The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    maybe not the best title.but i am still haunted by the familial comradery on all level personality,musially,humor,performing.It was surreal to each of us.How well we worked together and after a rehearsal or gig especially,we would lookat eachother with a what just happened cause we aint tht good and giggles of delight.I they were my brothers sort of they way the funk brothers were in standing in the shadows of motown.It was so powerful,satifying that nothing since has moved my soul.NY 1977-9 maybe thats why i ve reduced to the challenges of solo playing the effort takes my mind off and i concentrate on the task at hand.boo hoo me.just wanted to share that.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    I hear you, brother. All of my most satisfying musical experiences happened before 1992. That's a long time ago. I still aspire to reach that unity again with actual human players, but it seems unlikely at my age and in my corner of the world. I'm not about to drop everything and move to the big city in hopes of finding my musical promised land. I didn't give it a second thought when I was 17.

    I try to work on solo playing, but my heart really isn't in it. Feels like doing homework. It's the melding of minds and the bigger expression you get with the right players that I still work towards. I'd be very happy to find even one other person to play with. Maybe when the bug is done....

    Hope you don't mind me rambling on, but it's interesting to me that one of the highlights of my musical journey was a 2 week rehearsal session for a 3 piece ensemble for a musical play. The composer was the leader, and he was a dear friend. The other guy was a Julliard brass guy. We all switched off on several instruments. And we got well paid to do it!

    At one point Chris tells John he's going to play the drums. He'd never sat at trap set before. Chris puts a written out drum part in front of him. "That line is the big one on the floor with the pedal. Play that a bit. Now add this line. It's this thing over here with the other pedal" and so on. John was playing the part in about a half hour and reading from beginning to end. I was totally shocked. I'd been trying to get drummers to play what I wanted them to for almost 20 years. After that John was playing drums before, after and on lunch break. Chris gave him keys so he could play after hours.

    Anyways... it all went to crap when we took it to the stage with the director, actors and stage crew. 'too loud! too strong!" Too much fun I guess. Shortly after we got to do a live radio performance on a show called The Music Faucet on WFMU out of East Orange NJ. I'm on drums and it's time for a major trombone part. John sticks the bell right in my face and blows hard and right the F on it. I started laughing out loud I loved it so much. Good music makes me smile. Awesome music makes me laugh.

    Well... thanks for bringing back some great memories! I'm not sure where John is. I know Chris left the planet some 15 years ago. I wish I could share with them.

    And if you made it this far, thanks for reading!
    Last edited by ccroft; 01-23-2021 at 07:37 PM. Reason: remembered the radio station & show

  4. #3

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    I understand where you're coming from. I think for us duffers it's probably a bigger thrill to play a "perfect" song or set once in a blue moon than it is for the real pros to play a great set on a consistent basis.

    I feel like a .212 hitter who every now and then hits one out of the park.

    I remember quite a few gigs which were fun and extraordinary. The best part was the unexpected.

    Once a friend and colleague asked if she could come to our show and bring a friend of hers whom she said was a great blues singer, to sit in on a song or 2. We said sure, cause we always like to mix it up. Well Gerri came with her son, who is in a band and an excellent singer/guitarist in his own right, and a young woman about 22. We let her sit in in the middle of the evening, and one of the few jazz standards she knew off the top of her head was Summertime.

    Well, going back to baseball analogies, she hit a grand slam. Her style was more Janis Joplin than Ella Fitzgerald, but it made the hair stand up on your neck it was so powerful. She sang one more with us which was almost as compelling.

    The funny thing was, I mentioned later to Gerri that her friend was great, and she said, oh that's not my friend, that's my son's friend. My friend is an even better singer!

  5. #4
    You Bums are making me tear up!!! Am i to selfish to relish in memories and be satisfied.Whats the choice?lol Thanks a million this has been great.And i am tottaly enjoying your journeys man i needed this!!

  6. #5
    i refuse to learn how to spel

  7. #6

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    I had a trio once with a former guitar student on bass and a drummer with whom between us had played in multiple projects. The feel between we three was just magic. We played mostly originals; funk, blues, and some things that defied categorization. It was great while it lasted.

  8. #7

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    The only choice is to keep on keepin' on! Oh... and your spelin werks for me at leest.

