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In December I participated in 3 open jam sessions, 2 at Venue C and 1 at Venue B. Both are local Mom and Pop shops that hold various musical and cultural events throughout the week.
The first session was at Venue C. When I arrived PF1 and DR1 were there, with Mom taking drink orders. On the TV was Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln in Belgium. When Pop arrived we moved to the stage. For this session we were joined by GT2 (a pro musician who comes to sessions on off nights), BS1&2, PF1&2, DR1&2 and TR1. There were 9 participants in total, and no spectators, for a 2.5 hour session. Venue C sessions are mainly self-managed by participants. We played 15 songs in 3 sets:
All of Me
ATTYA
Blue Bossa
But Not For Me
Bye Bye Blackbird
Freddie the Freeloader
I Could Write a Book
I Don’t Know What Time It Was
In Your Own Sweet Way
Milestones
My Romance
Oleo
Out of Nowhere
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Winter Wonderland
Overall the vibe was friendly, open and relaxed. I used the Westville Aruba through a JC-120 and sat on a raised stool. I feel more at ease playing while sitting, either in a chair or raised stool. Even though I was tired, I played better than expected. GT2 arrived after I played for 2 hours straight. I was ready to take a break and was stepping down, but GRT2 insisted that I remain and plugged into the other backline amp. So, for set 3 we had 2 guitars, while the DRs, PFs and BSs alternated.
I called 3 songs: Bye Bye Blackbird to open the session, and 2 seasonal songs, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Winter Wonderland. I prepared a charts, Winter Wonderland slightly modified from The Christmas Real Book and Santa Claus is Coming to Town modified from the Aebersold series, with AbMa7 to DbMa7 in the turnarounds.
For Bye Bye Blackbird, I opened the Jazz Standard Bible. I used to play it often but not enough in recent months. I find even if I can get through a tune without it, I sometimes keep the book open, in this case for the theme. I set a laid back tempo, using F6 to Cm7 over a C pedal tone as intro. Everyone took a 1 chorus solo, followed by 4s and out. It seemed like a good song to ease everyone into the session.
For the Christmas songs, which I practiced with iReal, it was the first time on a bandstand. I can get a song down well at home, but on the bandstand all bets are off. For both I kept the sheets visible, but tried to keep my eyes on the players. I don’t have intros worked out for these yet, so I counted in. Winter Wonderland worked nicely as a relatively slow and lilting swing. I like the melody contrast and key center changes between the A and B sections. I counted in Santa Claus is Coming to Town as a faster swing. IIRC, I took 2 choruses on each (others took 1 chorus). It was a good first live try for both.
As an aside, Christmas is a thing in Japan, but without the religious back story. I’m not sure when it was introduced, but some traditions are there (lighted trees, fruitcakes). Other than at churches, Christmas is a lover’s holiday here. It also has a consumer edge; this year I saw Black Friday sales. For me, it’s more a nostalgic holiday and I like the songs, many of which work nicely in a jazz context. One of the regional pro singers I know is having a Christmas concert with some local musicians.
The last set tonight was notable with the participation of GT2, a gigging and teaching pro musician who sometimes joins Venue C sessions. Tonight, GT2 called Oleo and Milestones, and played on Out of Nowhere (called by PF1).
On Oleo, coincidentally the subject of recent discussion on the JGO forum, TR played the head at first; and after solos in unison with GT2. The tempo was moderately fast. PF1 and I both comped rhythm changes. I kept my volume down, and played acoustically to get into the groove, using a Freddy Green-ish approach. I felt an interesting tension between the walking bass with straight 4 comping and the syncopated head. Everyone took a couple choruses, and we traded 4s. I resorted to Bb blues for the A sections and outlined the cycle of 4ths changes (with subs) on the B. I don't know the head and it wasn’t the most creative solo, but the feel was there, no one complained and it was fun!
About trading 4s (another topic of recent discussion on the forum), some tunes have an extra 2 or 4 bars that can trip up the 4s. On ATTYA, for instance, DR2 took an 8 bar solo to wrap up 4s. We didn’t play it tonight, but Alone Together has an extra 2 bars in the A section; some drummers extend the solo, with non-verbal communication helping to avoid problems.
