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knirirr

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Everything posted by knirirr

  1. knirirr

    There was some good material at the last jam I attended (inc. a couple of decent singers), but the overall impression is coloured by the little bad material there was (noodling guitarist and singer with only a passing familiarity with the song's structure). The jam offenders have got a gig at a local pub; if I have time I might pop in to see if they're as dodgy when playing their own stuff.

  2. knirirr
    Do you know if there's still a jazz jam in the Wine Vaults there?
  3. knirirr
    You may judge for yourself here. 😉 I made plenty of mistakes(*) but I think we didn't do too badly for an amateur band. The audience liked it and were pleased to have that sort of material played, and it was good to be doing it as a proper gig rather than a number here and there as the house band at a jam. (*) E.g. forgot what key I was in for the first few bars of the first solo...
  4. knirirr
    Quite. I'm reminded of a local shopkeeper (now passed away) who didn't quite get this. I once had this conversation with him: "Do you see anything you fancy today?" "Unfortunately not, sorry." "Well, you must be blind then!"
  5. knirirr
    I recently booked tickets for this: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/witneyjazz/t-lnrplpg ...can't resist a hard bop gig with 4 horns in the front line!
  6. knirirr
    We did a wedding gig last night - nothing fancy, mostly playing background music as the guests arrived. No pay, as the BL had signed us up as a favour for the bride. One requirement was that at the end of our set, before a ceilidh band came on, the bride's father was to join us on stage to play some blues harmonica. As it happens he was clearly sober and pretty good at it.
  7. knirirr
    I have only played it once, at a jazz jam. I didn't recognise it at first and realisation dawned when the chap sitting in on keys started singing "ride, Sally, ride".
  8. knirirr
    Performers reading charts on a gig is a popular complaint in the jazz community, it seems, though no-one anywhere I play seems particulary bothered by it, and iPads are common. Even the pros use them, but they are usually discreet. I can remember heads/changes if I play them a lot, but if I don't for a few weeks I have to get the crib sheet out again. For the next gig we have lined up I can play 3/4 of the set without charts but stuff like this never seems to stick in my head.
  9. knirirr
    This reminded me of something 30+ years ago. Some acquaintances on the undergraduate music scene were in need of some jazz woodbines and so asked a friend in another city to send them some hash. That friend put 1/2 oz. into a normal envelope, which arrived with the contents present and correct and a tear to the envelope repaired by the post office en route.
  10. knirirr
    Luckily, I was taught soldering at school, so such things as replacing a pickup selector are fine. Strings, intonation, truss rod etc. are all easy enough as well. I wouldn't want to do anything involving cutting or filing in case I cock it up, though, so nut and fret adjustments are out, as is any DB work. Recently, I bought a cheap HB guitar thinking that this might be a good opportunity to practice a bit of fret adjustment without concern but it turned out that all the frets needed was a polish, and with a small turn of the truss rod it had perfect low action.
  11. knirirr
    Fingers crossed that it's a false alarm. Within the past hour the package has started showing up on DHL's system using Thomann's customer reference and their UK depot's postcode. Perhaps the package wasn't scanned until it was collected, and that wasn't until this morning.
  12. knirirr
    Having had some issues with a Harley Benton instrument I arranged to return it to Thomann, which took a while as their responses were often slow. Eventually, I was able to drop it off on the 24th at a local DHL collection point. The chap there scanned it and, when I asked, told me that the receipt would be electronic and I'd get an email. No such email was received, and according to Thomann: "Unfortunately, the tracking information does not show any updates on our end. It is possible that the parcel has not been scanned yet at the Service Point. As such, we would kindly ask you to contact the Service Point where the parcel has been dropped off at, for clarification or for the receipt. Without a receipt, it is not possible for Thomann to contact the courier for you." Has anyone else run into similar issues, or have any suggestions?
  13. knirirr

    Well, I think I got away with the guitar trio rehearsal, as mentioned at:

    The overall standard was still far from gig worthy, though.

