Harmonica at the Movies- watching “Killers of the Flower Moon,” the new Martin Scorsese film, on the tragedy of the Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma, I poked my date Carie Lovstad and whispered that’s DeFord Bailey!
Close but wrong! It was another pre-war harmonica wizard, Henry Whitter playing “The Old Time Fox Chase.” With the vocalized whooping, mimicking a howling dog, it was a perfect match to the hectic crowded town and crazy car race scene with its fast tempo and tension of the chase.
From the notes in Joe Filisko's study song, “Henry’s Lament,” we know that Whitter ‘…was the first to record in the cross-harp approach to playing the harmonica that was originally often referred to as ‘choking.” Henry Whitter recorded a few versions of “The Old Time Fox Chase,” in 1923. He was also the first to record, “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad.”
The next nudge- and I almost jumped out of my seat moment- was when Charlie Musselwhite harmonica master and one of my favorite blues players, appeared on screen as “Alvin Reynolds,” being questioned by federal investigator, “Tom White,” (Jesse Plemons) Musselwhite even gets to say his classic tag line, “I ain’t lying.”
Throughout the film blues songs are featured including: “Bull Doze Blues,” by Henry Thomas, “See, See Rider,” Ma Rainey and “Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground,” Bind Willie Johnson.
Robbie Roberson’s score includes Native American drumming and the amazing harmonica playing of Frederic Yonnet.
The Spokesman Review, “Yonnet’s harmonica wizardry caught the attention of Stevie Wonder, with whom he’s repeatedly shared a stage – most famously when the two whipped a crowd into a frenzy with a 2007 harmonica duel at Madison Square Garden. Yonnet went on to perform with Prince, John Legend, Erykah Badu and Ed Sheeran.”
For a harmonica lover like me it is thrilling to hear the instrument used to such great effect.
The Spokesman Review continues, “Scorsese contemplated the question in thinking about the musical accompaniment to his historical drama ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ and came up with an answer that might surprise you: a harmonica.
Scorsese gave Yonnet one task: Capture the sound of greed. Yonnet was introduced to Scorsese through composer Robbie Robertson, a regular collaborator of the legendary filmmaker.
Robertson, who died in August after a storied career as a member of the Band, in addition to his many Scorsese projects, brought Yonnet on to “The Irishman” and offered the harmonicist a few instructions: Be sneaky, sexy and unexpected. Robertson gave him, Yonnet recalls, “the license to kill.”
They just gave me a moment to just, ‘Do you, do what you hear, do what you feel based on everything we’ve recorded,’ ” Yonnet said. ‘Those are the takes they actually kept.’
In the final cut of ‘The Irishman,” Yonnet’s harmonica serves as a warning that something terrible and violent is imminent.
“That is something Scorsese is extremely talented at doing,” the harmonicist said. ‘He’s basically attributing a persona to the instruments in order to underline the story.’
For Scorsese’s latest film, Yonnet needed his instrument to signal a lust for money so blinding it could compel men to murder members of the Osage Native American tribe in a quest to control their land’s oil. Yonnet initially recorded in Los Angeles, then, once film editing had begun about 10 months later, he was asked to record some additional music from a studio in D.C.
The result stunned even Yonnet. ‘During the after-party at the Cannes Film Festival, I commented to Martin Scorsese my astonishment about a specific scene highlighting his remarkable ability to synchronize the emotional intensity of my sound with that of the main character, Mollie,’ Yonnet recalled via email. “Scorsese beamed with pride, gently tapped his chest with his index finger and said, ‘I edited that myself!”
In another nod to how important music is to the film, the cast includes musicians Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Jack White and poet/songwriter Jo Harvey Allen. Robertson’s score is a masterpiece and crackles with energy in this heartbreaking story of murder and greed.
See the film and listen close.