Ollis Martin

Harmonica players remained exceptionally scarce amid the Alabama blues world of the 1920s, prompting some researchers to liken the shortage to a barbecue without enough meat. Certain scholars even assert that one of the few documented figures, Frank Palmes, simply served as a pseudonym for Birmingham's most prominent exponent, Jaybird Coleman. Ollis Martin, by contrast, existed as a distinct performer and issued the warning "Police and High Sheriff Come Ridin' Down" on the Document Great Harp Players anthology. That lone 1927 Gennet date marked his final appearance under his own name; afterward he stayed active in the Birmingham vicinity, contributing to several Coleman sides that also featured gospel harmonica duets between the two men. Far more biographical detail survives about Coleman than about Martin or any of Coleman's other associates. One hypothesis even proposes that the second harp part on those Coleman recordings came not from Martin but from another little-known Birmingham player. Regardless, Coleman and his circle constituted the entirety of the local blues community at the time. Responsibility for the meager surviving documentation rests with talent scouts rather than the musicians themselves; the prewar "race record field units" of the 1920s and 1930s simply bypassed Alabama far more often than neighboring states. Consequently the listening public never encountered performers bearing striking names such as Whistling Pete, Peanut the Kidnapper, Bogan's Birmingham Busters, Brownie Stubblefield, and the duo Georgia Slim and Guitar Slim. George "Bullet" Williams, another Alabama harp blower of the era, surfaces on many of the same anthologies devoted to Alabama country blues or early American harmonica mastery. Compiling every track by Alabama harp players onto a single disc therefore made obvious sense, and Japanese producers eventually realized the project. Although credited to Coleman and Williams, the P-Vine set The Pioneers of Blues Harmonica also showcases Martin alongside Daddy Stovepipe, the Alabama player whose moniker remains the most memorable. Martin may have carried a plainer name, yet his playing exerted measurable influence: Tony "Little Sun" Glover's Blues Harp Songbook singles out Martin's work for extended pedagogical attention.