New jazz jam starting in Stratford, Ontario

[GodinFan]

I'm very pleased to announce I'll be hosting a new jazz jam in Stratford, Ontario starting Jan. 23/2011.

The Stratford Jazz Jam will be taking place on Sunday afternoons from 2-5 p.m. at Molly Bloom's Irish Pub on Brunswick Ave. in Stratford.

PA, piano, drums, amps and music stands will be supplied. All jazz instrumentalists and vocalists are welcome.

The venue has committed to a four week trial run. If all goes well, this could become the only regular jazz jam west of Toronto.

Please spread the word to any other jazz musicians you know, and if you can come and play, or even just want to drop in and listen, by all means, please do!

[GodinFan]

Tomorrow is the first jam -- please drop by to listen, play, or just hang.

I'll have my Godin Kingpin, Tele and ZT Club amp with me if you're a guitarist and want to sit in.

[Banksia]

How did it go?

[GodinFan]

The gig went pretty well. We had about a dozen different musicians sit in over the three sets, and the room filled up quickly and stayed pretty busy right through.

I'll find out later today exactly how well bar did. I negotiated a guarantee for my sidemen, but I'm on percentage of the food and drink sales.

There's one downside to leading the gig and that's the amount of gear I have to schlep. Took two trips in the car.

Piano, PA (Bose L1, so it's not too bad), guitars, amps, books, stands, cables, mics, drums...oh well, that's why I get paid the medium size bucks.

The best thing for me personally is that it made me play a whole bunch of tunes in front of live bodies on guitar. Most of my jazz gigs are on saxophone.

[Banksia]

That's a pretty good result. What's the population of Stratford?

[GodinFan]

Stratford is about 30,000. We also draw from Kitchener-Waterloo and London.