we have great keyboard player at our Wednesday night jams......this instrumental is tailor made for keyboard players..…..Im going to suggest it to him tomorrow night.....maybe we can try it next week.....what key is it normally done in?????????????
If you mean Jimmy Smith's version from the album of the same name, the key is F major. That's the Blue Note LP that Jimmy Smith did with Kenny Burrell, Stanley Turrentine and Donald Bailey. I think Jimmy did it in other keys on his various live albums.
A lot of those period Blue Note albums start with a real bluesy groover, and 9 times out of 10 they're in F. It's such a comfortable key for the blues on Tenor Sax, keyboard players also love it, and my friend and occasional supplier of bass for my stuff also assures me that it the best key for grooving on double bass. So I just think it creates an easy framework for people to relax and stretch out on a groove like that. Bb second position harp sounds great too! ---------- Harpeaux Edwards
Depending on chord structure an Eb or low Eb can be a killer 3rd position harp for Fm. Not that with low harps it's a very good idea to be amped or miced so as to not blow out reeds trying to be heard. ---------- Music and travel destroy prejudice.
Most bands that I've ever been in has usually done it in the same key that the Muddy Waters band usually did it in and that was G. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Practice the "turnaround" on Chicken Shack before jamming with a band on it...one thing I have observed is that some harp players, on this tune, will play the turnaround exactly like Jimmy Smith, which requires some spot-on bending work on the lower 3 holes of the harp. I needed to really work this out before I ever tried it. Others will make it their own and do something else...they kind of fudge it, do a more standard blues tunrnaround...and it can also sound cool. As long as you do it wth conviction, to my ears, it can work. If you are doubling a sax man, though, play it like jimmy Smith.
