Adam Glasser was born in Cambridge in 1955 while his South African father, composer Stanley ‘Spike’ Glasser, was studying at King’s College. The family returned to South Africa, and Adam grew up in Johannesburg surrounded by some of the greatest names in South African jazz. He came back to Britain to study European literature at Warwick, spent time in Paris playing jazz piano, and somewhere along the way — on a cruise ship, aged twenty-eight — picked up the chromatic harmonica and never looked back. In the mid-1980s he toured with the legendary alto player Dudu Pukwana. In 1999 he stepped in for Stevie Wonder twice in a single year: once on television with Sting, and once with the Eurythmics at Party in the Park. He served sixteen years as musical director of the Manhattan Brothers. His most recent album, SA and Beyond, released in 2024, won Best Traditional Jazz Album at the Mzantsi Jazz Awards in Johannesburg in 2025. Jazzwise described it as keeping alive the heritage of South African jazz for modern audiences. There is nobody quite like him. Googlies is very glad he’s here.