Mark Hummel
| Mark Hummel | |
|---|---|
| Born |
December 15, 1955 New Haven, Connecticut, United States |
| Genres | Blues |
| Instruments | Harmonica, vocals |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Labels | Flying Fish, Mountain Top Productions, Blind Pig, Tone-Cool, Electro-Fi |
| Website | http://www.markhummel.com |
Mark Hummel (born December 15, 1955, New Haven, Connecticut) is a Grammy nominated Blues Music Award winning American blues harmonica player, vocalist, songwriter, and long-time bandleader of The Blues Survivors. Since 1991, Hummel has produced the Blues Harmonica Blowout tour, of which he is also a featured performer. The shows have featured blues harmonica players such as James Cotton, Carey Bell, and Charlie Musselwhite. Although he is typically identified as performing West Coast blues, Hummel is also proficient in Delta blues, Chicago blues, swing and jazz styles.
Mark Hummel was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and grew up in Los Angeles, California. Hummel and his family lived for a time in Aliso Village, a housing project in East Los Angeles that was demolished in 1999. As Hummel explains in his forthcoming autobiography, his parents hired Mexican babysitters who often played R&B and soul music on the radio when they cared for him. It was through these babysitters that Hummel was first introduced to black music. Early on, he was also drawn to the music of Jimmy Reed and Slim Harpo. Hummel did not start playing harmonica seriously until high school, and by the age of sixteen he was already playing in bands.
Hummel began working professionally after moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1970s. A number of jazz and blues artists had already made their mark on Hummel at this point in his early career, including Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Ella Johnson, Lester Young, Jimmy Reed, Little Walter, Muddy Waters, Big Walter Horton, Paul Butterfield, Sonny Boy Williamson II, and Charlie Musselwhite.
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