Quote:

then on each voc verse change up a semi tone.
eg Bflat to G sharp etc etc.



Bb to G# is a wee bit more than a semitone, mate. They are like 8 semitones apart if moving upward.

"On Broadway" is a I,IV,V sequence that moves from the root down a step and repeats that down a step throughout the IV and V also. Ab-Gb Ab Gb-Gb etc.

The song itself *already* transposes up a semitone in every iteration of the verse. Georgie usually only went up twice, actually, one transposition up a semitone for each verse. After that he would typically stay in the last of the three keys played and jam and scat out.

I think you will find that *most* of the time George Benson would start the song in the key of Ab. Second verse, up a semitone to A. Third verse, Bb and stay there for the Bb gospel blues jam. --Better *KNOW* yer bebop scale here as well as the Pentatonic Minor and the corresponding Melodic minor, at the least -- with good backbeat rhythm sense. This is where swing meats headon with Four on the Floor.

No musician should need a chart to play this tune.

If you really want to do something fun and interesting with this one, back in the day when this one was a hit, was in a band where we would take it into an uptempo jam on Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" at the end of the Benson jam, in Bb minor. Yeah, we were weird. But it worked.

One more thing about George Benson. Most cats sing what they play when they are scatting along. George plays what he sings. Think about that a minute.


--Mac

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