Leo Diamond (June 29, 1915 – September 15, 1966) was an American

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 inclu ...

player. Regarded as a virtuoso of the instrument, and employed in several

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

s, he had two US chart hits, "Off Shore" (1953) and " Melody of Love" (1955), and released a string of LPs through the 1950s and early 1960s.

Biography

Diamond was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and learned the

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

and

piccolo The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the so ...

before winning a harmonica contest run by bandleader Edwin Franko Goldman in

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

. He joined

Borrah Minevitch Borrah Minevitch (sometimes spelled Minnevitch; 5 November 1902, Borovin, Minsk, Russian Empire – 26 June 1955, Paris, France), born Boruch Minewitz, was a notable harmonica player, actor, and leader of his group The Harmonica Rascals. The ...

's Harmonica Rascals in 1930, and appeared with the group in several films. He arranged and composed tunes for the Harmonica Rascals, toured with them in Europe and South America, and premiered his ''Concerto for the Harmonica'' at the Queen's Hall in London. He left to form his own group, the Solidaires (sometimes cited as the Harmonaires), around 1943. They appeared on

American Forces Network The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which i ...

radio, and in movies including ''

Coney Island Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...

'', ''

Hi'ya, Sailor ''Hi'ya, Sailor'' is a 1943 American comedy film directed by Jean Yarbrough and written by Stanley Roberts. The film stars Donald Woods, Elyse Knox, Eddie Quillan, Frank Jenks, Phyllis Brooks and Jerome Cowan. The film was released on October 8, ...

'' (both 1943), '' Swing Out, Sister'' and '' Forever Yours'' (both 1945). Biography by Tony Wilds, ''Allmusic.com''
Retrieved 24 April 2019 "Leo Diamond and His Harmonica", ''Mental Itch''
Retrieved 24 April 2019 By 1950, Diamond started to establish a solo career, principally as a recording artist though he also performed widely in clubs across the US. He provided the soundtracks to several more films, including ''

Miss Sadie Thompson ''Miss Sadie Thompson'' is a 1953 3-D American musical romantic drama film directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Rita Hayworth, José Ferrer, and Aldo Ray. The film was released by Columbia Pictures. The film is based on W. Somerset Maugham ...

'' and ''

The Eddie Cantor Story ''The Eddie Cantor Story'' is a 1953 American musical film, musical drama film directed by Alfred E. Green and starring Keefe Brasselle, Marilyn Erskine and Aline MacMahon. It is a biopic based on the life of Eddie Cantor featuring Brasselle as Ca ...

''. His self-penned

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

, "Off Shore", for Ambassador Records, reached number 14 on the US pop chart in 1953, and he also recorded an album, ''Harmonica Moods'', for the label. In 1955,

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...

released the album ''Harmonica Magic of Leo Diamond'', and Diamond's version of the 1903 song "Melody of Love" reached number 30 on the pop chart. This was followed in 1956 by ''Skin Diver Suite'', described as "the quintessential harmonica opus", with conductor

Murray Kellner Murray Kellner (April 29, 1900 – November 20, 1991) was an American violinist who had a long and prolific career on records and radio from the 1920s to the 1970s as an orchestral director, session musician and arrangement, arranger. He was ...

, one of several attempts by Diamond to raise the reputation of the harmonica as a serious solo instrument. Diamond then moved to ABC-Paramount Records who released the albums ''Exciting Sounds from Romantic Places'' (1959) and ''Subliminal Sounds'' (1959). Leo Diamond, ''Discogs.com''
Retrieved 24 April 2019 On these albums, Diamond "played all parts on a variety of harmonicas, most of his own design. He also mixed in sound effects such as jet noise and bird calls, and experimented with tape mixing methods to produce recordings that rank among the most innovative in exotica.... music that is anything but easy listening." Leo Diamond, ''Space Age Pop''
Retrieved 24 April 2019

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

championed Diamond, and as a result he signed to

Reprise Records Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels. Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include Enya, Michael ...

when it was set up in 1960. Diamond released several albums on the label in quick succession in 1961-62: ''Exciting Sounds of the South Seas'', ''Themes From The Great Foreign Films'', ''Off Shore'', and ''Harmonica Sounds In Country And Western Music''. However, by this time "the popular audience had lost what little interest it had in harmonica music", and the albums were criticized for "boring arrangements... hichonly exaggerated the inappropriateness of the harmonica". Diamond died in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, in 1966, aged 51.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diamond, Leo 1915 births 1966 deaths American harmonica players Exotica