Re: [Harp-L] simple tunes

[Slim Heilpern <slim@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, Toots has some fun with this tune on his "Apple Dimple" album 
(1990). He takes it at a pretty slow clip, but I suspect he could cut it 
up to tempo ;-)

- Slim.

http://www.SlideManSlim.com


Jonathan Ross wrote:

> ...

> Still, this goes with something I've been working on lately.  It's  
> interesting how a seemingly simple tune can be extremely hard when  
> you actually sit down to try it.  For instance, the head to the  
> Strayhorn (Ellington band) piece "Take the "A" Train" is, IMO,  
> unplayable on diatonic and pretty close to it on chromatic (at  
> speed).  It's a very simple melody on paper, and quite easy on most  
> instruments (a snap on mallets and keyboard, for instance--I can't  
> say for others, but obviously sax players have no problems with it)  
> but on either diatonic or chromatic it just does not lay well at  
> all.  I've tried it in a few ways on diatonic, and with a couple of  
> tunings (standard, Paddy Richter--on both Richter and XB diatonics)  
> but it just doesn't work.  The speed,the bends  and the jumps  
> involved are just incompatible to put together successfully.
>
> It's really not much better on chromatic--the jumps, speed and  
> particular slide usage are just plain nasty.  I can do it, but not  
> well.  Perhaps the traditional trio players might have insight into  
> this, as they seem to have a great ability to play quite fast with  
> similar tunes.  But, I've never heard any harmonica player do this  
> piece that I can recall, so that might be significant.