Re: [Harp-L] Any pro's got insight on Little Walters harmonies?

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Harmonizes like Lester Young" could mean a lot of things. Did your source go into more detail?

One thing that Lester Young did in playing melodies over chords was to play fairly diatonically - he could play a jazz tune in G with a simple G major scale (with maybe blue notes added) and make it work over chord changes that included a lot of additional notes that other jazz musicians might go out of their way to play. The diatonic harmonica by its nature encourages the player to stick with a reltaviely diatonic note set, and so Little Walter's melodic choices when playing against sophisticated chord progressions might be thought to resemble those of Lester Young.

Walter didn't use really adventurous chords very much - "One Chance With You" was probably the outer limit for his sorties away from blues harmony, and even there he doesn't try and dig into the minutiae of the chords - he glides over the tops of them in a fairly diatonic way.

As to the warbles on 4/5/6, a few observations. In Blues With a Feeling, he's just playing the notes of the chord or the chord extension. If he's playing in A on a D harp, Draw 3-4-5-6 will be C#--E-G-B, which form the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th of the chord. C# and E are part of the basic chord, while G and B (the 7th and 9th respectively) are just chord extensions commonly heard in the blues.

Off the Wall, though, goes in the opposite direction - it takes the 7ths OUT of the chords, which frees Walter up a little. The tune is in G, and the standard way to harmonize would be to use a G7 (the I chord), a C7 (the IV chord), and a D7 (the V chord).

When you go to the IV chord (C) and you play it as a 7th chord, the 7th is Bb, which is Draw 3 bent down a semitone on a G-harp. And yet, throughout a couple of the earlier verses, you hear Walter playing an UNbent Draw 3 (B natural, not B-flat), either alone or in a warble with Draw 4, over that IV chord. That goes against every blues rule, and yet he gerts away with it. It could only work if the chord players (gitar, piano if present) knew to omit the 7th from the C chord. This lets Walter get a light, frothy feel from the tune (Off The Wall aways used toremind me of the roit of cherry blossoms in late March - I know, not a very likely image for down-in-the-alley Chicago blues).

Winslow

Winslow Yerxa

Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5

--- On Mon, 6/29/09, Nicholas Lovett <lovett.nicholas@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Nicholas Lovett <lovett.nicholas@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Any pro's got insight on Little Walters harmonies?
To: Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Monday, June 29, 2009, 1:49 PM


I've heard he harmonizes like Lester Young.  He uses a lot of jazz chords in his compositions.  I've been studying his phrasing, and wondered if anyone has any insight on how/if his phrasing is different because of the different chords he employs.  Ex. In the key of g with a c harp(Off The Wall, Ah Baby), he does a lot with trills/slides/warbles on the 4/5/6 holes.  Any thoughts to share?

Nicholas Lovett


      

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