Hendrik Meurkens started out playing vibraphone in his native Germany. At age 19, he heard Toots Thielemans play harmonica, which totally changed his musical life. Now, he plays both.
When Jersey Jazz’s Schaen Fox interviewed Meurkens in 2021, he asked him about the harmonica’s role in jazz. Meurkens pointed out that the harmonica has a hard time “because it’s not really a section instrument. It doesn’t blend with anything.” However, “in the right context, with the right player, and the right repertoire, harmonica can easily be the strongest instrument on the planet.” Thielemans, he added, “found that thing that works in jazz . . . He was very successful because he found something that people wanted.”
Meurkens’ most recent Cellar Music Group album, The Jazz Meurkengers, was released earlier this year, and AllAboutJazz’s Pierre Giroux described it as “a swinging tribute to the allure of hard bop jazz.” The album has five Meurkens original compositions, including “A Tear For Toots”, a tribute to Thielemans, plus jazz standards such as Horace Silver’s “Silver’s Serenade” and Frank Loesser’s “If I Were a Bell”.
On Sunday, October 13, Meurkens will be bringing a quartet — with piano, bass, and drums — to Allamuchy Township’s Rutherfurd Hall. That concert will be followed, on December 1, by the Latin septet, Cubano Be, Cubano Bop. The concerts are held from 2-4 p.m. For more information or to order tickets, log onto rutherfurdhall.org or call (908) 892-1202.