I sang "Never Gonna Go Easy" for Wednesday's Midnite Open Mic Jam at the Depot Brewery. Although at the time I didn't know about the coincidence, I wrote the song a few years ago on the same night a friend was fundraising for his legal defense against accusations of herbal disobedience. The words and melody came in like a radio wave ~~ THAT part WAS easy!
None of the other musicians had heard this song nor played it, but they made it sound great: Tim Carey grooved bass line, Jon Estrin embellished with lead guitar, James Moore kept rhythm on kit while Bob Bernards gave a beautiful hand rhythm on a djembe. I added flute between verses.
Afterwards, long, energetic jams with Tim and Jon as Dan Gorman sat kit, James moved to conga, Tony sat keyboard, Paul Squillo joined on trumpet, and newcomer Lava Lava added his saxophone to the mix.
Super energy, awesome sound, so three hours later I'm easing off the high. Whew!
Showing posts with label jam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jam. Show all posts
Thursday, May 4
Saturday, October 8
Flute follow-up
I was sitting at a sidewalk table on North Main yesterday checking email when I saw a familiar figure walking toward me.
"Your flute sounded nice last night," he said, as I remembered that he heard me play at Late Night Open Mic at the Depot with the house band.
"Thank you!" I said, feeling happy for his kind words.
"You must have been playing for a long time?" he asked. Maybe he was trying to gauge how long it would take for him to gain the skills he wanted.
"I learned in fifth grade, but there was a long break in there."
He stopped to tell me a bit about himself. Turns out that in 1972, he felt inspired to learn flute because he liked its sound. He tried guitar instead, but the strings hurt his fingertips, and his attention was distracted by other things, and time passed. Hearing our upbeat jazzy improv renewed his inspiration to learn how to play.
I hope he follows up on that.
I thank him here on this blog for confirming a pattern I noticed in several conversations like this:
One way for me to empower people is by first empowering myself and then living out loud. Lucky for me, I dig that design!
"Your flute sounded nice last night," he said, as I remembered that he heard me play at Late Night Open Mic at the Depot with the house band.
"Thank you!" I said, feeling happy for his kind words.
"You must have been playing for a long time?" he asked. Maybe he was trying to gauge how long it would take for him to gain the skills he wanted.
"I learned in fifth grade, but there was a long break in there."
He stopped to tell me a bit about himself. Turns out that in 1972, he felt inspired to learn flute because he liked its sound. He tried guitar instead, but the strings hurt his fingertips, and his attention was distracted by other things, and time passed. Hearing our upbeat jazzy improv renewed his inspiration to learn how to play.
I hope he follows up on that.
I thank him here on this blog for confirming a pattern I noticed in several conversations like this:
One way for me to empower people is by first empowering myself and then living out loud. Lucky for me, I dig that design!
Friday, August 16
Christy's first jam on congas
My first jam on congas went much better than I anticipated. Really fun, actually.
Mark Soth gathered a group of us at his place last night to jam a bit in prep for a gig in mid-October ~~ Mark plus Mike Scanlon, Danielle Nance, and David Bordow. Others will probably join later ~~ players will come and go from practice to practice, and from song to song during the gig. Mark is calling the project Out of Context, which has layers of meaning . . . and a specially personal meaning for me: doing percussion in a band sure is a new context for me!
This is not just a whim, though, this is a strategy.
We, Burnt Sugar Blues, have been without a percussionist for three months and I figured to jump into the breach as a supplemental percussionist to fill in a little during parts of songs when I'm not singing. Never having mastered snapping my fingers in steady rhythm while singing with focus, I set my goal for alternating between singing and percussion without awkward fumbling of percussion pieces and microphones. Nominal grace would be a significant accomplishment for me.
When my children started lessons in West African drumming from Fonziba Koster, I started right along with them to give them a little boost of confidence in the new endeavor. Even before that, I'd been joining in at drum circles, but I did not have much confidence for keeping a rhythm for a band during a whole song, plus pounding it out loud enough to make a difference instead of just scooting around on the edges. So confidence was the next goal after nominal grace.
After confidence I wanted creativity ~~ to be able to tune into the needs of the song and add a rhythm to support it. I figured I'd be asking for a lot of advice from other band members.
Well. Maybe it was beginner's luck.
Mark Soth heard I wanted to learn this new skill, so he invited me to the jam and set up a nice pair of congas plus a microphone on a stand, which was weird for me because I like to hold the mic in my right hand. So I ignored the mic and started with r-e-a-l-l-y simple rhythms, just to keep the 1 and 3 going, sometimes all 1, 2, 3, and 4. It was fun, though, having two drums in front of me, so I played around a little, and a little more.
