First Jazz Jam - What an experience!!

[PatrickJ]

Feeling a tad chuffed with myself tonight so I thought I'd post on here (because my wife doesn't really care).

I got a call from a guitarist I knew yesterday asking me if I'd stand in as bassist at a jazz jam night he was going to this evening.  

I've never really played Jazz in a band setting before, though I've been listening to a lot of contempory stuff lately so I thought why not. This is very much out of character for me, I'm normally pretty introverted - shy and reserved and dont do anything unless I'm well prepared / rehearsed.   No idea why I agreed to this.

Anyway, already feeling way out of my comfort zone I rock up tonight and get informed by aforementioned guitarist these guys used to be the house band for a local Jazz club.  Anxiety levels shoot through the roof, here am I this imposter who's been playing for just  4 or 5 years or so in low key rock cover bands now having to hold my own with these guys at 24 hours notice and no practice time.

I set up and they throw me a book of what must have been 100+ numbered chord charts and started calling out numbers.  And that was it, we were playing, no prep and no song played twice.  2.5 hours later we finish up, I lost track of how many tuned we actually played but I was exhausted.   I've not had to work that hard in a long time!!

I had to keep things really simple just sticking to roots or basic arpeggios.  If I tried anything more complex I'd lose myself on the charts but I survived it and it was an amazing experience.  The guys were a really lovely bunch, really warm and welcoming and no judgement on my playing and numerous mistakes.  The drummer even commented on how much he liked my tone :).

[Dad3353]

 

[grandad]

Marvelous. I could tell a similar story of 4 or 5 years previous. Needless to say I now play with a Jazz quartet and love it. Congratulations, I'd say repeat if you can, it will open up your musical world.

[DaveFry]

5 hours ago, PJ-Bassist said:

 The guys were a really lovely bunch, really warm and welcoming and no judgement on my playing and numerous mistakes.

That is jazzers for you . They get together for the joy of play . A swinging rhythm section is more valuable than note choice " mistakes " . Good jazzers will welcome those note choices and play off them , they know that the bass player is the person behind the wheel of the bus and are grateful for a driver who takes them anywhere .

Jazz = PLAY

[PatrickJ]

8 hours ago, grandad said:

I'd say repeat if you can, it will open up your musical world.

Yes, if I get the opportunity I'd love to give it another go.   They asked for my number, I know they have a regular bassist and a few on rotation so I'm sure I'll be down the list but I hope they call.

More promisingly the guitarist suggested we get together sometime to jam, he also plays in another jazz band that occassionaly need a dep.

So opportunities there - what I need to do is focus some practice.

[Teebs]

Nice one PJB!

[Crawford13]

Nice one! Must admit I am jealous of this. I’m in a rock originals band, but often get the itch to play jazz.

[BassBunny]

Excellent stuff, been there, done that myself. Way out of my comfort zone but what an exhilarating experience it was. 

Made me glad that I'd spent so much time on arpeggios in the woodshed.

 

[PatrickJ]

27 minutes ago, Crawford13 said:

Nice one! Must admit I am jealous of this. I’m in a rock originals band, but often get the itch to play jazz.

I've only ever played rock; mostly covers, a few originals.  This was a totally different experience.

I've been feeling bored with rock music for a while now , this reinforced the feeling that it's not what I want to be playing any more.

[PatrickJ]

36 minutes ago, BassBunny said:

Made me glad that I'd spent so much time on arpeggios in the woodshed.

 

Wishing I had spent more time on that.

Edited February 14, 2020 by PJ-Bassist

[julietgreen]

I also took the plunge a few months ago and played bass at the local jam. Almost immediately I got picked up by a new jazz band and also asked to dep on numerous occasions. I downloaded fakebook pro for a few pence, although ireal is even better. I recommend it. Then all you need to do is take the tablet/ipad to the jam and pretty much all the standards are on there, in any key they call! Fun isn't it?

