bassace

I'd get a Merc Sprinter and a guy with a strong back. Then I'd make my choice.

Pictures of Lilly.

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1445758698' post='2893830'] once on holiday, I saw a fat Karen Carpenter tribute [/quote] You mean a normal sized person?

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1445285393' post='2890322'] I can confirm, that is a posh venue. So posh we had to load in through the window! [/quote] French doors via the Serpent Gate - if they haven't mislaid the key. How did you get on with the jobsworths?

I've gotta tell you this. Yesterday we played for a posh lunch at the Orangery, Blenheim Palace. It's only a few miles down the road, we were a three piece gtr, drums, bass and playing mainly wallpapery jazz standards. Audience middle aged and generally not very responsive. One number we played was The Night Has a Thousand Eyes -.not Bobby Vee but John Coltrane. And we got a good round of applause. A Coltrane number!

Time was when I did quite a few function deps and all by ear. But stuff has moved on a lot, not necessarily for the better but it's certainly different. And a lot of it doesn't always follow the old rules. So it's not really feasible for me these days. I have a lot of respect for the good function bands. I enjoy a lot of pop and I'm constantly exasperated by jazzers who don't care for the genre and most of the time haven't heard of the artists. While I'm on, can I give a shout for Ben Cummings, a trumpet player who I was with a few years ago in a good Dixie band. We toured all over together, in UK, Germany, Holland and the Canaries. He's now on tour with Caro Emerald and has impeccable jazz chops but can play anything, but anything. Try and catch them sometime.

The table is well put together.

I played a couple of gigs with him in the sixties when he was a student at Reading Uni. We were Blues plus Brown. He had a great voice back then and was a very nice guy.

[quote name='gafbass02' timestamp='1444587074' post='2884319'] Same here in Cheltenham. Either folky acoustic guys, endless blues solos or 15 year old starting 'deathcore' bands :-/ [/quote] Brian Jones did OK.

If it's ES it'll be easy for him to screw it in, but if it's BC the whole forum will want to pile in. Sorry 'bout that.

Yes, I prefer paper. There's nothing easier than turning up for a gig and you're given a sheaf of numbers, mostly in set list order. I've got a CD, priceless to me, that has at least eight real/fake books stored on it. I use this for home study and there was a time when I attempted to make a condensed file of the numbers I thought might needed on the gig. This didn't always work because, playing with all sorts of musicians, you can't anticipate all the tunes. And, shock horror, a lot of people refer to play in 'their' key rather than the written one. But I'm beginning to find it more useful to take an iPad to any gig I do, most of them as a freelance. iRealPro has 1300 jazz tunes stored and although I play stuff mainly by ear or from memory there are times when you need to ref that elusive chord that starts the middle eight, for instance. And it transposes into any key. And I find it easy to read, it's back lit.

White splitter alert! Oh wait, I suppose it's OK as its not on stage.

Keep the melody in mind. You could start playing round that and when you're confident with that your improvising could become more adventurous.

Funny thing, the double bass. You can have lean periods with nothing in the diary then you get a call. Then another. So stay optimistic, Rob.

Yes, welcome back. Be patient, I've found that it takes a lot longer to get over it than you would expect. But it does come good.

Thanks, I'll try again.

It keeps saying price needed, which I've put in. So what's going on?

Steve, that's a great resource and not just for 'starters'

I've played it!

That is quite a question and, as Bilbo said, the list is endless. I have a CD loaded with eight various fake/real books and the iReal Pro loaded on my iPad lists 1300 numbers. Jazz, though, breaks down into all sorts of genres. A Dixie band will play all the old Trad numbers but will not be above including some up to date stuff. Assuming it's got a clarinet, there won't be many gigs without someone asking for Stranger on the Shore! A pickup jazz trio will play mostly stuff from the American Songbook, the old Gershwin/ Cole Porter/Jimmy Van Heusen et al stuff. Safe numbers that all the musos, even though they haven't played together before would be able to handle there and then. And a singer would have his or her favourites that could bolt on the front. Last night I played in a five piece. We did stuff by Miles, Sonny Rollins, Adderley and four by Benny Golson whose stuff I enjoy very much. The sax player brought charts along for all of us to make it easy and although it was not quite the safe standard stuff usually played it was a thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying gig because it stretched us a bit. Just a quick PS re the standard American (and a few British ones) show tunes. There are some sublime old shows that compare favourably with the guff that gets on the stage today - see also the dire stuff Elaine Page puts out on a Sunday. What makes a tune adaptable as a good/great jazz standard needs a whole more discussion. Hope this helps.

OK, I'll try. In a four in the bar tune you're not counting a regular 1234. The 2 and four will be syncopated, they'll be slightly in front. That gives rise to the whole in front of the beat discussion. It is this 2 and 4 snap that gives the tune it's swing or energy and by clapping on that you're fuelling that energy. That's the analysis but you should be able to feel it, a bit like riding a bike without considering how you're actually doing it. But consider the Strictly sig tune; that's got a two in the bar feel to it, it's not meant to swing. So the audience appropriately clips on those two, which is 1 and 3. Although I'm sure I saw Carol Kirkwood clapping on 2 and 4 on Saturday.