Borrah Minevitch & His Harmonica Rascals + Jerry Murad's Harmonicats - Peg O' My Heart & Other Harmonica Favourites (1999)

For better or worse, the world has seen only a handful of truly successful all-harmonica ensembles. Arguably, the best of this bunch was Borrah Minevitch & His Harmonica Rascals. From the late '20s through the '50s, Minevitch and a quintet of fellow harmonica powerhouses put Raymond Scott energy and Mickey Katz shtick into big band and pop tunes. It's hard not to feel blown away after hearing Borrah and his crew swing through "Chinatown, My Chinatown" or "Daybreak Express" on a handful of harps. Unfortunately, just as you can't keep a good man down, you can't keep a harmonica virtuoso in a band for too long; in the mid-'40s, some of Minevitch's finest left to form the archrival Harmonicats. A little later, even Johnny Puleo (the group's midget) went solo. Still, the instrumentals Minevitch made in his prime-perfectly remastered here and sounding as timeless and oddball as ever-have a jazz energy and vaudevillian humour nobody has been able to match. A few tunes from the laid-back Harmonicats are included, but the sound quality--and energy level-are no match for Borrah's best