[Harp-L] A Night in Tunisia

["samblancato" <samblancato@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Folks,

I've been following this thread with some interest and I finally decided to
try playing the song as I remember it on a diatonic.  After fooling around
for a while without any luck I decided to dig around my old cassettes for
some Charlie Parker (I was nuts for Parker back in the 80s but haven't
listened much to him since then).  I found "The  Best of Bird- The Dial
Recordings" and there was a take of A Night in Tunisia on there (I recorded
Swedish Schnapps on the same tape so it might have come from that record).
Now I know there are many versions of this song.  The one I have starts out
in a Latin vain, a kind of salsa grove with backing horns doing rhythm and
Bird noodling the main them.  It then breaks to a swing groove for the
bridge and from there, Dizzy and Bird trade solos. So what I'm getting to
here is that there are actually three melodic themes  happening in this
number and I'm not sure which one you all are talking about.  At any rate, I
think I can safely say that it would be next to impossible to play two of
them on the  diatonic; the rhythm part might be doable. I have a pretty good
ear and I can't get a handle on the main theme at all.  This is the first
time I have ever asked this but could someone maybe TAB out the first couple
of bars of this song?  I have never been one to use TABs to learn a song. I
do everything by ear. But since there seems to be a number of you who are
playing this on the short harp (and my hat's off to you who can do this) I
want to give it a try and  some TABs would really help.  It would also help
if anybody knows a site  where I could sample the version you all are
talking about.

I sometimes run into the fear that the short harp is really way more limited
than I am willing to admit and a song like this seems to prove it.  But if
there is actually a way to play A Night in Tunisia on a short harp I would
be very happy - even it it's beyond my technical ken at this time. But hey,
if some of you guys say you're doing it that's great.  If one of you cold
TAB out one or two bars and give me a key I can probably infer the rest of
the song from there. Thanks



Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh