The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    I'm wondering what people find gets the best audience response from a jazz group.

    In the situations I play, high energy stuff, played not too loud, and with great groove (when we can do that), seems to go over best. But there are exceptions. Really good groove on medium tempo material also can work.

    How well the band knows the tune matters. We tend to like to play a lot of new material, often complicated, which probably doesn't help.

    Even ballads I think are beautiful tend to get lost.

    People seem to prefer tunes they know.

    A singer can help, if they can front the band well.

    Of course, it depends on the audience and the venue.

    Thoughts?

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  3. #2

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    Quote Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
    People seem to prefer tunes they know.
    This is huge.

  4. #3

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    Here’s the thing, swinging medium tempo. Underrated, and above all, danceable.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  5. #4

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    Slow and sexy 12/8 where the eighth triplets are treated as kind of swing waltz. Soloists or singers can fly on top of it.


  6. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
    People seem to prefer tunes they know.
    On many an occasion after playing an original,
    somebody has approached and spoken to me,
    "So glad you played that, it's my favorite song!"

  7. #6

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    Autumn Leaves gets the best reception, followed by How High The Moon and All of Me. Anything off Kind of Blue often gets someone to yell, "Yeah, Miles Davis!!" Ipanema and Take 5 are the most requested.

  8. #7

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    Not trying to sound cynical but the public love some jokes, a bit of slap bass and maybe circular breathing.
    Oh! I forgot - some vocals.
    Can I add - play King of the Swingers for the kids!

  9. #8

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    Depends on the crowd. Restaurant gig, medium tempo with strong melodies.

    Jam session. Medium up (not like … fast fast necessarily) and swinging.

    I don’t know that I notice much difference based on whether people know the songs because no one knows the songs anymore. The solo gig I have is at a country club so it’s a pretty old clientele. Had someone say “oh I just loved Summertime” the other day. But unless folks are in the very oldest age bracket, I don’t think people much care what the specific tune is.

    Take Five or So What being possible exceptions?

  10. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by garybaldy
    Not trying to sound cynical but the public love some jokes, a bit of slap bass and maybe circular breathing.
    Oh! I forgot - some vocals.
    Can I add - play King of the Swingers for the kids!
    Are you talking about this one? It's called I Wan'na Be Like You actually. Someone called it at a mainly bluegrass oriented session at the blues pub around the corner and people went totally nuts.


  11. #10
    Restaurant gigs usually start when most people are eating and conversing. The last set generally has fewer people in the audience, more likely to be drinking (depending on the venue) and maybe more open to being entertained.

    So, at my regular restaurant gig, it's kind of intimate and I'm reluctant to make any announcements at all, figuring I'll be interrupting people and we should be ambience. But, when I break that rule people usually seem interested and attentive and I can't think of anybody who looked annoyed.

    At a new place we just played, it looked like people were expecting entertainment and we should have leaned into it, to the extent that we can.

  12. #11

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    How did the new place go? This was the place you were concerned about the the PA right?

  13. #12
    Thanks for asking. We managed to get the sound working adequately. The pianist didn’t want to bring his large powered speakers because of some back problems so we did without the recommended configuration of two mains and two monitors.


    Instead, we took advantage of a peculiarity of the venue. The band faces a relatively narrow strip of patio with a larger patio to the band’s right. So we put a vocal Main on stage left facing to the right which allowed us to hear it, didn’t produce feedback and projected to the larger portion of the patio. For the guitar I used a powered speaker pretty much next to myself to the right and it turned out to be audible for everyone. The pianist had his small speakers on poles the way he usually does.


    My idea was to use my Yamaha MG 10 XU mixer as if it was two separate mixers. I panned the vocals all the way to the left and the guitar all to all the way to the right. At that point, I found out that reverb cannot be panned and we just lived with that.


    We took turns going out into the audience to check the sound and double checked it with the customer and apparently it was fine. I still wonder a professional sound set up with subs and so forth might have been more engaging for the audience because the sound would simply have been richer.

    the only glitch we had was that the announcements weren’t easily audible. This was largely due to my inexperience using the mixer for vocals. Next time I’ll be sure to use the high Pass filter and a foot switch to kill the reverb for announcements.