  9. #8

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    About 20 years ago the local "Golden Corral" all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant in our small town was trying to boost Thursday night customers and the manager, who was a jazz player, decided to have an open jam session. He hired 3 pros, pianist, drummer, bassist, and invited players he knew could do the job to sit in, and then local amateurs also joined in sometimes for a tune, sometimes longer. I showed up with my stunning blonde wife and also my stunning blonde Heritage Golden Eagle (both drew sighs) and plugged in my Polytone, sat next to the bassist, and basically joined the permanent "house band." I played with that crew for a year or so every Thursday night. The pianist was one of these guys who knows every single tune, apparently. The drummer was like your heartbeat, and the bassist evidently had bought his own piece of property in "the pocket." I couldn't make enough mistakes to throw those guys off, and believe me I tried.

    that was the most fertile period of my musical life. I learned how to interact at least with one band. I had to read a lot of tunes I'd never heard. I had to take solos. One night I'd done a chorus on "Blue Moon." In the break, the pianist, who was gracious but didn't really talk much, commented that mine was one of the nicest solos he'd heard on Blue Moon in a long time. From a seasoned cat that was a serious piece of encouragement. Some nights we had 4 or 5 horn players, sometimes a singer, but often it was just the four of us.

    Thursday nights didn't increase business, though I like to think the patrons enjoyed their meals a lot more. The manager got moved somewhere else, and the GC closed up.

    That's the only time I've really been able to play regularly with a jazz band, for audiences, and I can echo what many here say, that there is nothing like playing live with real musicians. I only regret that I have no recordings of those Thursday night sessions. I doubt we made history, but we sure as hell made music.

  10. #9
    Golden Corral who wudda thunk.HaHa great story.

  11. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by EarlBrother
    Golden Corral who wudda thunk.HaHa great story.
    I know in many ways I played better then than I do now. Playing with others for audiences is they way to learn!


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

  12. #11

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    Nothing like working live with better players, as long as you don't chicken out. Years ago, I did a week with George Coleman, and he did his best to confuse and disorient the band of young upstarts I had put together, but I had hired the best I could find and had warned them about Coleman's propensity for calling difficult tunes in unfamiliar keys. Being mentally and musically prepared gave us the advantage, and George quickly settled in and stopped messing around, and everybody was lifted by his experience, knowledge, time feel and exuberance. A week that got better every set, a great experience.

  13. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by ronjazz
    Nothing like working live with better players, as long as you don't chicken out. Years ago, I did a week with George Coleman, and he did his best to confuse and disorient the band of young upstarts I had put together, but I had hired the best I could find and had warned them about Coleman's propensity for calling difficult tunes in unfamiliar keys. Being mentally and musically prepared gave us the advantage, and George quickly settled in and stopped messing around, and everybody was lifted by his experience, knowledge, time feel and exuberance. A week that got better every set, a great experience.
    Hi, R
    Coleman was a hard bopper. I can't imagine anyone playing with him that didn't have their chops together. Interesting story. Here's George for those who don't know his work.
    Play live . . . Marinero


  14. #13

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    "Playing with others for audiences is they way to learn!" Lawson-Stone

    Throw out your cameras, recording equipment and Band in a Box, boys along with your Youtube stardom fantasies. Play live!!!!! . . . it's all that matters . . . Marinero

  15. #14

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    One of my college roommates was Stan Free's daughter. For those who don't know who he was, Stan was a first call New York session player on piano and keyboards (bio here), a composer and arranger, and a truly accomplished master musician. Somehow, his daughter convinced him to bring a group to our college to play a charity week concert. For reasons I'll never know, since he didn't know me and had never heard me, he asked me to play the concert with them on the strength of his daughter's recommendation.

    The day of the concert, he arrived with his buddies - Joe Benjamin on bass, Arnie Lawrence on alto, and a drummer of whom I'd never heard but equal in caliber to the others. Arnie was in the Tonight Show band at the time, and Joe was the bass player on the first jazz album I ever bought (Brubeck at Newport 1958). I can't begin to tell you how amazed, excited, and anxious I was at this point. I showed up on stage with my 175 and B15, was introduced to the band, and (thankfully!) I knew all the tunes from which they were choosing the program.

    The evening was an absolute dream come true! As far as I know (given that I was so excited I only heard half of what I played), I didn't embarass myself or the real musicians. Arnie played an a cappella intro to one tune, and I was so into it that I accidentally lifted my hand from my strings a bit. At one point in the intro, he held a long concert A that provoked feedback from my unmuted A string, and I thought my evening was over. But before I had the presence of mind to clamp my hand on the strings, he picked up on it and started to riff around the note, encouraging me to noodle along with him. It was truly an amazing moment for me (and one of the coolest improvisations I've ever heard).

    We got to talk for a few hours after the concert, and Arnie Lawrence turned out to be one truly fine guy! But my early hero, Joe Benjamin, made it all for me with his parting comment: "Not too bad, man!"