=====Nick in the UK asks about Howard Levy. Ringing him up won't help right now as he's on the west coast.
Howard has only one recording under his own name, called Harmonica Jazz. In the UK, you could probably get in from Norman Ives, who has a mail order business specializing in harmonicas and related stuff.
Norman Ives 1 Links Close Caister On Sea Great Yarmouth Norfolk NR30 5DD 0493-728654
Most of Howard's stuff is with other people.
You should check out the albums by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. He is NOT on "three flew over the cuckoo's nest - that was after he left them, but he's on UFO TOFU, Flight of the Cosmic Hippo and Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (he's not on the pre-Flecktones Bela Fleck stuff, either).
He is on a new album called Trio Globo, playing world music with cello and percussion.
He's also on two albums by mandolinist Paul Glasse, who plays a mix of bluegrass, newgrass, western swing and string band jazz, and his contributions.
He's also on the Kenny Loggins "Live from the Redwoods" album. He's touring with Kenny right now, as a matter of fact.
These are all recent albums you'd be likely to find in some of the larger Tower or Virgin stores (don't know about HMV). Check out the jazz, world music, folk, and bluegrass sections.
For a (fairly) complete discography, and two long interviews with Howard, get Issue No. 4 of HIP - the Harmonica Information Publication. If you live in London, Tower in Picadilly has it (at least they ahd one copy left a couple of weeks ago when I looked. If not, you can get it from Norman Ives for L5.50 (Truth in advertising - I'm the publisher).
=====Nick also asks about the top octave - bending and pucker vs. blocking.
Bending high blow notes through a tongue block is rather difficult. Even dyed-in-the-wool tongue blockers like Mark Hummel will switch to a pucker when bending up there. You say you already bend unintentionally anyway when you pucker up top. Why not strengthen it and learn to control it? Once you don that, you may gain enough control that you can turn it off when you don't want it.
You should definitely learn both embouchures; they are both valuable.
Don't avoid the top. It has too much too offer. There's an article on it HIP No. 2 (Norman has that, too).
