Jazz

I love jazz. I love the way the instruments interact with each other, the cool, laid back vibe they give off.

This weekend I heard NexLevel, a local 'smooth jazz' band.

I finally picked up a Medeski, Martin and Wood album this weekend, too, so I don't have to rely on downloads at the computer.

There's a distinct difference between jazz and any other type of music: rock, country, classical....

Other types of music are about telling a story. Rock and pop, blues and country, they wrap it into a 3-5 minute tale, the instruments and lyrics working collectively to tell the story in the most condensed version possible. Classical, opera, musicals, they have grander tales, bigger morals, stories for the ages. They take turns telling their part of the story, in the same way your friends relate their latest adventure by playing off of each others' words and embellishing their favorite parts. You hear if from the brass fanfares to the soaring soprano solos, to the quiet hum of the strings.

Jazz doesn't tell a story. Jazz is a conversation. It's a few friends sitting around in their favorite haunt, maybe a pub or lounge, debating philosophy equally with talking about nothing. Everyone gets their turn and sometimes your friends' ideas surprise you. Personalities are revealed; the shuffle of the snare and hihat, the consistent walking bass, the sporatic yet melodic melodies of the guitar or sax or trumpet. I love jazz. I love the way the instruments interact with each other, the cool, laid back vibe they give off.

5th Avenue Fret Shop

I finally got around to taking my bass in to the doctor. I know about the 5th Avenue Fret Shop thanks to a couple friends that play guitar & bass. It's a repair & restoration shop, so it's not the kind of shop you go to when you want to play around with different basses. You go there because you need something setup or fixed. Or maybe to buy strings or a cable and admire the vintage stuff they have. The owner is a guy named Phil.

I had stopped in one day while I was driving by and described my problem to get his input. He recommend I try a few things, and said if that didn't fix it to bring the rig in and he'd look it over. After playing through a couple different amps at the church, and with a couple different cables, I deduced it wasn't an amp problem. So in I went with my bass.

In under 5 minutes he had explained more to me about how the pickups work than I've learned in reading books and web sites about it. He also explained why my pickup congifuration (P/J) creates humming. So to fix it I can put some bartolini's in it, which I think I'll eventually get around to when I've got some extra cash.

I've now been in that shop exactly 3 times, and every time have had great help and service from all of the staff. Even though in my 3 trips I only made one purchase - a $23 cable. I can't say enough great things about them.

Gig Results

Church Gig
Sunday morning's gig went well on my part - I got to groove a little bit and had a blast. The music director was on vacation and one of the choir members was handling music for the morning. (I think he's a deacon or elder there and has assisted with music in the past as well). We were playing along, and he and the vocalists were singing, and the congregation was singing. La la la.

And then... something happened and the singing wasn't even close to what the band was playing. The guy had to stop dead during the song to regain the footing. He handled it well - cracked a joke and got everyone back on track. Afterwards he said he thought he might have crossed out the wrong verse or something that was being flashed on the screen for the congregation. The stopping was awkward because 1) most of the congregation didn't have a clue what a director's cut off was and 2) the band was looking at each other like "does he really want us to stop?!" - in any band I've played in it's sort of unwritten that you just keep going and recover later.

So the #1 lesson learned on this gig is "be ready for anything". The #2 lesson is "trust your ears" - one of the songs that I received that morning to learn for praise band had some weird chord inversions that sounded horrible when I played them as indicated. When I played what my ears told me it sounded way better. At least for a happy church sound.

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Audition
Last night was my first audition for a band. The band is currently 2 guitarists and the rhytm guitarist sings and occassionally adds keys. Right before my arrival the lead guitarist had to cancel, but the main guy decided to go ahead anyway. (They've got a few other people to audition and an upcoming gig to get ready for). Their music is a little different and I like it. I can't say I adore it, but I definately "get it". They're also a few years younger which makes a bit of a difference. I didn't click very much with the guy I auditioned with, although playing together went pretty well. I didn't come out with any great lines or anything, but was able to follow along with minimal difficulty.

They may or may not decide to have me back to play with both of them after they hear the other bassists. I'm not sure I want to follow up with it even if they do call me back. I may find that I click really well with the other guitarist, but I'm not expecting that. I'm trying to balance staying open-minded about music opportunities and pursuing something that will allow me to grow musically and stay happy with it.

