I'm posting journals as reflections on my experiences at open jazz jam sessions near where I live in Japan. I hope some of my experiences will resonate with the experiences of others in their locales, and perhaps inspire thoughts, reflections and questions.

April was a busy month. I participated in 7 jam sessions at 3 venues. Venue C holds a weekly evening jam, Venue A twice monthly, and Venue B once a month. Venue D had a jam this month, but I couldn't make it. All 3 that I went to in April are small independent Mom and Pop shops that hold jams as part of their monthly events and activities. I live within reasonable driving distance of all 3. Participants range from beginner to intermediate or casual amateurs like myself, as well as professionals. There's overlap among participants at these venues but each has its own character and regulars. Venue A is rooted in the jazz cafe tradition in Japan. The jam is self-managed by participants. There seems to be a preference for hard bop and standards, though some players call crossover fusion tunes. Venue B jams are hosted by Pop's piano trio, to which he invites students for some playing experience. Venue B jams are by invitation, and tend to attract intermediate players and vocalists. Venue C is mixed genre. Mom and Pop are gigging musicians and jams are lightly managed by Pop. It's also a hub for musicians, including those who have moved on to Tokyo are other places but who still come to visit. It's open to all levels and sometimes when foreigners are in town for events, they'll come here to jam, even if they don't speak Japanese.

For gear, I used my Tears nylon string electric all month, and it's really grown on me. It has active electronics with volume and 3 tone knobs. All the venues have amps, including Roland, Polytone and Yamaha combos for guitars, as well as bass amps, pianos, a PA and drum sets. The Tears sounds best through the Yamaha combo. The Polytone is neutral, but the Roland doesn't work well with this guitar. Other guitarists use archtops as well as solids. Venue C has a number of guitars in house, so some don't bring their own, and it's the only venue at which I've seen use of effectors.

Repertoire at each venue varies depending on who participates. Over the past year that I've been writing these journals, I noticed that there's a core of tunes that everyone knows, including popular standards like Autumn Leaves and Days of Wine and Roses. Stella By Starlight is common, as is Alone Together. I've noted that tunes like these act as "ice breakers." They're sometimes used to start off a session, or when there are newcomers. Beyond the core of around 2 dozen such tunes, everyone has preferences. All three venues have no problem with using charts. In Japan, we have the 2-volume Jazz Standard Bible, which is similar to the Real Books with mostly single page lead sheets of about 500 tunes. So anything called from there is fine, although some bring charts for tunes not in the JSB. There is a vocal edition of the JSB, but most vocalists bring their own charts. I think having this culture of reading has its ups and downs. Everyone seems to play better when everyone knows the tune without charts. But with such a diverse community of participants, I find that the songbooks provide a common pool of potential tunes to call, allowing everyone to play along.

In a sense, then, these jam sessions are examples of "situated learning." There seems to be an overall ethos of mutual learning among players of all levels. The monthly jam at Venue D even bills itself as a sort of pedagogical event, with the host piano duo offering advice for participants. There may be a few reasons why this culture of learning, at which advanced, intermediate and beginners intermingle, prevails. One reason could be that jams are not held to provide entertainment for bar or cafe patrons. All the venues have concerts or events on other days for that. The jams are more or less for the participants, and on occasion their friends, colleagues, students and family members. It's more like a community event. I'm no expert, but it might also have something to do with collectivist nature of Japanese culture. Coming from a highly individualist culture, it took me a while to get used to life in Japan, but now I see the benefits and drawbacks of both ways of being.

In my case, learning is a major reason for going to jam sessions. I work on new tunes at home and then call them at jams. My work flow is to first select a tune, either one that I personally like or one that seems to be called often at jams. Using the JSB charts, I familiarize myself with the melody and changes. I then select several versions from YT for listening, including classic recordings but also those by more contemporary players, and those of different levels, basically to explore how others approach a tune. Once I get the melody and changes under my fingers, I run the tunes on iReal to get things up to tempo. I edit the charts to fit the changes in the JSBs, since those are the arbiters for jams here. If I was in a band, or as I do sometimes when putting together an occasional solo show, I move away from the charts, try different keys and substitutions, mess with the form, etc. But since the jams are my main musical activity, I remain close to the JSB.

