Larry Adler or Lawrence Adler was born in Baltimore on 1914. He had worn a talent competition at the age of thirteen by playing a Beethoven minuet on what had hitherto been regarded as a musical toy. He thereafter elevated the instrument to concert hall status by means of his astonishing virtuosity and musicality.Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Darius Milhaud and Paul Hindemith have all written works for him and his reputation is world wide.
Adler himself has also written film scores including Genevieve (1954), for which he played in the sound track.
With other show-business personalities, he was blacklisted by the American entertainment industry after 1949 for his alleged left wing sympathies.
Since then he has lived for many years in England where he has created a second career for himself as a journalist and writer.
In 1994 for his birthday Adler, along with George Martin, produced an album of George Gershwin songs, The Glory of Gershwin, on which Adler and martin performed Rhapsody in Blue.
Adler was an entertaining performer and showman--the concerts in support of The Glory of Gershwin also revealed that he was a competent pianist, when he opened each performance with Gershwin's Summertime, playing piano and harmonica simultaneously.
He died in St Thomas’ Hospital, London, at the age of 87, on August 7, 2001.
Adler, Larry (1914 – 2001) – United States harmonica player
