Cedar Walton - Summertime

In the mid 1800s, a German harmonica manufacturer named Hohner started exporting his product to North America. Being relatively inexpensive, relatively easy to play and extremely portable, the harmonica, commonly called a harp, was the perfect instrument for a nation on the move. Everybody from Abraham Lincoln to Billy the Kid had one.

Over time, its popularity has waxed and waned, and it's now heard most often in the context of blues music. But ever since Marion Little Walter Jacobs began playing saxophone lines on his harmonica in the late 1940s, the instrument has occasionally crossed over into the jazz world.

Source: Beyond The Blues: The Blues Harmonica In Jazz by Nick Morrison and Robin Lloyd

Cedar Walton - Summertime

• Written by: George Gershwin
• First recorded on: October 31, 1986
• Released on: Up Front album

"Cedar Walton was an American hard bop jazz pianist. He came to prominence as a member of drummer Art Blakey's band, The Jazz Messengers, before establishing a long career as a bandleader and composer."

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