By about the middle of the jam, we played "Can't Find My Way Home," for which I happen to know most of the words without a lyric sheet in front of me, although I wondered if I'd freeze up and forget them all. What a shocker to find myself playing all the way through while singing at the same time!
Maybe I'll be able to work with a mic stand. Maybe I'll be able to juggle multiple pieces and parts without dropping them. Seems I can maintain some kind of beat while singing, although I don't have the perspective to know how steady it is. It was a heckuva a lot more fun than I thought it would be to play one single rhythm all the way through a song without changing it up. I always wondered how drummers could do that without going crazy. Well, gosh, it felt cool, not crazy.
To add to my astonishment, I found enough creative juice to use a different rhythm pattern for nearly every song we played that evening. I thought it would take several jams to learn some grace, confidence, and style with percussion, so I'm really pleased to get this far the first time.
Mark Soth gathered a group of us at his place last night to jam a bit in prep for a gig in mid-October ~~ Mark plus Mike Scanlon, Danielle Nance, and David Bordow. Others will probably join later ~~ players will come and go from practice to practice, and from song to song during the gig. Mark is calling the project Out of Context, which has layers of meaning . . . and a specially personal meaning for me: doing percussion in a band sure is a new context for me!
This is not just a whim, though, this is a strategy.
We, Burnt Sugar Blues, have been without a percussionist for three months and I figured to jump into the breach as a supplemental percussionist to fill in a little during parts of songs when I'm not singing. Never having mastered snapping my fingers in steady rhythm while singing with focus, I set my goal for alternating between singing and percussion without awkward fumbling of percussion pieces and microphones. Nominal grace would be a significant accomplishment for me.
When my children started lessons in West African drumming from Fonziba Koster, I started right along with them to give them a little boost of confidence in the new endeavor. Even before that, I'd been joining in at drum circles, but I did not have much confidence for keeping a rhythm for a band during a whole song, plus pounding it out loud enough to make a difference instead of just scooting around on the edges. So confidence was the next goal after nominal grace.
After confidence I wanted creativity ~~ to be able to tune into the needs of the song and add a rhythm to support it. I figured I'd be asking for a lot of advice from other band members.
Well. Maybe it was beginner's luck.
Mark Soth heard I wanted to learn this new skill, so he invited me to the jam and set up a nice pair of congas plus a microphone on a stand, which was weird for me because I like to hold the mic in my right hand. So I ignored the mic and started with r-e-a-l-l-y simple rhythms, just to keep the 1 and 3 going, sometimes all 1, 2, 3, and 4. It was fun, though, having two drums in front of me, so I played around a little, and a little more.
By about the middle of the jam, we played "Can't Find My Way Home," for which I happen to know most of the words without a lyric sheet in front of me, although I wondered if I'd freeze up and forget them all. What a shocker to find myself playing all the way through while singing at the same time!
Maybe I'll be able to work with a mic stand. Maybe I'll be able to juggle multiple pieces and parts without dropping them. Seems I can maintain some kind of beat while singing, although I don't have the perspective to know how steady it is. It was a heckuva a lot more fun than I thought it would be to play one single rhythm all the way through a song without changing it up. I always wondered how drummers could do that without going crazy. Well, gosh, it felt cool, not crazy.
To add to my astonishment, I found enough creative juice to use a different rhythm pattern for nearly every song we played that evening. I thought it would take several jams to learn some grace, confidence, and style with percussion, so I'm really pleased to get this far the first time.
Tuesday, February 26
Introducing Musician Walter Day
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| Walter Day |
Walter Day is winding down his celebrated season as the first and most famous referee in video gaming history by packing up his Twin Galaxies paraphernalia and sending it to its new home in New Jersey. His new focus is music, specifically the 137 songs that he has been conducting in his head with orchestral strings and horns for decades. He hears his songs with rich, multi-layered vocal harmonies and he wants to get them out of his head and onto recordings. So he sang a few songs for me and I joined him with improvved harmonies.
Maybe his extra focus on music lately has been boosting mine as well . . . like the coldest month was a pullback prepping to slingshot us through a warm spring tingle and a rocket-hot summer.
