Howard Levy has one of the most inquisitive musical minds of anyone around. He’s an accomplished piano player, and a musical fixture on the Chicago music scene, but the thing that he’s most known for is his astounding harmonica playing and innovative technique.

Here he talks to Leo and Ben Sidran about his journey out of New York, to the city of wide shoulders and open spaces, and how living in Chicago influenced his development, gave him room to think and create, and eventually come to some very special conclusions about the nature of sound, light, rhythm, melody, and maybe even life itself.

Oh, and he also explains how the harmonica works and why the Germans accidentally invented the perfect blues instrument.