AAMC Reporter: November 2006

When the Lights Go Down

Daniel C. Marson, J.D., Ph.D., is a professor of neurology, director of the division of neuropsychology, and interim director of the Alzheimer's Disease Center at the University of Alabama School of Medicine. With his jam-packed schedule by daylight, Marson isn't a prime candidate to pop up in a smoky bar at 2 a.m.

But next time, look closer. He's the guy on stage playing the harmonica. If you still don't see him, just ask for Harpdog. This neuropsychologist (likely the only one ever nicknamed "Harpdog") traces his fondness for the harmonica, or "harp," to his teenage years, when he was influenced by harmonica greats such as Little Walter and Magic Dick of the J. Geils Band.

"I guess it goes back to my childhood in Milwaukee as a dissolute youth," he jokes. "I grew up in the '60s, and the blues was sweeping the country at the time. It was a compelling sound. Living so close to Chicago, one of the homes of the blues, the harmonica was a great fit for me. I just loved the sound."

Marson plays fewer late-night blues gigs nowadays, as he focuses largely on jazz harmonica.

"It takes a lot of practice," Marson says of jazz harmonica.

"There are a lot of hidden secrets, like learning to bend notes. Jazz is very intellectual."

Marson remains a fixture on the Birmingham music scene, however, leading the Harpdog Jazz-Blues Quartet, playing in Southern rock band the Sandspurs and a contemporary gospel group, and even conducting a one-man show in which he takes audience members on a "musical tour" through pop music from the Civil War era to modern jazz.

But does his passion for harmonica connect to his work on Alzheimer's disease?

"Recent research has shown that certain cognitive activities in younger years act as a way to create cognitive reserves to ward off mental impairment, dementia, and other conditions down the road," he says. "Music is one of these activities. So this is my dementia prevention plan."

—S.H.

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