Peter Gunn theme–rough rockin’ mix

I’m a big fan of minimalist music. Like Lou Reed says: “One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you’re into jazz.” Along those lines I was reminded recently of how much I like the Peter Gunn Theme by Henry Mancini. (Hard to think of a Mancini tune I don’t like, but most of them have more than one chord.) I put together a backing track based on the Blues Brothers Band version (see Youtube), and began exploring harmonica choices.

I recorded the track in G, and my first try was with a C harp in 2nd position. Not awful, but the low notes don’t go low enough to play it in the first octave, and playing it in the second octave sounds a bit thin. Didn’t much like the sound of a low C harp either. A 16-hole chromatic (or a tenor 12-hole) would work fine starting in the second octave, but I don’t haul a 16-hole to most of my gigs. A Lucky 13 in C has the necessary range, but I don’t have one in that key.

I finally settled on a Bb harp in 4th position (G). The range of the harp is just big enough to cover the lowest notes, and the melody sits nicely in the bottom octave without overblows. For chording purposes I switch to a C harp in 2nd position once the solo begins, but the Bb harp would work fine for soloing if chording wasn’t an issue.

I’m practicing the melody in 12 keys on the chromatic, and may yet decide to use the 16-hole. In the meantime, it’s been interesting to explore which diatonic harps and positions easily accomodate this deceptively simple melody.

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So: last night I recorded harmonica parts for this piece. Tech talk: I used a Seydel 1847 Noble C harp and a Kongsheng Soloist Bb harp. (The first Bb harps I tried were an Arkia and a Seydel Noble, but I frankly couldn’t control the lowest bent note on those two.) The mic is a Bulletini, and the signal goes to a Line 6 Helix Stomp running a bassman amp model with a low octave double on the solo, recorded to my DAW directly from the output on the Stomp. The solo itself begins with an homage to Dana Colley’s sax line for Morphine’s “Top Floor, Bottom Buzzer.”

Here’s the result.