Thursday, February 21
Backing at the Festino
Dick DeAngelis is a great friend of music in Fairfield and last December he hosted a party for musicians. He said musicians support causes with free performances throughout the year, and this was his way to thank them for their generosity. Dick cooked up some great Italian food, brought red wine, and collected the cool of Fairfield to evoke a special atmosphere for making music. Several entertained us with solos and a few of us jammed with them as back-up players. I did a few backing vocals. Here's an 8-minute jam from that night ~ ~ ~
Players (left to right): Keith DeBoer, Christy, David Hurlin, Jon Estrin, Trina Neal, Tim Britton
Video posted by FairfieldRocksMe
Players (left to right): Keith DeBoer, Christy, David Hurlin, Jon Estrin, Trina Neal, Tim Britton
Video posted by FairfieldRocksMe
Tuesday, March 6
A *Cavern* for Fairfield
I made it to the jam in Revelations' basement. I learned from Jon Estrin why it was called a jam when I asked him the name of the band: "No name right now. The poster billed it as Jam because we do not rehearse so it is essentially a jam with a set list." John Schirmer organized it, and the other members are John Huff on bass, Eric Henderson on drums, and Steve Swygard on keyboard. Estrin and Schirmer play guitar.
They are the house band for the Cavern, the new venue in the basement of Revelations bookstore. The name is a nod to the legacy of the Beatles along with the feeling of down-low: low ceiling, low lighting, minimal decor, minimal gate. Revelations owner Betsy Howland says, "I just wanted a place where I can dance!" The jam was the Cavern's first act and she is already booked to mid-June, open for odd Saturdays only ~ first and third Saturdays of the month.
With books lining the walls, acoustics are decent. I'm impressed with the changes since a year ago, thank you Freddy Fonseca, and more changes are coming. The ceiling had been torn out near the "stage" area to make room for a staircase. That will improve circulation and make it easier to have a performance in the side room at the same time as a jam in the basement, since right now one has to walk the length of the side room to get to the basement stair. It would make toting around food and drink easier, too. Beer, wine, chips and dip were for sale Saturday at the foot of the stairs just before the door to the Cavern, and a donation jar sat beside the door waiting for tips for the band.
Each band decides whether to ask for donations or to charge cover: Van and the Movers is scheduled next, and they're planning a $5 cover. [Update: actual cover was $8]
Several musicians were checking out the place when I stopped in. They like the sound, they like the funky low-down feel, and they are planning to play there. Looks like Fairfield has a brand-new hot spot!
 |
| A view of Revelations' storefront shows the entrance door at left. After your journey through the main room and the side room, a stairway takes you downstairs at the right of the pic. You can see the staircase from the sidewalk, and sometimes hear the music, too. |
They are the house band for the Cavern, the new venue in the basement of Revelations bookstore. The name is a nod to the legacy of the Beatles along with the feeling of down-low: low ceiling, low lighting, minimal decor, minimal gate. Revelations owner Betsy Howland says, "I just wanted a place where I can dance!" The jam was the Cavern's first act and she is already booked to mid-June, open for odd Saturdays only ~ first and third Saturdays of the month.
With books lining the walls, acoustics are decent. I'm impressed with the changes since a year ago, thank you Freddy Fonseca, and more changes are coming. The ceiling had been torn out near the "stage" area to make room for a staircase. That will improve circulation and make it easier to have a performance in the side room at the same time as a jam in the basement, since right now one has to walk the length of the side room to get to the basement stair. It would make toting around food and drink easier, too. Beer, wine, chips and dip were for sale Saturday at the foot of the stairs just before the door to the Cavern, and a donation jar sat beside the door waiting for tips for the band.
Each band decides whether to ask for donations or to charge cover: Van and the Movers is scheduled next, and they're planning a $5 cover. [Update: actual cover was $8]
Several musicians were checking out the place when I stopped in. They like the sound, they like the funky low-down feel, and they are planning to play there. Looks like Fairfield has a brand-new hot spot!
Saturday, March 3
Jam in Revs basement tonight
Mike'll be there checking out the scene.
I hope to get to the jam tonight in the basement of Revelations ~ a big meet-up for a bunch of great musicians. I heard John Schirmer (guitar, vocals) and Jon Estrin (guitar) are going. I sang with them at the Boogie Shack 3 years ago when Tim Duffy was organizing us into the Los Armadillos group.
Heard "muscular blues" ~ tight, loud, powerful ~ from the reincarnation of Van and the Movers in their debut last night in the photography studio at Josie Hannes Design/Flair Vintage Décor. Great venue, but she said she's not planning to rent it out. She cleared almost all of her photography stuff out of there as a favor for her father-in-law's band.
I hope to get to the jam tonight in the basement of Revelations ~ a big meet-up for a bunch of great musicians. I heard John Schirmer (guitar, vocals) and Jon Estrin (guitar) are going. I sang with them at the Boogie Shack 3 years ago when Tim Duffy was organizing us into the Los Armadillos group.
Heard "muscular blues" ~ tight, loud, powerful ~ from the reincarnation of Van and the Movers in their debut last night in the photography studio at Josie Hannes Design/Flair Vintage Décor. Great venue, but she said she's not planning to rent it out. She cleared almost all of her photography stuff out of there as a favor for her father-in-law's band.
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