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King of Swing

Congratulations to our top three placers... George Bisharat from San Francisco, California for "Chromaticism," Steven Troch from Mechelen, Belgium for "Hanging Out with Peter," and Steve Molitor from St. Louis, Missouri for "Shim Sham Santa." All of these winners made the trip to play at Mark Hummel’s Blues Harmonica Blowout Saturday, Jan 28th in 2012 at the legendary Yoshi’s Nightclub in Oakland, California to compete for 1st Place. The audience judged the three performances, with the overall winner Steven Troch given the opportunity to perform in the grand finale with Charlie Musselwhite, Billy Boy Arnold, Sugar Ray Norcia, Curtis Salgado, Mark Hummel and David Barrett! You can watch the video footage of the event on Mark Hummel's Contributor page (Submission #18). Congratulations Peter!

Previous Contests

A Moist One in the Void

Posted Wed, 12/28/2011 - 23:20 by johndeely
johndeely's picture

Having trouble loading the file, take 2

Chromaticism

Posted Wed, 12/28/2011 - 22:54 by George Bisharat
George Bisharat's picture

I12 Swing

Posted Wed, 12/28/2011 - 20:28 by philrader
philrader's picture

Did this with a G Special 20 in the key of D, with a couple of bars using a Chromatic. I learned a lot doing this, and enjoyed it as well. The backing track I chose has a couple of extra bars at the beginning, making for an extra long head. This was a highly motivating exercise - glad I did it.

Travelling Swing

Posted Wed, 12/28/2011 - 09:44 by mcpat76
mcpat76's picture

I played this tune in A on a C chromatic harmonica. I used the Jazz Swing track from Jimi Lee. I enjoyed working on this conposition and I hope you will enjoy listening to it.

Swing Thing

Posted Wed, 12/28/2011 - 01:58 by patricia mifsud
patricia mifsud's picture

Sorry this is such a last minute entre-a bit confused with the time difference etc. The backing track is a Swing in g i've had on my ipod for ages & with some help from my son recorded it on garage band. Hope not too late.thanks again for another great challenge!!

Jumpin with Jimmie

Posted Tue, 12/27/2011 - 22:57 by jimmiemeade
jimmiemeade's picture

Listened to a lot of K.C. swing musicians for inspiration on this one, specifically Lester Young's Jumpin with Symphony Sid and Charlie Parker's K.C. Blues.

Too Many Bars

Posted Tue, 12/27/2011 - 18:58 by marcos
marcos's picture

144 Bars, give or take.

Swing in F, from ultimate backing tracks (I had to speed up the track by about 25% before using it).

Bb Special 20.

Almost didn't enter it after hearing the brutally good ones already entered, but what the heck? Nothing to lose, right?

Thanks.

Shim Sham Santa

Posted Mon, 12/26/2011 - 17:17 by walterjuke
walterjuke's picture

I used one of Jimi Lee's jam trax with a ii V I progression for this one.

Merry Christmas everyone!

The Neverending Swing

Posted Mon, 12/26/2011 - 10:22 by mishaikin
mishaikin's picture

So, spending a few days, writing numbers on a blank sheet, it seemed to me like Neverending Swing :-)

The backing track is Jump Swing in C from Jimi Lee's Groovetrax CDs.
Amplified low-F Thunderbird harmonica.

Chilean Swing

Posted Sun, 12/25/2011 - 18:02 by ErwinIost
ErwinIost's picture

Well, i 've been listening Swing a long time before to composite this song. i took part of a head from a song called Duke's in Bed by John Hodges and Duke Ellington...just a little part but it helped me a lot to focus my idea.
the quality of the record is not good enough but i tried to do my best.
i used the chromatic and diatonic harp and my gear is:
Chuck Gurney mic and a Peavey Classic 30
I hope you like it....

Thanks and greetings from Chile. by the way...merry christmas and happy new year for all of you and yours family!!!

Erwin