Page 18 - RYAN'S GIG GUIDE MARCH 2014

Harry forged this distinctive style by study-
ing at the feet of the masters, first as a sound
man in his formative years in the blues clubs
of Toronto doing sound for the likes of Junior
Wells, Buddy Guy and Willie Dixon, then
under a rigorous five-year tutelage with
Vishwa Mohan Bhatt in India. Bhatt, whose
guru was the late, great Ravi Shankar, is the
inventor of the 20-stringed mohan veena,
which has become Harry’s signature instru-
ment. Bhatt is best known for his collabora-
tion on the Grammy Award-winning album
“A Meeting By The River” with Ry Cooder.
Manx’s musical journey has seen him busk-
ing in the streets of Europe, playing in
Japanese shopping malls, and even a time
when he regularly bumped into none other
than John Lennon for three months, on a
daily basis as Manx took a job in a New York
City studio where Lennon was recording his
album “Mind Games”.
As fate would have it, it was while Manx was
busking in the aforementioned Japanese mall
that he first heard the sound of a mohan
veena being played on an instrumental Indian
album in a small record store. The guy in the
store told him it was Vishwa Mohan Bhatt
playing, and there began Harry’s journey to
go to India find Bhatt.
Even though he had played slide guitar for
many years before arriving in India, Manx
started back at the beginning under Bhatt’s
tutelage, even re-learning how to hold the
bar. From there, Manx learned Eastern scales
and eventually ragas, deceptively complex
and regimented musical patterns that form
the basis of Indian composition.
HARRY
MANX plus special guest
Jack Omer
“Mysticssippi” blues man Harry Manx has been called an “essential
link” between the music of East and West, creating musical short
stories that combine the tradition of the blues with the depth of
classical Indian ragas. He has created a unique sound that is hard
to forget and deliciously addictive to listen to.