Harmonica legend returns to Tucson House Rockin' Blues

Blues harmonica great Mark Hummel brought his Blues Survivors with Anson Funderburgh to Tucson last spring for a Hotel Congress Plaza show.

You can be sure that folks on the historic downtown hotel’s patio were standing throughout the concert.

Hummel expects the same when he and Funderburgh return for the 12th annual KXCI House Rockin’ Blues Review on Friday, Aug. 1, at El Casino Ballroom.

The pair anchor Hummel’s latest project, Mark Hummel’s Blues All Stars, featuring guitarist Junior Watson, upright bass player Bill Stuve and drummer Myles Silveira.

“It’s a bunch of guys that have known each other for years and, you know, love the same kind of music,” Hummel said in a mid-July phone interview from home in California.

That music is West Coast blues, the jazz-influenced jump blues that borrow from Texas and Chicago swing styles.

“Even though it’s called West Coast blues, there’s certainly an element (of swing) that gets added,” Hummel explained, especially when it comes to the guitar and harmonica.

“When you talk about the harmonica players out here, every one of them is a complete Chicago blues freak,” he said. “Whether it’s Kim Wilson or Charlie Musselwhite or Rod Piazza or Rick Estrin — all these guys are Chicago blues freaks.”

Friday’s concert marks Hummel’s long-awaited return to the popular KXCI fundraising concert. Hummel and his Golden State-Lonestar Blues Revue with Funderburgh headlined the fifth annual event in 2016.

Hummel said the lineup this time includes musicians with international reputations with whom he has played for years.

“We’ve all known each other for years. I mean me and the bass player Bill Stuve and Junior Watson all go back to the late ‘70s, and then Anson and I go back to 1986,” Hummel said.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

“This is a very special show when you can gather all these musicians with all these histories,” he added. “Anson and Junior Watson, these are guys that have an international rep as guitar players. Guys in Europe copy their stuff and just idolize the hell out of them. ... It’s a very special thing that I’ve put together with these guys.”

Hummel is no slacker either, earning critical acclaim over his 50-year career as one of the most dynamic blues harpists in the country; Blues Revue went as far as to call the Grammy-nominated blues impresario “a harmonica God.” His name is mentioned alongside guys he used to idolize, which Hummel admits is kind of mind-blowing.

During the pandemic, he launched a podcast so that he could interview blues artists.

“I would bring in my friends and interview them because these guys all have great stories, and I know so much about all these characters,” he said.

In the four years since launching “Mark Hummel’s Harmonica Party,” he has interviewed dozens of blues artists about their careers, the genre and the connective tissue that binds them all.

“I built up a helluva list of musicians that are people ... that I originally idolized,” he said. “I mean, somebody like Magic Dick (J. Giles Band harmonica player) or Lee Oskar, when I was a kid and learning the harmonica, they were kind of my idols. Charlie Musselwhite was one of the very first guys I got to see or, you know, Elvin Bishop back then. All of them were really idols.”

Hummel said folks attending Friday’s KXCI Rockin’ Blues Review should probably wear comfortable shoes to keep up with Funderburgh.

“Anson has this innate ability to just pack out the dance floor as soon as they would start playing,” Hummel said. “He’s really got that ability to get the audiences up on the dance floor.”

Friday’s concert runs from 7:30-10:30 p.m. at El Casino Ballroom, 437 E. 26th St. Admission is $25 for KXCI members, $30 for general admission in advance through kxci.org; it’s $35 at the door.

Proceeds support KXCI community radio.