The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
  1. #1

    User Info Menu

    Greetings my dear JGO forum mates! This is the third installment of my jam session journal. I’m posting these here to share my experiences of playing jazz in Japan. I have never played in any jam sessions other than in Japan, and mostly in a small regional city where I live. Before corona, I’ve visited but didn’t play at a couple of jam sessions in Dallas and New Orleans. I’ve also read several threads on JGO where members share their experiences at jam sessions. I hope some of you can post a reply here. I’d very much like to learn from you about the similarities and differences, in terms of format, participants, repertoire or whatever, between the sessions I describe in my journal and those in your own locales. Perhaps others who are also interested in jam sessions might like to learn from us. Thank you!

    During May, I participated in five jam sessions at two venues. Venue C has a weekly session, and I went four times this month. It’s a small Mom and Pop shop, and both are working musicians. However, this venue doesn’t have a house band; Mom and Pop usually only play if there are gaps on the stage. In any given week, besides the jam session, they also host an open mic night (pop and folk) and live shows by regional acts in a variety of genres. The weekly jam session that I go to is mostly jazz standards and bossa, with some funk and blues depending on who’s there. In any given month, there’s two or three guitarists, a couple of bassists and drummers, a few horn players and a singer or two. Most are amateur hobbyists like me.

    Venue C is a regional hub for musicians and has been in business over two decades. In addition to current regulars, there are sometimes jam session alumni who stop by when in town, or artists who are doing a show at the venue the days before or after the session. Just this month, for example, a NYC based musician who is touring Japan joined the jam the night before their show, and a Tokyo pianist who is an alumnus came back for a visit. The audience at a session is mostly the musicians themselves, occasionally joined by friends or family, sometimes students. In a way, Venue C jams are “pay to play,” with those who enjoy playing together as the primary source of income for the venue on a jam session night. I usually pay about $10USD for 3 hours, including a couple of soft drinks (tea, in my case).

    The other place, Venue B, has a monthly session, and I’ve been going here for about a year. It’s also a Mom and Pop shop, although more low key than Venue C. Pop is a professional musician who gigs and teaches, and some of his students participate each month. Venue B has a house band, a trio of piano, bass and drums, including Pop. They don’t play a set, but they rotate with other players depending on who is there. I’m the only guitarist at Venue B, and there are usually a couple of drummers and a bassist or two, as well as horns and a handful of singers. It costs the equivalent of about $15USD for 3 hours including coffee, tea and snacks.

    Both venues have guitar and bass amps, a drum set, a piano and a PA system. The guitar amps are Roland JCs. This month I decided to use my early ‘60s Gibson ES-125, newly restrung with a set of TI Jazz Swing 12s. I’m trying to rotate my 30 odd guitars in sessions this year, as a precursor to cull some to possibly sell. I hadn’t played out with the ES-125 in quite a while, and actually forgot how great those old P-90s can sound! This one’s a keeper!

    Reading from charts, books and apps is fine at both venues. Singers bring their own charts, while copies of the Jazz Standard Bible (JSB, similar to the Real Book in the US) are on hand. Most also use iReal Pro and some have tablets with charts. A pianist at one jam session brought the Jam Session Handbook, which has standards but also blues, funk, pop and soul.

    Of the four sessions at Venue C, two were ordinary and two were extraordinary. By ordinary, I mean it’s mostly local regulars playing standards. In addition to me there was another guitarist, two pianists and two drummers, and a horn player. One of the pianists has been inviting his office mates to watch. Venue C is a cafe and bar, so patrons may stop in for a drink. This month there was also a singer, an old friend of Pop, who comes by on occasion to sing a few tunes.

    An ordinary session at Venue C would have pianists, guitarists, drummers and bassists rotating two tunes at a time. Sometimes there might be two guitarists on stage. Although Pop might direct the session when he’s on stage, this is more or less a self-managed session, and everyone is usually courteous and attentive to others. Each player calls a tune and plays the head and the first chorus, and then we go around with solos and trading fours, etc., and then to the head and out. Once in a while, one of us would make some minor changes to a chart. For example, on “Freddie the Freeloader,” the chart uses the first and second ending during solos, while I prefer the first only.

