Blues – Devilish music that depicts life
The concert is part of a blues workshop for diatonic harmonica:
Traditional Styles – Blues Workshop with Adam Sikora
11–13 December 2026
Kapelle 99, Berlin
Concert and the history of the blues with Adam Sikora and Axel Küstner
12 December 2026, 7 pm
Venue: Kapelle 99, Boxhagener Straße 99, 10245 Berlin
€22, concessions €18
FFor some, it describes life as it is, with all its joys and sorrows. For others, it is the devil’s music, outrageous and wicked: the blues—born among the Black population of the American South and, to this day, closely associated with an instrument that quickly found its way into the world: the harmonica. Small and affordable, it arrived early in the southern United States, where it soon replaced the fiddle in the blues of the Black community.
Early players like Sonny Boy Williamson, James Cotton, and Sonny Terry continue to influence generations of harmonica players to this day. Quite a few played in the fields during the day, at the juke joint on Saturday nights, and in church on Sundays, where the blues mingled with gospel. Musically, gospel and blues are very similar; it is often the lyrics that distinguish them. The (vicious) earthly life on one side—the praise of the Lord on the other.
Adam Sikora
is internationally renowned for his unique country hill blues on the harmonica and is considered one of the world’s finest virtuosos of this style.
Axel Küstner
is a blues researcher, journalist, photographer and collector. The blues expert released the box set ‘Living Country Blues U.S.A.’ on Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau’s label (L+R Records), featuring more than 160 recordings that remain among the finest field recordings to this day.