"For Once in My Life" and misc.
Fri, 07/30/2010 - 18:21
Hello Winslow,
Dione Ferris's wonderful version of "For Once in My Life" recorded in 1996, features a killer Chromatic Harmonica solo. Do you, or members, know who that masked Chro Player was?
Also, can you provide me with a discography of known Chromatic jazz artists, who are basically "pattern" players (swap harmonicas for key changes, similar to us short harp players)? Brendan Powers mentioned to me that there was a wonderful jazz Chromatic harmonica player who swaps harmonicas to match the song key -- and plays in 1st position, but I did not get the artists's name.
Regards, Kinya
Kinya -
I'm not sure that "pattern player" is synonymous with playing jazz on multiple keys of chromatic. Unlike, say, third-position blues, a jazz tune, even one in the same key as a chromatic, will often modulate through several different keys. Also, jazz does not use just one or two song forms, even though both 12-bar blues and "I Got Rhythm" 32-bar changes are common, each with multiple (and sometimes very far out-there) variants. Add to this the fact that for any given chord progression you can play multiple scales and hundreds of patterns on those scales, and it adds up to the possibility of infinite variety while remaining within the accepted style, even if you never get beyond first position.
That said, chromatic players who are known to use use multiple keys of chromatic include Les Thompson (probably the guy Brendan was talking about and a real jazz player who could play in different keys on one chromatic but preferred to remain in first position), Brendan himself, and Norton Buffalo. While both Brendan and Norton are improvisers, neither of them is what I would call a jazz musician as neither has either a jazz orientation or has cultivated the harmonic approach characteristic of jazz.
Another would be Larry Adler who, at least back in the 1930s, would often play pop tunes in first position on different keys of chromatic so that he could exploit the chords. And country harmonica player Jimmy Riddle of the Roy Acuff band used to play chromatic in 8th position - like first position with the slide held in, or Db on a C harmonica, to exploit both the blow chord and sliding into chord notes from a semitone below by pushing in the button while he played a note. Again, not a jazz musician.
By the way, Stevie Wonder is not someone who uses multiple keys of chromatic. His name is sometimes connected to this practice, but without any evidence whatsoever. Everything I've ever heard him play was done on a C chromatic (though sometimes with the backing track raised or lowered by a semitone for the harmonica recording, then restored to its original pitch, leaving harmonica players scratching their heads).
Toots Thielemans, on the other hand, did record a few jazz tracks during the 1950s using a G chromatic. For instance his 1957 recording of "East of the Sun" played in Ab on a G harmonica from the album Man Bites Harmonica. Yet for the most part you couldn't really say, "Oh, man there he goes playing all those 8th position licks again!"
In general, both jazz and classical harmonica players tend to stick with a C harp (though Bonfiglio also has a 64 in the key of B, as this makes certain ornaments easier to play in sharp keys).
According to William Galison, it was he who played harmonica on the Dionne Farris recording of "For Once in my Life." Of course, it was Stevie who first played harmonica on this tune in his 1967 Motown recording, where the tune modulates up from F to F# for his solo.