[Harp-L] Smoke Rings and Wine (and sharp keys on the chromatic)

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Rob Paparozzi raised the question of whether Toots played this tune (in E major) on something other than a C chromatic.

I dug out my copy and gave it a listen. It bears an odd resemblance to Days of Wine and Roses, form many years one of Toots' favorite blowing tunes. (By the way, this cut is from the 1978 album "The Path" (Marlin 2210) by percussionist Ralph MacDonald, then one of Toots' colleagues in the New York scene of recording session players. Ralph MacDonald also co-wrote the hit "Where is the Love," and Toots is featured on MacDonald's recording of that tune, on MacDonald's album "Sound of a Drum" (Marlin 2202, 1976)) 

Early in the tune, Toots plays a B below Middle C, so it's clearly not a standard three-octave C chromatic. Also early in the tune he plays a quick C# down to G# - blow notes in neighboring holes on a C harp. 

Throughout the tune he plays slide jabs consistent with E major in a C harp, and about halfway through uses that telltale little chromatic-scale rip the traverses the easy A-A#-B-B# draw-note-with-slide-territory.

Most of the licks seem like easy-ish E licks on a C harp.

My conclusion: It's a 16-hole C harp. Toots mentioned in a few interviews in the 1970s that he was playing a Super 64 (16 holes, in C) and was occasionally photographed with one during the same period. You might ask, wh ynot a tenor-tuned three-octave harp? I doubt it because Toots has never been known to play a tenor, and has expressed to me a disinclination to use low-tuned chromatics as he finds them unresponsive. Also, he really likes the high register on a standard C, which he wouldn't have on a tenor. A 16-hole C lets him play high if he wants to, and low if he really needs to. (Still, his flirtation with the 64 seems to have been fairly brief.)

By the way, Toots ripped it up in E major during this period on an even more obscure record, Gil Goldstein's "Boy Inside a Drum." Just because a tune is in a sharp key is no reason to assume that Toots (or Stevie for that matter) wouldn't play it on a C chromatic. 

Sharp major keys like E and A offer some really pretty slide ornaments and fairly easy pentatonic runs. In fact, my current series on chromatic technique at www.harmonicasessions.com is dealing with exactly that (in a 12-bar blues context, but it's easy to extrapolate to other contexts).

Winslow


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