[PatrickJ]

30 minutes ago, julietgreen said:

I also took the plunge a few months ago and played bass at the local jam. Almost immediately I got picked up by a new jazz band and also asked to dep on numerous occasions. I downloaded fakebook pro for a few pence, although ireal is even better. I recommend it. Then all you need to do is take the tablet/ipad to the jam and pretty much all the standards are on there, in any key they call! Fun isn't it?

Yes, a few of them were using IReal Pro - I know it's only around £10 to download and I have an old iPad so think I'll give it a try - thanks.

[IainS]

Amazing! Two and a half hours, too! That is a long time to fly by the seat of your pants. I hope it does lead to a change in a jazzier direction for you. 

[bassace]

Great stuff, PJ. I’ve been in a few very good bands in my long playing career but the great majority of my gigs have been freelance, arranged on the phone.

You will find that you’ll learn quite quickly simply by playing as often as you can. A whole world of music is out there, mostly tunes you’ve never heard of before but which you’ll find surprisingly easy to play.

You’ll need to know your ‘navigation’ ie chorus length and structure but this will come. And iReal Pro is your friend because not only will it give you the chords to play over but has a very useful transposing facility. So when someone calls a strange key - singer?- you can find it with a touch of the screen.

Good luck, and enjoy!

[PatrickJ]

So my jazzcapades continue. 

Aforementioned guitarist called me  (again at 24 hrs notice)  asking me to step in as bassist for his other band at a rehearsal.  Again in a move that's totally out of character for me I agree to do it.

Smaller affair to last time, a  bunch of standards I'd never played before, but with just drums, guitar, singer and sax.  Again all very patient with me but perhaps this time it wasn't quite so warm and welcoming.  I guess with the smaller ensemble, the lack of a solid walking bass line left parts of the songs feeling very bare and my lack of experience really stood out.

I'm not expecting any callbacks anytime soon but another great experience for me.  I've subsequently started an Online SBL course called the beginning Jazz survival guide or something.  It's funny that one of the first things @devinebass calls out in the intro is you can't fake playing walking bass, you can either do it or you can't - something my recent experiences can whole heartedly attest too.

[stewblack]

I love this thread so much. 

Best of luck, you will never look back from this. 

[mangotango]

On ‎14‎/‎02‎/‎2020 at 20:18, bassace said:

And iReal Pro is your friend because not only will it give you the chords to play over but has a very useful transposing facility. So when someone calls a strange key - singer?- you can find it with a touch of the screen.

I remember being at a jazz jam once where the leader was my music teacher, who had encouraged me to try to get involved in that sort of thing. All was going OK, until this girl singer got up and handed out charts of a standard in the key of D.  Nice etiquette - copies for the horn players in their respective keys, and off we went.

Except that as soon as she started singing. all of the harmony sounded wrong.  All became clear when my teacher walked around the band, playing trumpet in one hand and holding his other hand with two fingers pointing at the floor. Two down = Bb (2 flats). Instantly reach for the iPad and hit the transpose button...all good thereafter, except for those horn players having to transpose in their heads on the fly.  Moral of the story = iReal Pro on your phone (iPad) will get you out of an awful lot of difficult situations when you're starting off...….

[PatrickJ]

25 minutes ago, mangotango said:

I remember being at a jazz jam once where the leader was my music teacher, who had encouraged me to try to get involved in that sort of thing. All was going OK, until this girl singer got up and handed out charts of a standard in the key of D.  Nice etiquette - copies for the horn players in their respective keys, and off we went.

Except that as soon as she started singing. all of the harmony sounded wrong.  All became clear when my teacher walked around the band, playing trumpet in one hand and holding his other hand with two fingers pointing at the floor. Two down = Bb (2 flats). Instantly reach for the iPad and hit the transpose button...all good thereafter, except for those horn players having to transpose in their heads on the fly.  Moral of the story = iReal Pro on your phone (iPad) will get you out of an awful lot of difficult situations when you're starting off...….

Yes, I'm enjoying iReal Pro very much.  My old iPad wouldn't support it so I had an excuse to go and buy a new tablet too :). 

The transpose feature is excellent, I used that a number of times last week when the singer casually mentioned, can we take this down a tone.  Boom, no problem at all just let me click this button.