Venue C is a hub for musicians. Mom and Pop both gig, playing regionally (jazz, funk, folk, pop, rock), doing studio work and giving lessons. Some venue regulars hook up with others and start gigging. For example, DR2 was a regular, participating here every week, and is now on first call for local gigs, though still coming to jams on off nights. PF2 has been a regular since last year, and has recently started gigging with pickup bands for pop, rock and funk. I’ve been asked, too, and do a few one-off sets. A while back, a regular TS who’s gigged in Tokyo and New York invited me to sit in on a few gigs (at one point they asked if I’d like to go on tour!). At least a couple times year, regional touring musicians from within Japan and others now living abroad come to Venue C jam sessions when in town.
The following week, I participated in second jam at Venue C. There were 4 participants: GT (me), plus BS, PF and DR. There were 5 people in the audience, including a university professor with two students, a local writer who's a jazz fan and a former student of mine who was in town. The session went well, lasted 2 hours, and the audience was appreciative. Here's the list of tunes:
Autumn Leaves
Days of Wine and Roses
Doxy
Fly Me to the Moon
Freddie the Freeloader
In Your Own Sweet Way
Israel
Lullaby of Birdland
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
White Christmas
Winter Wonderland
We did 11 songs in all, 9 from the JSB and 2 from charts. In addition to the standards and Christmas songs, while I was sitting out chatting with my student, BS and PF played a couple 1980s Japanese pop songs that the professor requested. So tonight repertoire choice was partly influenced by audience.
But there were also 2 new songs from the JSB that PF called, Israel and Doxy. It was my 1st time playing Israel, a minor blues by Johnny Carisi in 1949 recorded by Miles Davis on Birth of the Cool. The JSB chart has two staves, one with the melody and changes the other with changes only. A performance note says, “The above is an old chord change by Miles Davis. The change below is often played by Bill Evans.” The two sets of changes are significantly different. PF used the 1st set for the theme and the 2nd for solos. Doxy I played often some time ago when a pro TS and TR came to Venue C jams. Listening to the original Sonny Rollins record, it’s laid back, which is how we played it. I made a note that it'd be a good tune to learn the head at a manageable tempo, and found a nice recording of Ray Brown with Herb Ellis playing the head in unison.
We did 3 Christmas songs, the 2 for which I brought charts, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Winter Wonderland, plus White Christmas from the JSB. The latter was called by PF, perhaps to provide a recognizable song for the audience. For Santa… I used a chart (with lyrics) from the internet that was labelled “Aebersold Jazz Series Chords” but added 7ths to some chords and a #5 to the G7 out of the bridge. For Winter… I used a chart from the Christmas Real Book, also with lyrics but with many upper extensions on chords. I removed the extensions, and limited changes to no more than 2 to a bar. Both found charts are little awkward as they don’t use 4 bars to the line, which is something that the JSB and the Real Books mostly adhere to. So, one needs to pay attention to the chord changes by listening, since looking at the chart can be confusing. I'd been practicing both using iReal, editing the changes to fit the charts. They went well, though I sensed a little mild discomfort from BS and PF to have to read charts not in the JSB, so I should be careful not to bring too many new charts to sessions. I also noticed that for some strange reason I conflated parts of the two tunes, despite the different keys, which can be chalked up to not having internalized them.
When I called Freddie… I noted using the 1st ending only for solos, which BS referred to as “not resolving.” If I heard correctly, the version on Kind of Blue used only the 1st ending (Ab7) for solos. In any case, bringing 2 home made charts and modifying 1 from the JSB seems to counter my idea that a foundation of jam sessions is a predictable repertoire in common. However, since 3 of the 4 playing tonight know each other well (only DR was new), perhaps there's some leeway.
The third and last session for December was at Venue B. Since it was a Christmas dinner party jam, I brought Mrs. Jazz Padd. Mom cooked and participants brought dishes. Initial head count suggests around 30 people, which remained consistent until after dinner, then thinned out to around 20 people by the end. After a couple short sets, dinner was served and the session resumed for another two hours. Of the 30 or so people, which included friends and family of participants, there were some new faces to me. Some appeared to be alumni of previous Venue B sessions, so perhaps this was a kind of a reunion. One familiar face I recognized was someone I knew from Venue D jams. There was a house piano trio, joined by me on GTR, TR, PF2&3 and 7 vocalists.
