Edey won the ''Best Duo'' award at the 2012
BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards celebrate outstanding achievement during the previous year within the field of folk music, with the aim of raising the profile of folk and acoustic music. The awards have been given annually since 2000 by British ra ...
.


References


External links

*
AudioCulture profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Power, Brendan Harmonica players New Zealand musicians 1956 births Living people