It seems that I also spoke too soon on the callbacks.  Guitarist asked me to dep again for their rehearsal this Sunday.  He even gave me two days notice this time, I'm obviously moving up his speed dial list.  Unfortunately I can't make it which is a shame because I've been practicing.

[julietgreen]

18 hours ago, PJ-Bassist said:

So my jazzcapades continue. 

Aforementioned guitarist called me  (again at 24 hrs notice)  asking me to step in as bassist for his other band at a rehearsal.  Again in a move that's totally out of character for me I agree to do it.

Smaller affair to last time, a  bunch of standards I'd never played before, but with just drums, guitar, singer and sax.  Again all very patient with me but perhaps this time it wasn't quite so warm and welcoming.  I guess with the smaller ensemble, the lack of a solid walking bass line left parts of the songs feeling very bare and my lack of experience really stood out.

I'm not expecting any callbacks anytime soon but another great experience for me.  I've subsequently started an Online SBL course called the beginning Jazz survival guide or something.  It's funny that one of the first things @devinebass calls out in the intro is you can't fake playing walking bass, you can either do it or you can't - something my recent experiences can whole heartedly attest too.

My jazzcapades continue too. I would imagine I'm just a few stages ahead of you on the journey, since I decided I'd make myself learn how to play walking bass and get some jazz gigs. When I started, I felt like this was a specialist area that was on the other side of a chasm. I realise now that it's doable and that I've pretty much made that leap across. I'm depping on Sunday with another jazz band and we had a rehearsal today. They were old band mates of mine when I played sax in a latin jazz outfit. They were all very happy with my walking bass and other stuff today. Hooray. Stick with it. Dave Marks and Scott Devine have sensible approaches straight off.

[PatrickJ]

5 hours ago, julietgreen said:

My jazzcapades continue too. I would imagine I'm just a few stages ahead of you on the journey, since I decided I'd make myself learn how to play walking bass and get some jazz gigs. When I started, I felt like this was a specialist area that was on the other side of a chasm. I realise now that it's doable and that I've pretty much made that leap across. I'm depping on Sunday with another jazz band and we had a rehearsal today. They were old band mates of mine when I played sax in a latin jazz outfit. They were all very happy with my walking bass and other stuff today. Hooray. Stick with it. Dave Marks and Scott Devine have sensible approaches straight off.

Let me know any tips and tricks you've learnt along the way.

Edited February 28, 2020 by PJ-Bassist

[PatrickJ]

Duplicate

Edited February 29, 2020 by PJ-Bassist

[stewblack]

Inspired by this thread I just learned a neat run based on the minor pentatonic scale and spent a happy hour jamming over some jazzy backing tracks - not a thing I ever saw myself doing.

I learned the run down from this video and jammed variations of it over this one.

Stranglers fans will no doubt notice similarities with the run and a certain classic.

[lownote]

bet yours is a passive 4 string 🙄

[ThirteenDevils]

Following! 

[deepbass5]

I also  got a call this week to stand in on a monthly jazz jam, and received favorable comments back, a boost i needed

I did start a thread on here a little while back about being disillusioned with these gatherings, but its like swimming you cant learn from the bank you need to get in there and maybe have a couple of scares along the way.

Now my confession  - I turned down the chance of future jazz gigs this week with a combo that work regular with good guest players invited in, because I didn't feel my walking is up to that standard expected by these guest players with reference to voice leading etc. The punters may not notice but jazzers will.  This is down to practice and time spent perfecting the art, or lack of it and listening to jazz standards which i do not. until i have to.

So i would like doff my cap to Bassace who i have seen playing , be it a few years back,  but he does have his s ~+*t down, and thats where i need to be. 

So having now been re-enthused by this thread I will take my own advice and say I will do the gig, whats the worse that can happen. 

So yes back to P J  I Agree with Bassace you will need an iPad and download real and unreal books and ireal pro will save a lot of time and you can transpose and save them to a set list. In UnrealBook on your iPad you can photo chord sheets or music from elswhere and save a PDF to read which can be handy rather than have loose sheets about.