  14. knirirr
    I have not done this, though Mrs. knirirr is a member of the local group so I have seen what they do, including being roped in once for a non-singing part because they were short of men. Apparently, being short of men is a very common scenario and you might find them attempting to persuade you to do that - I am frequently asked if I will return, this time to sing. All the rehearsal appears to be with the MD playing piano, and the MD's favourite players (which includes a bassist) are brought in at the last minute, usually being handed the sheet music and starting to rehearse on the Sunday before the Thursday when the first performance happens. So, being good at reading would be an advantage. I am told it is fun, though.
  15. knirirr
    I have to keep reminding myself that it would cost 20x more but won't be 20x better, and I need that money for more important things.
  16. knirirr
    Never having tried an LP of any type I thought I'd give this a go. Strung with rather heavy flats it gives an excellent jazz tone and I found it more comfortable than a Tele to play. Unfortunately, I must now resist the urge to waste money on a "proper" one. Perhaps foolishly, I agreed to try a jazz trio rehearsal on Monday so will try it then.
  17. knirirr
    Their VX50 GTV (Nutube + modelling) turned out to be useful for me; it is very light indeed whilst still being loud enough to play with a clean jazz sound at pub jams. Only a 1x8" though so perhaps would not suit the OP.
  18. knirirr
    Last month's jam had 4 bassists and 0 guitarists. "Aha!" I thought, "this could be a great opportunity to learn the head for a favourite piece on guitar and call it at July's jam, particularly as one of the other bassists likes it." This time, we had 1 bassist (me) and 1 guitarist. Maybe next time... We did just about manage to get through Gichi though, which was nice.
  19. knirirr
    Apparently so...
  20. knirirr
    Something I read recently described jazz as a "meta-genre" rather than a genre, and also suggested that what defined jazz was the musicians playing it asserting that their material was jazz. This doesn't seem unreasonable to me. The jazz jams and gigs I play cover a variety of material, some of which the general public enjoy and some they complain about (and turn us down for gigs if they run venues). This, this and this are all jazz...
  21. knirirr
    One of those would be very nice indeed, but if I had that much money to spare I'd buy a decent carved double bass instead (which is cheaper anyway, IIRC). I used to have one made c. 1981 but sold it recently to someone able to do the work it greatly needed. It did good service for jazz purposes and even some other genres on occasion. These days I am mostly using a G&L ASAT.
  22. knirirr
    Good point; I'd have nothing to do with a company which asked for a photo of my ID to be emailed. Even then, I'd look at their T&Cs and privacy policy (and request further info. if necessary) to check what they would do with the photo. If it ends up sitting on their servers for years there's always a risk of a data breach at some point...
  23. knirirr

    Though I can get gigs playing other peoples' preferred material, it's getting very frustrating that every venue I approach with the music I most want to play turns us down. They phrase it in various ways but it comes down to them not wanting hardcore jazz, as far as I can tell.

    1. MuddBass

      MuddBass

      Here's what ChatGPT offeres for alternative wording you might use - give these a try instead and watch the gigs come pouring in.....(start with the last one!!!)

       

      Certainly! Here are some alternative words and phrases for "hardcore jazz":

      Bebop

      Avant-garde jazz

      Free jazz

      Fusion jazz

      Progressive jazz

      Modal jazz

      Post-bop

      Jazz rock

      Experimental jazz

      Cutting-edge jazz

      Innovative jazz

      Modern jazz

      Acid jazz

      Contemporary jazz

      Aggressive jazz

       

    2. knirirr

      knirirr

      I'm disappointed that it missed out "defiant jazz".

      Unfortunately, the problem is more like:

       

      Band: Do you want some jazz?
      Venue: Sounds interesting.

      Band:  Great! Here's a demo tape.

      Venue: Er.... Actually... We meant a pianist/singer doing quiet background music during dinner. Or something with a tune the punters could dance to.

       

      Perhaps the trick is to record a mild demo tape then wait to unleash the hard stuff at the gig. But, despite being jazz musicians, we'd like to get paid.

    3. MuddBass

      MuddBass

      Just play a couple of pop melodies as heads then let loose. What's the worse that can happen?

  24. knirirr
    It can be... I'm reminded of one where both modern jazz horn players and gypsy jazz guitarists turn up in varying proportions and call their preferred material. It was ... interesting ... to see the latter group trying to strum their way through So What recently.
  25. knirirr
    Four increasingly short sets at the Charlbury beer festival today. We were accosted by quite a few people who said they liked what we did, and Witney radio were interested in recording some for one of their programmes.
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