    Typically, tunes called at regular Venue C sessions seem to include those that the players have been practicing that month. For example, one pianist has been working on Monk’s “Rythmning,” and so called that a few times in May. They also called “One Note Samba” at two sessions this month. Similarly, I have been calling “You and the Night and the Music” and “Here’s that Rainy Day” (the latter as a bossa), tunes that I’ve been working on lately. In some sense these regular sessions are something like a rehearsal, although not for a gig but just to play tunes live that one has been working on at home. For me, that’s the main draw of coming to jam sessions: participating with others.

    The extraordinary sessions are another matter. The fun thing about being a jam session regular is that while most jams are what’s to be expected, once or twice a month something unexpected might happen. This month, the unexpected happened twice, and in both cases that made the jam session extraordinary. At the 2nd of the 4 Venue C sessions in May, there were two unexpected events. Early in the evening a former regular guitarist, who is now taking a shot at going semi-pro, came by with a bassist who is also a former regular. They rehearsed two tunes with the regular drummer, which were on their set list for a gig at the same venue on the weekend. So the rest of us sat out and watched for about half an hour or so. I noticed that, compared to when this guitarist first started coming to sessions a few years ago, they have improved remarkably. This fits another pattern I’ve noted from being a regular at Venue C for the past several years. Many regulars come to jam sessions to meet other players and to form bands, at which point they “graduate” and move on. I’ve been approached a few times, too, but I’m happy as a casual jammer. Even so, those who move on come back once in a while to say hello and join a session, which is what makes this small venue an important musicians’ hub in the region.

    But it’s not just the unexpected that makes some jam sessions extraordinary, it’s also about the experience for session participants. In May, two extraordinary sessions involved a Japanese drummer who is now a pro based in NYC, and a session alumnus from a decade ago who is now a pianist, composer and arranger based in Tokyo. The NYC pro was back in Japan on tour and brought a local bassist and a singer. At the second extraordinary session in Venue C, the Tokyo based pro pianist was joined by a group of Southeast Asian musicians with whom they have been engaged in a recording project. However, the presence of pros doesn’t turn the jams into shows. Rather, they first listen and then join and rotate with the regulars on stage. A pattern that I did notice when the pros visit and jam with the regulars is that there are some tunes that usually get called, and so it’s good to know these tunes. They include “Spain,” “The Chicken,” “Cantaloup Island,” and a few others. It also helps to know some of the well-worn crossover standards, like “Autumn Leaves,” and of course blues.

    With the NYC drummer, who was doing a show at Venue C the following night, we played “The Chicken.” We then did two tunes with them, their bassist and the singer: “Isn’t She Lovely” and “Feel Like Making Love,” the latter of which is called often here by singers. With the pianist and their Southeast Asian guests, one of whom was a percussionist, they did “Spain” with our regular drummer and pianist, and then they played a couple of their Latin or Soul tinged original tunes, which they were in Japan to record with the pianist. The percussionist demonstrated and explained an indigenous rhythmic pattern that they used on one tune. After their originals, I joined and jammed with their singer on “Besame Mucho,” which is in the JSB but which I read from iReal in the singer’s key, and a jazz blues tune.

    Overall, in my experience over the years Venue C fits the above pattern. There’s a regular crowd who on most occasions have an ordinary, albeit still fun, jam session. But then, on occasion, something unexpected happens that changes the ordinary jam session into an extraordinary experience. Since the catalyst is unexpected and not publicized in advance, it amounts to something like a nice perk for regular participants.

    Venue B has a monthly jam session. There are some similarities with Venue C, but they each have their own vibe. Venue B is mostly regulars and is by invitation for those on their mailing list. I got on the list through a chance meeting with a horn player at a local restaurant, who I knew from years ago playing at Venue C sessions. Venue B is another Mom and Pop shop, but here Pop is a gigging musician and teacher, while Mom teaches flower arranging, tea ceremony and other arts, and also does cooking and serves drinks and snacks at the monthly jam sessions. At one time, Venue B seems to have been a regular performance space, like a jazz cafe. But now with Pop getting on in years and still gigging, it seems more like a space for an occasional jam with friends, joined by students.

