I have only heard one version of St. James Infirmary played by a 70's band called Zephyr. It was excellent and they also had a couple of songs on the album with killer harmonica. What version are you referring to and who plays it?
Respectfully,
Scott Hitch
Shop 26, Equipment Control
360-476-2751
-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Michelsen Tuition
Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 3:35 AM
To: Boris Plotnikov
Cc: harp-l harp-l
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Re: Do teachers& players tend to undervaluefirst position?
I quite like St James Infirmary otherwise titled Gamblers Blues in fifth
position, it gives it something quite deep, throaty and dirty. St James
Infirmary is a copyrighted song in Europe whilst Gamblers Blues, which
is exactly the same tune is in the public domain!
For those who have opened second position, but not yet fifth, try
playing an A harp in second position with one hand and then find the
same notes on a C harp held in the other hand& you'll be opening up
fifth position on your C harp.
Have fun-David
On 29/03/2011 10:07, Boris Plotnikov wrote:
Btw, Boris, don't you ever use 5th position (E minor on a C harp)?
Yes, but mostly for practice and for some phrigian scale (flamenco
improvising!). While playing parallel minor to 2nd position ((:
I know and play only two tunes when 5th position works better than
others. Hendrix's "Little Wing" and Kenny Dorham's "Blue Bossa". It's
possible and easy to play bunch of minor tunes in this key, but I
always feel that Dm (3rd pos.) or Am (4th position) sounds better for
me, and I don't know why.