Over the course of the evening, the following 17 songs in alphabetical order were performed, with 1 song played twice by different people:
Autumn Leaves x2
Blue Bossa
But Beautiful
Fly Me to the Moon
Girl From Ipanema
I Got Rhythm
Lover Man
My Favorite Things
My Heart Will Go On
Recado Bossa Nova
Sentimental Journey
Silent Night
Softly As In a Morning Sunrise
Summertime
Unrecognized jazz standard
White Christmas
Winter Wonderland
The evening began with the house trio performing Fly Me to the Moon. I found myself thinking, no matter how many times I've heard this tune, I never get tired of it. It gets called often at jam sessions, as it's a good "ice breaker" song, easy and familiar. This is one of the things I noticed at jam sessions I've attended in this small corner of the world (perhaps it's the same or different elsewhere), that repertoire choices are at least in part informed by context. The second song by the house trio was another jazz standard, but sounded less familiar and I didn't catch the title.
VO1 took the stage with the house trio and sang But Beautiful and My Favorite Things. They seem to have experience with stage presence, and preceded each song with some audience participation, asking "What is love?" before But Beautiful and "What would you like most for Christmas?" before My Favorite Things. In response to the latter, I replied "To be in a place that I like."
Next, the house trio did a double time version of I Got Rhythm. The changes are used often at jam sessions as part of bop tunes, etc., but this is actually the first time someone called the original theme. It was an interesting change of pace, especially the contrast between the slow moving melody and the faster moving changes at super fast tempos. In that sense, it reminded me of Cherokee. Some of these old tunes are pretty hip!
I was invited up next. I had the chart for Winter Wonderland, which I intended to do with the house trio. TR stepped up unexpectedly, but unfortunately I didn't have a Bb chart and TR wasn't comfortable without a chart, so we agreed TR will sit out and call the next song. In retrospect, I could've called a tune both of us knew, or which could be read from the JSB (which has a Bb edition). I played the theme, initially mostly single notes in the low register punctuated by a few chord hits, and then for the last 8 bars played in the high register harmonizing more of the melody. I noticed that on stage, no matter how much I practice a song at home, there's something lacking when playing it live. I suppose this is a benefit of playing at jam sessions regularly: they're a reality check that enables skills learned through group interaction in front of an audience. It went relatively well, though I only felt comfortable enough to take 1 chorus. PF took a chorus, and we traded 4s and I took us out to nice round of applause.
TR then called Autumn Leaves in Gm, so I didn't need a chart. The house trio and I segmented the melodic phrases with chord change breaks. Everyone took 2 choruses, then 4s and out.
After dinner, the house BS and PF sat out. The next 3 songs, all vocal numbers by 3 different singers, were done without BS, although PF2 joined. The first song was Recado, sung by VO2. It took second try for PF2 to get a groove going. VO3 took the stage and invited me to join. We did Autumn Leaves, again in Gm. Usually vocalists call it in Cm, but it worked well in Gm. The approach differed; no breaks as with the instrumental version and PF2 and I took a half chorus each. I sat out for VO4, who joined PF1 and DR on My Heart Will Go On (the Titanic theme). VO4 sang in a mixture of English and Japanese. On occasion, pop songs make their way into jam sessions, often called by vocalists. It brought back memories of decades ago when I was a work-a-day musician doing weddings, although this song was not on the charts way back then!
For the next set, the house trio accompanied VO5 for a lovely rendition of Sentimental Journey, and Softly as in a Morning Sunrise sung by VO6. The latter song is a jam session staple, usually called as an instrumental. The difference with a vocalist is that the band lays back and settles into a supporting role and takes shorter solos, usually a half chorus each.
PF1 sat out, and PF3 took the stage and invited me to join in a funky take on Summertime, and other jam session staple. PF3 used an Am7-D7 vamp as intro and outro, with the verses built around that vamp and the usual changes in a few places. PF3 played the theme and took several choruses, and I then took 2. PF3 brought us back to the theme without 4s. I added some fills, and did a short cadence at the end.
PF2 joined the house BS and DR and did a rousing version of Blue Bossa, another jam staple that usually gets called as a session closer.
With the same trio, VO7 took the stage to do "Girl from Ipanema," after which a previous VO returned to sing Lover Man. I'm used to hearing that as an instrumental; this was the first time it was called by a singer.
The session concluded with the house piano trio leading an extended sing along with everyone joining in on White Christmas and Silent Night, the latter with a mix of English and Japanese lyrics. Silent Night began with an almost rubato feel, but then kicked into a crossover groove with a rock/funk feel. Pop passed a mic around for everyone to sing a verse. Even the Mrs. and I added our discordant voices! This year end dinner jam was a different experience, but fun nevertheless!
