Her ‘favorite’ is always made of pear wood

There is a stack of black boxes in the Amsterdam attic. Each box has a date, a serial number and sometimes a sun, a plus or the number 1. Then there is an approved harmonica in it. More often there are notes: Ab, E, F#. That means they are fake. Has about a hundred chromatic harmonicas Hermine Deurloo Meanwhile. All Hohner, type Hardbopper, made of pear wood. There is no better one, she thinks, but often only after she has refined the factory work herself.

Deurloo used to be a saxophonist, including with the Willem Breuker Kollektief. But the sound of Toots Thielemans and also Stevie Wonder on harmonica fascinated her more and more. She wondered how they managed that until she came across the chromatic harmonica. That instrument has a slide on the right side that allows Deurloo to jump a semitone while playing. She is now very fast in it and also with her breathing. You play the harmonica by breathing in or out on each note.

In 2019 she recorded an album, Riverbeast, with jazz drummer Steve Gadd. The tool they use for this used, was once flawless. January 2019 is written on the box, and a circled 1 for approval. “But he’s getting hoarse now, faster false, stiffer. It’s always annoying when my favorite breaks.”

Each year she receives two new Hardboppers from her sponsor Hohner. But they are not always to her taste. Her fast way of playing demands a lot. “It’s always a mystery which plays good or bad. I have the feeling that they used to be purer, that’s why I taught myself how to tune. That way I can still make something out of that bad one.” She has an extensive set of files and tweezers. She scrapes the tongues in the interior and sticks wafer-thin stickers that cover the air chambers when inhaling. Trigger and no one else can do it for her.

The fact that she plays pear wood doesn’t make it any easier. “I’m the one crazy person who still plays that wooden thing. It’s nicer, but quickly leads to technical problems. It deforms more than the plastic that many colleagues play on, but I find that sound cold and loud.” The pile of old instruments expresses a certain despair. She will never get rid of her best alto sax. She also has her first chromatic harmonica in the pile somewhere, but it is irreparably out of tune.

Now that her “favorites” from recent years are almost gone, she thinks she has found the successor, dated March 16, 2022. It came a bit fake from the factory, but Deurloo hears potential. “I still have to play it in and maybe adjust it a bit. There seems to be a trick that you file the wood off the mouthpiece. I will look into that shortly.”

www.herminedeurloo.com