Charles Leighton

Charles Leighton (June 24, 1921 – June 26, 2009) was an American harmonica player, studio musician, and recording engineer whose career spanned classical and jazz performance, Broadway, film, radio, and television. A native New Yorker, he taught himself the harmonica at age twelve and began touring professionally at sixteen, playing lead harmonica in vaudeville theaters across the United States with groups including the Philharmonicas and the Cappy Barra Harmonica Gentlemen.

In the early 1940s, Leighton relocated to Hollywood, where he worked both in recording studios and on screen, appearing in motion pictures for Columbia and RKO. His radio work during this period included the Hollywood Barn Dance and The Hoagy Carmichael Show, and he recorded alongside the Andrews Sisters, Johnny Bond, Merle Travis, and the Riders of the Purple Sage. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, during which time he formed a harmonica trio with Harry Halicki and Joe Pittello. Following the war, the trio toured in the show Tars and Spars and performed with Henry Morgan, Paul Whiteman, and Kay Kyser.

After his military service, Leighton signed with USO Camp Shows and traveled throughout Japan, Korea, and China entertaining military personnel. Returning to New York, he appeared on Broadway in 1945 in Carousel before establishing himself as a studio musician working in radio and television. His recording credits from this period include sessions with Harry Belafonte, Hugh Downs, Clint Eastwood, Andre Kostelanetz, Dean Martin, Mitch Miller, Dinah Shore, and Dionne Warwick.

In the 1950s, Leighton co-founded JAC Recording, Inc., a studio he operated out of his Manhattan apartment, stepping back from performing to focus on engineering and production. The studio later employed record producer Phil Ramone, whom Leighton and other engineers mentored. Ramone credited Leighton with instilling in him a love of audio engineering. Leighton's return to performing came after a friend asked him to record a harmonica transcription of "Poem," a flute solo by Charles Griffes, which led him to produce a classical music album.

For roughly the final three decades of his life, Leighton hosted weekly Tuesday jam sessions at his apartment, a gathering he called Tuesdays at Leighton's. Regular participants included Charles Spranklin, William Galison, Randy Weinstein, Stan Harper, Stanley Silverstone, Gregoire Maret, Phil Caltabelotta, and Rob Paparozzi. In 1990, he published Introduction to Jazz for the Chromatic Harmonica, a book and audio tape arranged and accompanied by pianist Ted Simons and distributed by The F & R Farrell Company of Grove City, Ohio.