    Participants at Venue B are mostly in their 60s and 70s, perhaps some into their 80s. The participants here are noticeably older than at Venue C, at which (aside from Mom and Pop and I) 30 to 40 appears to be the median age. Those who jam at Venue B include retirees who took up or returned to music after retirement. Pop’s students are mostly in that category, as opposed to students at Venue C, which are mostly younger than the median ages of 30 and 40. Pop at Venue B is an elder, although bandmates appear to be in their 40s. With the general age at Venue B skewing higher, and with participants being all local Japanese (except for me), it gives the place a more laid back vibe than Venue C, which often includes foreign or out of town players and some Japanese pros. There’s still some great playing at Venue B, owing partly to the fine house trio, but Venue B seems to lack the slight edginess of Venue C’s younger crowd. Even so, in terms of format and repertoire, there’s similarities.

    At Venue B, the May session began with the house trio and I playing “Here’s that Rainy Day,” which I’ve been called as a bossa this month. There’s a wonderful Wes Montgomery bossa arrangement of the tune from one of his Europe gigs, but since there’s no rehearsals we stuck to the JSB arrangement. Next, Pop invited up his vocal students, the first of whom sang “Recado” and “But Not For Me,” followed by a second doing "Beautiful Love" and “Lullaby of Birdland.” Both singers gave us charts written out in their keys, from which I read. I took a short solo on one of the tunes but mostly laid back and played acoustically.

    The trumpet joined us on stage next and called “Softly as a Morning Sunshine” and “Green Dolphin Street,” two very common jam session tunes in Japan. After that, the trio switched out and I called “Beatrice” and “You and the Night and the Music.” I sat out for a while to drink tea and enjoy watching the others play. That included a new vocalist doing “Alfie” and “Mona Lisa,” followed by the house trio with the tenor doing “Green Dolphin” (the second time for this tune, but with different players) and then “Satin Doll.” Several of Pops’ students were at this session; all were elder women, vocalists as well as a pianist. The latter did “Moanin’” as a trio after which the tenor joined to end the set with “Take Five.”

    I joined again to play in the third vocalist set, which featured a previous student singing “It’s Only a Paper Moon” and “Almost Like Being in Love.” I stayed on stage with the house trio, joined by the trumpet, and we did “All of Me” and “Days of Wine and Roses.” With a new drummer, the tenor joined us and called “I’ll Close My Eyes.” I took another tea break, and a piano student played “Softy as a Morning Sunrise” and, joined by the tenor, “Fly Me to the Moon.” I joined as we closed the session with “I’ll Remember April” (which I haven’t played much so basically just read through the JSB chart), followed by “Alone Together.”

    As a personal afterthought, my on-the-fly reading of chord charts for tunes I don’t play very often has improved over the years. However, I still have to be careful when attempting to solo on those unfamiliar tunes, since my enthusiasm can easily overtake my skill and I might get lost. Even so, finding my way back among friends has also improved my ear over the years, too.

    June is already upon us, and I’m planning to participate in a few sessions this month. For now, I hope that some of you can post replies here to share with us your thoughts on the sessions I described and perhaps compare your own experiences for those who may be interested. Thanks again for reading!

  2.  

    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

    User Info Menu

    actually I think we’ve interacted before JazzPadd. For someone who is in Asia and was previously a regular visitor to Tokyo and participant in doing gigs and jam sessions there before Covid, I’d be interested to know the venues you are talking about and where they are located. Now things have finally opened up again in China, I’m sure I will resume traveling to Japan again as Hong Kong is such a great travel hub to get to other countries in the region.
    cheers

  4. #3

    User Info Menu

    You're a lucky ducky!
    I could only dream of such a place.
    Cheers!