What kind of jazz are you playing?

**targuit** · 02-02-2016, 02:10 PM

Didn't think they wore panties. What's this world coming to?

**mrcee** · 02-02-2016, 02:34 PM

Originally Posted by Stevebol

Jazz will be fine without me but I'll go through the motions. Play songs I don't even like. I told my mom I play poorly on purpose sometimes. She didn't like that.

When you get to the point where you don't like the songs that can be the impetus to improvise.

**Stevebol** · 02-02-2016, 03:02 PM

Originally Posted by mrcee

When you get to the point where you don't like the songs that can be the impetus to improvise.

I don't care about improv. I've always done it. I just think it's sad that people can't understand a job description in R&B. It's time to move on to something else. Classical hurts. I started very late. Folk music was probably my first love. Jazz? IDK. Maybe.

**Longways to Go** · 02-02-2016, 03:14 PM

The local musicians I know who are actually making some money are doing solo acoustic rock & country covers.
Jazz here is almost exclusively college professors & their students. The jazz professors grab up a few restaurant & hotel lobby gigs, and the occasional corporate or wedding event.

There are lots of country & rock "jams", and lots of bands complain that the jams are taking away from paying gigs.
I play at art gallery openings -- jazz is a good fit there. I also attend a weekly acoustic jam & toss a little jazz feeling on top of the mish-mash of blues, rock & country. The other players love to joke about it

**Stevebol** · 02-02-2016, 03:19 PM

Rock has no culture but it's a great source of great music. I like singing and strumming to old rock tunes. Not much of a singer though.

**Doctor Jeff** · 02-02-2016, 03:26 PM

Originally Posted by targuit

Didn't think they wore panties. What's this world coming to?

You must be from San Fran...

**Doctor Jeff** · 02-02-2016, 03:27 PM

Originally Posted by mrcee

C'mon!! The jazz world needs more players from an R&B background. Nah, you won't clear the club. Those rich, ageing beach bunnies in Cali will be throwing their panties at you while you play Giant Steps behind your back.

If you were Frank Zappa, you would make a quilt of them...

**Doctor Jeff** · 02-02-2016, 03:37 PM

This is just a semi-informed response, so take it for what it's worth. We amateur musicians in our group play standards, and as our singer says, we play the Great American Songbook. It goes over great from pizza shops to fundraisers to nursing homes. We include a few newer numbers like Moondance (40 years old!), Stray Cat Strut, etc., which people really like, but no one expects covers of Adele or Maroon 5. The audience loves Misty, btw.

In Omaha anyway there is not a market for anything out of the mainstream jazz-wise or too flashy. Zip. Zero. Coltrane or Parker or Wes would go broke here. Seriously. Lounge music and tasteful dinner accompaniment is the only thing here.

Re' other markets it's mainly rock and country covers with some originals, not much blues, nothing too experimental. Irish bands, even "fake" ones like the one our drummer plays in, do well in Irish pubs. Conor Oberst is from here and owns a bar but doesn't play around too much. There isn't a scene here like Athens, GA, or Minneapolis. If I were younger it would depress me, but doesn't affect me too much these days.

**targuit** · 02-02-2016, 03:55 PM

Well, you know Doc, from one Doc to another, those older standards sung by Sinatra, Bennett, Sarah Vaughn, Ella....those are the songs I like to perform and are performable in a reasonable way as a solo or duo thing. Somehow it shocks me that some jazz followers claim that they could not play Stardust. Just sounds odd to me. Those are the songs I grew up hearing Sinatra sing on TV or Johnny Mathis.

Of course, I like Joe Pass so very well that I play many of the tunes he did, but I add a vocal when I can. Why? Because people seem to respond more emotionally to the song, especially the ballads. And it is hard to play solo what should be an ensemble tune, alla Ellington. Satin Doll excepted.

When George Benson did his CD called Standards, they were just that. Like You Don't Know What Love Is or Tenderly. And as I am now just a bit prematurely receiving those AARP ads, I would think those would be the songs my Boomer generation would listen to beyond country and classic rock. I can do some of those type tunes as well, but they are more boring to me often.

Thanks for your reassuring input. At least I feel I don't have to go around learning "This is Ground Control to Major Tom...", however much I appreciated Bowie.

**Duotone** · 02-03-2016, 12:42 PM

Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff

If you were Frank Zappa, you would make a quilt of them...

If your neck doesn't get broken.

**ronjazz** · 02-08-2016, 06:47 PM

Hey, Jay, find a singer who needs a guitarist who sings standards, as I did with Dominic in Providence. I hire the best jazz musicians I can find to play his gigs, even though it's not a jazz gig per se, we all get to stretch, improvise and be creative throughout the course of the gig. Jazz is not a kind of music, it's an attitude and an approach, that of making the tune your own version, and somewhat different from night to night.

I have to admit, I'm somewhat mystified at the lack of marketing skills among jazzers.

**lawson-stone** · 02-09-2016, 08:49 AM

What kind of jazz am I playing?

Half-arsed, mainly...

**wizard3739** · 02-12-2016, 03:30 AM

Targuit: I got your pm about G.I.T. and I sent you a reply. Please let me know if you received it. I haven having some problems with my email.

send reply to wizard3739@outlook.com

wiz (Howie)

**Strickland** · 02-12-2016, 11:36 AM

I do pretty well playing 1920's /30's themed events. You know the ones where the chicks dress up like flappers and such. The good thing about these is that the audience normally knows absolutely nothing about the music so you can play anything that you want as long as you give it the feel of that era, and people actually dance. I live in Alabama so the musical tastes don't exactly run deep so if you're playing Bop, you should expect 5 or 6 people digging what you do, but hey, that's 5 or 6 people that aren't in your living room. Every year my wife and I go to the Valentines dance hosted by the Auburn Knights Orchestra, and it always makes me feel good seeing 500 college age kids dancing to swing music. Now, if you're into playing the Miles/Coltrane style, the common thing around here is to have a "Jam", meaning whoever organized the "Jam" gets paid and everyone else plays for the fun of it.

**christianm77** · 02-12-2016, 11:57 AM

Originally Posted by Strickland

I do pretty well playing 1920's /30's themed events. You know the ones where the chicks dress up like flappers and such. The good thing about these is that the audience normally knows absolutely nothing about the music so you can play anything that you want as long as you give it the feel of that era, and people actually dance. I live in Alabama so the musical tastes don't exactly run deep so if you're playing Bop, you should expect 5 or 6 people digging what you do, but hey, that's 5 or 6 people that aren't in your living room. Every year my wife and I go to the Valentines dance hosted by the Auburn Knights Orchestra, and it always makes me feel good seeing 500 college age kids dancing to swing music. Now, if you're into playing the Miles/Coltrane style, the common thing around here is to have a "Jam", meaning whoever organized the "Jam" gets paid and everyone else plays for the fun of it.

You can play bop on the 20s/30s things and the average punter is so ignorant they won't know the difference :-) I've played gigs where there's a whole room dancing like idiots to Donna Lee. Great fun.

But those gigs can be bad for your playing. Very loud. No subtlety.

Proper swing dance events have very specific requirements, on the other hand, although the sound is usually a lot better!

In practice I play reasonably authentic music for a lot of this stuff, but the bop influence creeps in anyway... A lot of gypsy jazz/swing stuff anyway.... There are some guys who are super anal about it.

At the moment I am playing more listening gigs which is nice. Currently on tour for a few days in Devon with my band playing a mix of jazz, folk, classical and world music - violin/guitar/cello - we improvise most of the show. Is it jazz? Not sure... Definitely jazz influenced and some of it swings....