This is my last journal for 2023. The Mrs. and I will be traveling for a couple weeks. I'll be back for a solo live acoustic set in January, and may join a couple jams, too. For now, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Seasons Greetings, and may the coming year be filled with blessings and joy!
Thank you for reading, and feel free to post your thoughts, questions and comments.
Edit: Fixed some typos.Last edited by JazzPadd; 12-18-2023 at 08:23 AM.
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12-18-2023 07:43 AM
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Hi, a few questions and observations as I read through.
Why do you abbreviate Piano as PF?
What did you play during the head for Oleo? You don't say.
Doxy is a very fun melody to play.
I have a gig Thursday and I didn't even consider learning Christmas tunes!
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Pianoforte?
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Yes, that’s right, thanks. In Japan the abbreviation for piano is PF, for pianoforte, which seems to be an old name for piano; not sure why it’s the norm here.
Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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Hello, thanks for reading and replying! Originally Posted by AllanAllen
For PF, I’m not sure of how it became the norm in Japan, but as Mr. Beaumont noted it stands for piano forte. I recently started to use abbreviations to cut down on character count on the forum and decided to use PF because I’ve seen it on posters for concerts here, and on lists of performers, and sometimes in short bios. Now that you ask, although I adhered to that one for piano, I haven’t been consistent with abbreviations for other instruments. I used DR for drummer, but here DS is the normal abbreviation for drum set; I used BS for bass, while here it’s BA. I’ll be more careful in future journals.
Regarding playing during the head for Oleo, in my limited experience it depends on who’s playing and their expectations and preferences. A while back, a TS and TR who used to come to Venue C jams always called Oleo, sometimes twice at one session, and they played the head in unison, sometimes starting cold with no count in. But since at sessions everything is spontaneous, and not everyone is a bopper, others just start comping as they would on any other tune. Actually, after the issue of comping for Oleo came up on the forum recently and when the TR and GT2 played it the other night (the first time anyone called Oleo in quite a long while), I listened carefully. The BA was walking, the DS riding and the PF comping rhythm changes during the head. I played the rhythm changes as well, acoustically, mostly to get into the groove as I noted in the journal. I think if it was an oft-called tune, or if there were a lot of horn players, or if everyone were boppers, or if those who called it had a preference, it might’ve been different, but it seemed to work fine for a quick jam. Even so, I’ll still keep my ears and eyes open.
Yes, Doxy was a lot of fun, even without playing the head, at least for me. I think the TS and TR I mentioned above used to call that a lot, too, when they came around, but it’s not common these days.
Christmas songs, yes. The Jazz Standard Bible we use here (like the Real Book elsewhere) has “The Christmas Song” and “White Christmas,” so those usually get called this time of year. But I decided to look for some others that might lend themselves well to a jazz jam, and settled on “Santa Clause is Coming to Town” and “Winter Wonderland,” both of which are in the Hal Leonard Real Christmas Book. For the latter, though, I used the changes from the Aebersold Jazz Series. I had a few others on a short list from the Real Christmas Book, which has dozens of charts, including with lyrics, but I settled on those two. Of course, there’s always next year for more!
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Apparently a pianoforte isn't the same as a piano. Like calling a guitar a lute.
Fortepiano - Wikipedia
Thanks for the Oleo report, I started that thread and it's been an obsession of mine for the last month. I wasn't sure by your initial post if you played during the head or came in to comp with the improv.
I did end up learning Christmastime is Here by Vince Guaraldi last night. So I'll have one for Thursday. No time to practice until after the gig unfortunately. Have to network all week, Christmas week is apparently a busy time for jazz in Southern Metro-Chicago.
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Pianoforte is antiquated but we call an electric guitar a guitar even though that’s the same name we used for the tiny little parlor instruments they played in the late 1800s. Originally Posted by AllanAllen
And you gotta get that Christmas real book!
You’ll make more money playing Christmas tunes in December than you’ll make playing all the rest of the tunes you know the rest of the year combined.
i played three Christmas gigs in the last four days. Suffice it to say, no one wants to hear me play jazz that often in April or whatever.
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Pianoforte is antiquated but we call an electric guitar a guitar even though that’s the same name we used for the tiny little parlor instruments they played in the late 1800s.
Nah, I’m sticking with guitar and lute.
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