[6] He grew up listening to Danish radio, enjoying all types of music and cites Ray Charles as the biggest influence from that period.

[6] Eventually arriving in Los Angeles, via Toronto and San Francisco, Oskar soon met and joined forces with Eric Burdon who had recently disbanded The Animals and was searching for new collaborators.

[8] Together, the harmonica-playing Dane (born Lee Oskar Levitin[9]) and the British blues-rock singer made the rounds of the L.A. clubs, eventually hooking up with the soon-to-be members of War.

[10] Burdon agreed to the novel idea of pairing up Oskar's harmonica with Charles Miller's saxophone to form a horn section.

This team-up set War apart from the start, giving Oskar room to display the full spectrum of his improvisational prowess.

[14] His role as a founding member and former lead harmonica player of the pioneer funk-jazz group War won him international renown for over two and a half decades (1969–1993).

Oskar's signature solos helped to define the War sound from the band's beginning in 1969, adding dashes of color to its R&B, jazz, rock, and Latin influences.

His company, Lee Oskar Harmonica, sells harmonicas suited to many different styles of music, including the most common blues, folk, rock, R&B and country but Oskar's altered tunings also allows players to explore other genres such as Tango, Clave, Hip Hop, Reggae, Ska, Latin, Gypsy, Yiddish, Eastern European, Asian, and many other types of music.