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Tonight's a sextet - Sax + Trumpet + Vocals. I found the trumpet guy at our last Jam session and he was playing in some of the recordings I posted.
Apparently there's a little bit of battle of the bands as another band plays before us in the same venue (though not in the same spot). I just found this out and seems to be a scheduling faux pas. There's a bit of an overlap.
Anyway, I'm not worried about the battle of the bands because the other group (Quintet) is a Celtic group. So completely different music. Besides, we're the established regulars
I had a chance to play some of the tunes with my teacher yesterday and I'm a little panicky since I learned a different comping for Cantaloupe and I only have overnight to practice it...
Scott - you reminded me of an earlier comment about being too superconfident on the following gigs. In fact, I'm feeling the opposite right now. Playing 90% of the tunes I've never done with the group before is daunting. But my motto nowadays is keep it simple.
There are some tunes I would not play unless I had rehearsed. Recorda-me is one. The reason is I wouldn't trust the horn to play the head correctly.
I would stick to tunes that I know FOR SURE everyone knows. People have a tendency to say "yeah, I know the tune", but they have no idea how the bassline goes, where the hits are, etc ...
Four is another tune that people "think" they know. Then they realize that the changes are not as easy as they thought. Also, I stay away from tunes that have different versions across book. Windows, Four, Bluesette, Moment's notice are tricky that way. People learn it one way, then you tell them it's another. I know you all have ipod apps, but most people play on stage without a lead sheet. They just play what they know.
>>Tonight's a sextet - Sax + Trumpet + Vocals. I found the trumpet guy at our last Jam session and he was playing in some of the recordings I posted. Is the vocalist playing all the tunes? Or does she sit a few out? Will you all solo on ballads? that's one good thing to agree on. Sometimes on ballad, you might want to solo only on one section each, a la Basie, especially if it's 6 of you.
Recordame is something that the Bass, Drums, Sax have as a standard tune in another band among them. So I think they'll do ok.
But the issue with Recordame is the piano intro for one chorus. I didn't practice that so I said we'll just comp one chorus. Sometimes the horns do that intro.
I realize, I'm taking so may risks this time. But the audience is not judgemental so as long as we maintain a good groove, they'll like it.
I have many musos in the audience though. My past classical piano teacher will be there with some other musician friends. But if the worst case scenario is what happened in the jam session with no rehearsal, I can't be particularly worried.
I did tell you about Windows right? The sax was using different changes. Wow - that was wild. That'll be embedded in my memory forever. A very Outside version of Windows played TOO uptempo (jjo's preferred tempo). I'm not going to play Windows again for a bit at a gig. I need to recover from that
Knotty, you do realize that in all the gigs I've done so far, nothing has been rehearsed right? Somehow my skills at going with the flow are really improving. LOL. At the first gig, I just met the drummer and sax for the first time.
I called the tune, counted it down and it felt like we've been playing together for years!
I do practice with our Vocalist (she sings on half of the tunes). We switch between vocalist and instrumental sets (every 3 tunes). The vocalist is the one that has the least training typically. So I have to specifically work out intros, tag endings, solo sequence.
For tonight, the only ballad really is Naima and we're all taking solos on that.
nothing this week. We had one last saturday for the us open.
we played something like that: Beautiful Love What is this thing called love Cantaloupe Island All Blues How Insensitive Autumn Leaves C Jam Blues All the Things You Are The Jody Grind Softly As in a Morning Sunrise Blue Monk Blue Bossa Stella By Starlight Song for my Father There will never be another you Mr Magic Minority Come Sunday Four Bye Bye Blackbird Chitlins Con Carne Some Day My Prince Will Come Work Song
Jody Grind is a cool horace silver tune. Nice bassline. Very funky. Mr Magic is funk Minority is a bill Evans favorite. Come Sunday is an Ellington spiritual ballad Work Song is super cool. Nat Adderley. Check it out.
I'll give a report later tonight...I had too much to drink so by the time I got to the 2nd to the last tune (Whisper Not) I was messing up the head. But I survived and did one more tune. LOL.
But our hard core fans were there and very few people showed up at the competing band that played before us (I felt sorry for them -- they sounded good). Everyone just wanted to hear us.
We'll see how the recording sounds (I left it at the location by accident).
Darn -- I just found out that my recorder had no recording. Looks like I left on standby and didn't hit the zoom a second time to start recording.
Too bad because I recall playing the best that I've ever had. Naima sounded great with the rhythm section. The horns played the head together and I didn't get lost at all. I found that the bass player skipped an A section once but I didn't get tripped. The weird part is that the horn players kept ending their solos on weird sections. So everyone was stopping and starting in different A sections (3 possibilities).
Cantaloupe sounded great. No train wreck at all and in the middle of my solo, I switched to Jazz Scat and everyone cheered (Herbie did that in one of his versions).
I had a little too much to drink but aparently it relaxed me and I was playing occasional bursts of 16ths that caused people to hoot in approval.
Mr. PC, All Blues, and Footprints were immensely popular judging from the clapping and my sax player quoted some Coltrane and really got their attention.
So too bad I don't have a recording but for a group that doesn't rehearse we're really sounding solid.
>> Darn -- I just found out that my recorder had no recording. Looks like I left on standby and didn't hit the zoom a second time to start recording.
Can't tell you how many times that's happened to me ...
>>Cantaloupe sounded great. No train wreck at all and in the middle of my solo, I switched to Jazz Scat and everyone cheered (Herbie did that in one of his versions). link ? I'd love to hear that
>> So too bad I don't have a recording but for a group that doesn't rehearse we're really sounding solid. Congrats!
It Had To Be You Time After Time Stars Fell On Alabama September In The Rain I Cover The Waterfront Days Of Wine And Roses Stardust But Not For Me That's All Summertime I Thought About You Body And Soul Skylark Bye Bye Blackbird East Of The Sun What's New What Is This Thing Called Love A Foggy Day
Jazz+, you guys are just blazing through these tunes. I've never gone through more than 15 in 2.25 hours of straight playing (taking out the break). Do you guys solo?
I see some in there that I'd like to add to my list too. This is great posting set lists!
The tunes have strong melodies so we don't play long solos. Usually 1 chorus of soloing each, did two 50 minute sets. 18 tunes, about 4 to 5 minutes per tune ... about 6 seconds of pause between tunes. Been doing a lot of casuals with this set list.
Can't tell you how many times that's happened to me ...
