[Harp-L] Re: jazz

[res0958z@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Back about 1996 or so (can't remember) I went to Augusta to the Blues 
Week (which, if you haven't gone, you need to).
Besides being immersed in the blues for a solid week, I was taken by one 
fellow who impressed me with his jazz ability on
the diatonic. Shamefully, I can't recall who that was either because at 
that time, I'd have placed myself firmly in the intermediate
category, and was pitifully unaware of the more advanced players. But 
this guy hung out near the piano in the lobby of the dorm
up on the hill above the ice house, just a short walk from the old 
antebellum mansion where we spent countless evening hours.
During the day, I recall this same fellow would pen out his songs, not 
in the common 2b, 3d, tablature but in real staffed music.
I was impressed. And he could play well beyond most of us cloistered 
there. I'm fairly certain he had already mastered overblows
too, because it inspired me to head home and work on a harp until I 
could master a full chromatic scale on the diatonic with the
overblows and draws. But this guy went well beyond the I, IV, V 
progressions. His stuff was laced with the jazz notes, and progressions
tossing in the II, and VI. As I read a few weeks back about breaking out 
of a rut, I recalled how venturing beyond the common
was just the way to do it. As my memory fades with my increasing 
'senior' moments, I vividly still recall this week. Several years
after this (1999, of this I'm certain because I was in Chapel Hill to 
record with Rock Bottom), I also had the pleasure of dropping
in on yet another from this Augusta class, and just as accomplished as 
the fellow above. He lived in either Cary or Chapel Hill, N.C.
and I had the chance to spend an evening there, again listening 
wide-eyed as more jazz improv came from a diatonic. Since then,
I've never doubted whether jazz fit on a diatonic. It does, and you can. 
One of my favorites is still an old Herbie Mann standard,
"Comin' Home Baby", which works out nicely on the diatonic and is a real 
change of pace for an audience. My apologies for my lack
of recall....I'm not getting any younger, but I wish I recalled names to 
give proper kudos to the inspirations above.

Bill Otten
St. Petersburg, FL