    If money was no object and I had a roadie I would go with the JBL line array that has seven inputs. I played through it with another band a couple of times last year and thought it sounded fantastic on the bandstand and far back in the audience. But it’s a big heavy piece of equipment

  14. #13

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    Glad to hear it all worked out. There's a few bands here with those JBL towers. They get the job done.

    Was the stage left blowing over the band or away from them? I tried to make a text diagram

    (Speaker) (Band) (Patio)

    or

    (Band) (Speaker) (Patio)

  15. #14
    Stage left refers to the left of the stage from the perspective of the performer looking out to the audience. We had one speaker for vocals. We put it on our extreme left facing to the right at around 45° angle. On a pole, head height.

    The larger patio was to the right so the vocal speaker projected to both parts of the patio and enough to the band that we didn’t need a monitor.

    That is, from the point of view of the band, the smaller part of the patio was right in front of us and the larger part of the patio was well to our right. The vocal speaker was to the left of the band and the guitar speaker was kind of in the middle of the band, on the floor.

    The vocal speaker was angled so that it got the entire patio, both the smaller part directly in front of the band and the larger part to the right.

    I guess you could say that the vocal speaker was blowing across the band. The guitar speaker faced forward, but seemed to project adequately for all areas.

    The audience was a good 15 or 20 feet from the band, at the closest. That's relevant to the dispersion characteristic of the speakers. Right in front of the band is a section of patio that I guess is there for dancing, but we only had dancers in the third set.
    Last edited by rpjazzguitar; 10-09-2024 at 02:32 PM.

  16. #15

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    Thanks for clearing it up. I might have to try that trick one day.

  17. #16
    One thing I ended up thinking about was a quartet I saw playing outdoors within an upscale shopping mall.

    Soul music. I can't recall any of the tunes. Guitar, bass, drums and keys.

    They sounded awesome. But, when I looked at each musician, they were hardly doing anything. Part of it was they knew how to create groove without being busy. I think that's time feel and it's a hard thing to develop.

    The other part of it was their sound system. They had subs. I can't recall what the rest of the system was. The sound brought to mind the word "professional".

    Similarly, the band I saw using the JBL line array got really excellent sound. This was a trio. Piano, bass, congas. Three singers and two of them played additional percussion with their feet. Conguero sang, played conga and kicked clave with his foot on a pedal hitting a cowbell. Tight as anything. But, I don't think they'd have been nearly as impressive if they were using more conventional sound reinforcement.

    I went to hear them last night, but they weren't there. Instead it was a duo. Also salsa. Piano, bass, both sang. Drum machine. The pianist had a small powered speaker. The bassist had a midsize amp. I didn't see any other speakers, but maybe there was one. Sound was anemic, compared to the other band. And, the audience response was bland, again, compared to the other band. I think the sound quality fosters a better audience response.

  18. #17

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    I'll agree to that, the music needs to sound good and have presence but not be loud. It's a hard space to find.

  19. #18
    Right.

    Another issue: I always look to see if audience members are moving to the music. If the groove is good enough, it's hard to sit still. I know that good players can create that without a drummer (reportedly, the old blues men could play for dancing with just the guitar and tapping their foot). But, in our case, we probably need the drummer -- who wasn't mic'ed and therefore probably wasn't all that loud throughout the audience.

    That shopping mall band, in contrast, mic'ed the kick and ran it through a PA with subs. You couldn't sit still. How much was the time feel of the musicians and how much was the excellent sound?

