Re: [Harp-L] Boogie On, Reggae Woman

[Slim Heilpern <slim@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Very interesting. I had always assumed this was diatonic. Reading this 
thread, I was inspired to pick up the Stanley Turrentine CD. Nice stuff, 
great chrom solo on Boogie On with some almost diatonic-like bending. 
That in turn inspired me to listen to Stevie's original version again, 
which is very different and does sound like a diatonic, in my opinion 
not so much by what he does with it as what he doesn't do with it. But 
(and I know I'll get slammed for this) I think it could possibly be 
executed convincingly on a chrom (didn't think this until I tried).

Not being much of a diatonic player myself, I'd like to ask any diatonic 
players out there who happen to have the original recording at hand to 
go to the section starting around 4:20 into the tune. There's what 
sounds to me to be a half tone trill lick he repeats about six times in 
a row that I can't imagine executing on a diatonic. But then again, I'm 
pretty ignorant about diatonic.... If this can be done on a diatonic, 
then I agree it's a diatonic ;-).

BTW, I just downloaded "The Complete Stevie Wonder" from iTunes ($189). 
There is a wealth of previously unavailable harmonica solos in this 
collection of ~580 recordings. Will take a while to wade through it, but 
some of this stuff is priceless to chrom players, including 3 live 
versions of Alfie...

- Slim.

www.SlideManSlim.com <http://www.SlideManSlim.com>


Winslow Yerxa wrote:

> Hate to rain on YOUR parade, smokey, but Boogie on Reggae Woman (at 
> least Stevie's own recording of it,; can't speak to the Stanley 
> Turrentine version that featured Stevie) is definitely diatonic, 
> first position, played in the top octave with lots of blow bends. I'm 
> not where I can check, but I seem to recall it was a G harp 
> (Listening to a sample at amazon.com it comes out in Ab, like Smokey 
> says).
>
> Stevie doesn play diatonic on occasion. Other examples include an 
> album with Herbie Hancock sometime in the 1980s where he played both 
> chromatic and diatonic on the same tune, one after the other. It was 
> fairly free-ranging stuff - not atonal , just more freely phrased 
> than much of the pop-oriented stuff you usually hear from Stevie.
>
> Winslow
>
>  
>
>