March 2007 Archives

We jammed at Dos Gringos, last night. Present were Bob Levey, dr; Mark Gray, bs; Walter Hanselmann, gt; Justin Pfeiffer, pn; Nathan Patterson, pn; Justin (didn't get his last name), bs; Lucas Pulver, gt; and David Ackerman, as. Some of the tunes we played:

Cantelope Island

Speak No Evil

Countdown

Blue in Green

Sail Away

Gregory Is Here

Blue Bossa

I Fall In Love Too Easily

Autumn Leaves

We had a good little audience, too, for not advertising. We'll be getting it in the paper, and I'll make a poster to hang around town. Eating burritos, drinking a beer, and playing/listening to jazz really makes for an enjoyable evening. Hopefully we'll do a little recording and post some podcasts, soon. Our next session will be on Monday, April 2nd, again at Dos Gringos, from 6:00 pm until 8:30 pm. C'mon down (or up, as the case may be)!

I heard Pat Metheny, Brad Meldau, Larry Grenadier, and Jeff Ballard last night in Grand Junction, CO. The concert was the quartet's first since their recent formation. It was enlightening to see how well prepared these world class musicians were. They played with no intermission for over 2 hours. I was struck by what a good musical pair Pat and Brad make. Their penchant for building melodies from each tune's thematic material made for some high moments of collaboration, and exploration (even on the first gig!) As my friend Michelle put it after the concert, "Mmmm... that was yummy!"

The following list was contributed by my dear friend and bass player, Dennis Woodrich, as reactions to a recent performance by our group. These items struck me as a good checklist for any band before and during a performance. Being in a band is different the just "jamming", and extra attention must be given to details like those listed by Dennis.

• consideration given to the setup
• monitors for the horns all the time, not just on solos
• talk thru…nuff said
• not everything needs to be exactly like the CD. Some things are already evolving. There’s little doubt that the Adderly band played anything the same way twice ( or Miles or Diz or anyone except Pop acts and cover bands…) There’s at least one problem that develops when a player rehearses with the CD….namely expectations that aren’t necessarily applicable to real life. A gig is real.
• be ready for proper count- offs and cues, etc. …..eye contact if possible
• the intensity you might feel during the rehearsal might have to do partially with proximity of the players…maybe all players face each other in rehearsal, or the room is more intimate.
• presentation……… rapport and respect for audience. Everybody knows how to do it.
• it’s a team effort, from the get-go. When another player has a problem, I prefer to ask myself what I might do to help and to ask what I may have done to cause it (like a mis-cue or bum note or line) and how to prevent it in the future.
• Mark parts correctly after the performance or rehearsal. Call attention to problems or changes.

Last night, we had our first Jam Session at Dos Gringos, in Carbondale. Although only a few people showed up, the session was a good one. Hope we can build it up over time. We had an excellent High School student guitarist, Pulver sit in on "All Blues", "Blue Bossa", and "Solar". We also had fun with "Beautiful Love", "Once I Loved", and a Clifford Brown blues of which I can't remember the title.

We're going to do this session at Dos Gringos the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month. See this earlier blog entry for the session's schedule.