The #1 lesson I learned from this audition was that I should get a list of songs to learn beforehand, even if it's not a cover band, to help get a feel for how we play together.

Gigs II

This morning I had practice with Highland's church orchestra & singers for tomorrow's service. I'm subbing for their regular bass player, Karen. It went very well, challenging but not too difficult, and I had a lot of fun. Of course. Music is always a lot of fun. The guitar player retrieved a really nice Hartke combo amp from somewhere for me to use that sounded great. I love the sound of Hartke amps. And now I don't have to haul my very wonderful (but very heavy) amp with me tomorrow morning.

Highland has an orchestra and a choir and a praise team. The praise team appears to be made up of membes of the orchestra and choir. So it seems like sort of the same thing to me. I think the praise team sings contemporary christian music and is a little more rockin'. I will find out for sure tomorrow since I was recruited after today's rehersal to sub for Karen in that, too. It only requires an extra 30 or 40 minutes of my time. It also means I get to learn a new song tomorrow morning in that 30 minutes. Nothing like jumping in with both feet and having a blast doing it.

The good/bad thing about this morning's rehersal is that:
BAD: There's something wrong with the wiring in my bass so it needs to visit the doctor. It will take a couple days, so that humming will be there tomorrow - although it's only noticeable when I'm not playing, which is pretty much only between songs.
GOOD: I've eliminated the amp as the problem (since I've played it through a few different ones with the same result). And I've narrowed it down to either the bridge pickup or the wiring of the bridge pickup.

I've got plans to meet up with a couple guys Monday night to jam. They are trying to form a band. Right now they have guitar, keys, and voice covered. So they need a bass player and drummer. From the demos I've heard their sound is really different... imagine some postmodern punk, the Cure, some '60's psychadelic sounds, and folk music... and that's sort of their sound.

Working Girl said it best in her post: "Why do I do anything other than play music, and sing, and jam? Why would you ever do anything else? "

Sight Reading

As I mentioned, I'm playing @ the church next week. I've played tuba with them on and off since I was a freshman in college.

This afternoon I got a call from Connie, the orchestra director. She asked which instrument I planned on playing, because the regular bass player couldn't make it next week.

Since I've never played bass in a group other than just playing with friends, and never played bass anywhere I had to read bass/rhythm music before, I took both the bass and the tuba. (I was very happy I didn't need to carry my amp, too). In case I just totally destroyed the bass parts, I could switch over to tuba.

I couldn't believe how well it went. Of course there were a couple wrong notes, usually when I forgot a key signature called for something like Fb. I didn't have any problems keeping time or finding notes on the fretboard or anything like that. It was great. A little challenging and a lot of fun.

Photos

Bundled Up
Originally uploaded by SilverTurtle.

I got my photos from the other night online... you can view them here.

This is just a cute pic of Holly's kid, Nayson.

Get Out and Play

I responded to some more musician-wanted ads tonight. Only the ones that sounded like something I'd really enjoy and blend well with.

Yesterday after work I went for a little walk around downtown. It was a little cool, but really nice and peaceful. I took a few pics. Hopefully I'll have them online tomorrow. Cities always look great at night. I saw a local guy named Steve Streets. (I tried to google some local press he's received, but nothing's coming up). He stands on Capitol Square (or sometimes other crowded areas of downtown) and plays this great, old, beat up tuba. He plays a verse, sings a verse, plays a verse... I've seen him out a few other times, and riding down the street on his bike with the tuba strapped to his back. This was the first time I got a chance to stop and talk with him. He graduated from my alma mater and was a really nice guy.

He seemed to love what he was doing, and there's nothing better than that. Sometimes musicians just need to get out and play.

Gigs

I'll be playing with the orchestra next Sunday @ Highland for their morning service. Those guys are a lot of fun to play with.

I haven't heard anything yet from the musician-wanted ads. I'm hoping that has a lot to do with the fact people are just getting back from vacations & soon my inbox will be full of emails that I want to read.

Bands & Such

I just responded to a musician-wanted ad and posted a musician-looking-for-band ad online. At the least I should get to jam with a few different people and at best may find a band finally.

I also heard from the orchestra director at the church who will be sending me their January schedule. I'll probably play tuba almost exclusively there - which is good because I don't have much outlet for that instrument right now. Maybe I'll have a few opportunities to play bass with them, but if not, that's okay, too. It would be ideal if I can play at least once every couple of months with them on either instrument. Experience + Networking = More Playing