  20. #19

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    Things I've seen get good responses:

    - Tight ensemble playing and arrangement -- stuff like horn sections harmonizing the melody, shout choruses, call and response between soloist and ensemble, tight intros and endings. E.g., at a jam, if you get 2-3 experienced horn players making themselves sound like a rehearsed big band because they know all the same arrangement hits it kills. If it actually is a rehearsed section, even better.
    - Dynamics, especially the band getting louder or softer in response to what the soloist is doing. Make sure there's space here and there. Having one constant level of intensity is fatiguing to everyone.
    - Solos that go somewhere motivicly and dynamically, with a clear beginning, development, crescendo/diminuendo, and ending get a response. Something bluesy in the middle and at the end usually works. Repeating a phrase, and getting the band to respond works.
    - Strong vocal performance from someone who really knows the song. At a jam, it kills (in the good sense). The counterpoint is that a weak vocal one also kills (the vibe)
    - Blues. Play. The. Blues. Not just Bird or other jazz blues heads, but also real gutbucket groove blues. If the keyboard has an organ sound, use it. If someone can sing blues well they should. At the session that I attend regularly, I've become the designated blues guy (that's actually more my background and forte than jazz, though I like to think my jazz is getting there). The audience always digs the contrast.
    - Songs that have arrangement and dynamics baked in (e.g., Moanin', Work Song) are often high points.
    - Speaking of contrast, make sure there's contrast. Various flavors and tempos of swing, boogaloo, Latin, funky grooves, straight 8 ECM-y feels, ballads. For my own gigs, my set lists are always an attempt to mix and balance the flavors.
    - Take a familiar tune and give it a different feel (e.g., play a ballad as a medium up bossa nova)
    - Quote other tunes in solos.
    Last edited by John A.; 10-10-2024 at 03:22 PM.

  21. #20

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    Sometimes I miss those first five rows of screaming teenage girls.

  22. #21

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mick-7
    .
    That problem was corrected: they gave them all hysterectomies.
    Have you ever experienced what I was talking about? Did ever a main act give you an encore on the first gig of a tour?

    BTW I think your joke was not funny.

  23. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bop Head
    Have you ever experienced what I was talking about? Did ever a main act give you an encore on the first gig of a tour?
    Afraid not, have you?

    Quote Originally Posted by Bop Head
    BTW I think your joke was not funny.
    Hey, I was just riffing on your comment in another thread about the prejudicial derivation of the word hysteria! But yes, joking about blind ignorance is challenging.

  24. #23

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    Quick PSA for old guys on the internet.

    Your comments will be interpreted without context. Never expect anyone to give your comment more context than you have provided in the text of your comment.

    This is not because people are dumb, or because they’re overly sensitive. It’s just because no one follows your inner monologue that closely, nor should they. People cannot (and should not) be expected to have kept up with the full history of your interactions on this forum in order to interpret your comment the way you intend.

    If you have to refer back to some other post on some other thread from some other time to explain your joke, then chances are your joke was bad and it will be interpreted uncharitably.

    Thank you for your attention in this matter.

  25. #24

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mick-7
    Afraid not, have you?
    I have. For some years. The band was called Les Babacools. And that tour was a German tour with Fun Loving Criminals, first show at Live Music Hall at Cologne. They wanted us again for their next tour.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mick-7
    Hey, I was just riffing on your comment in another thread about the prejudicial derivation of the word hysteria! But yes, joking about blind ignorance is challenging.
    I am not stupid, I know what your comment was related to. Hysterectomies usually happen after diagnoses of ulcers or cancer. For a young woman in means infertility, for an older woman it means at leat total messing up of hormon balance which has effects on the mental health. Not funny. I know women who have had it.

  26. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bop Head
    I am not stupid, I know what your comment was related to. Hysterectomies usually happen after diagnoses of ulcers or cancer. For a young woman in means infertility, for an older woman it means at least total messing up of hormone balance which has effects on the mental health. Not funny. I know women who have had it.
    My comment was not a reflection on your intelligence, however you seem to be ignorant of the history of hysterectomies. Like mastectomies, male bias and ignorance of female physiology led to performing this operation on women when there was not a sound medical rationale for it (partial hysterectomies and mastectomies, that is), which is related to your comment in the other thread re: women being particularly susceptible to emotional hysteria.

    But yes, my quip was not politically correct.