Other players seem to do the same, though some also come to jams to meet potential band mates, the goal being to do some gigging. Since I've been participating in the jam sessions around here, going back perhaps 5 or 6 years beginning with Venue C and gradually networking into other venues, I've seen participants come and go. A few I keep in touch with and follow their gigging travails, while others seem to have moved away or given up playing out and prefer to play at home. Upon reflection, it's a blessing to have regular places at which to play out.

Before moving on to some reflections upon this month's jams, I'd like to pose a few questions for readers. How do my experiences with jam sessions compare to yours? What seems familiar, or unfamiliar? What kinds of venues hold jam sessions? How does management work at the sessions in your locale? What's the repertoire like? Does a session begin with a set by a house band? Who attends sessions, both in terms of players and non-participants? Are charts (un)common? Is there a mix of players at various levels?

Returning to the above point of situated learning, I found that playing regularly at these open jams sometimes reveals tendencies and weaknesses in my own playing. These wouldn't be apparent until they happen in a live setting. If it was a gig with a paying audience, I could imagine a train wreck, even a catastrophe. However, these open jams, with their infused ethos of mutual learning, are a practical opportunity to reflect and grow. For example, I noticed that while I might be very comfortable playing a tune at home alone, with or without a backing track, at a sessions it sometimes doesn't work. I even feel that sometimes, as a personal quirk, I am at a reduced capacity in public compared to my comfort zone at home. It would be easy to avoid jams due to awkward moments like getting lost or soloing when I have nothing meaningful to say, but when they happen, I find it revealing. There's something about playing with others that brings out both the best and worst in me. In the end, think it's the inherent spontaneity and unpredictability that can make a jam session a unique and practical learning experience.

Taking as an example the tune Sugar, which I played at several sessions this month, it's more or less a jam on C minor blues with some interesting changes toward the end. I play the theme in two registers and take a few choruses, sometimes perfunctory but other times exhilarating. It's a lot of fun to trade 4s, too, but sometimes coming out of 4s and back into the theme I get tripped up by what the drummer is doing in their last 4. It's then difficult to get back into the groove with the descending pentatonic riffs once I miss the pickup notes. No matter how much I practice this tune at home, it's that unpredictable element of each drummer doing their thing different that requires carefully listening to come back in at the right place. It might seem obvious for gigging musicians, but for me these experiences are revealing.

The unpredictable nature of the open jams helps on occasion to draw me out of my usual comfort zone as a casual musician. For example, I noticed that I rely often on drummers. Perhaps this is due to having grown up with a drummer. But once in a while, as occurred at Venue C this month, there happens to be no drummer. I recalled a few times in the past that I got completely lost on a drummerless tune due to my dependency on a drums. But this time, with just piano, guitar, bass and trumpet, it actually went quite well. I paid much closer attention to the group sound, and found that I listened more to the other instruments instead of just getting into a pocket with the drummer, as is my usual habit. My playing was more subdued, too, leaving more space rather than trying to fill in space.

Another thing I've noticed over the past year at jams is that there are ordinary and extra-ordinary sessions. Being a regular at these venues, the norm is an ordinary jam, more or less the same people playing more or less the same tunes from the JSB. While it's always fun, it's somewhat predictable and perhaps even a bit mundane. But because I enjoy the opportunity to play out with others and to get some real world learning experiences, I continue coming.

Participating regularly in ordinary sessions brings extraordinary sessions into perspective, and provides an interesting and enjoyable contrast. These moments are sometimes few and far between, perhaps once a month or less, but they happen often enough to make it worth while to participate regularly. Some extraordinary sessions are due to the presence of irregular participants. These might include local pros or touring musicians who stop by on a night off, or those who visit after having pursued careers in Tokyo or in some cases abroad, or when someone that I know from another venue joins, or just newcomers.

In April, there was an extraordinary jam that came about through my participation. My brother and his wife were touring Japan this month, and they stayed with us on part of the journey. The visit coincided with an open mic night at Venue C, which is usually just a few solo singers doing acoustic tunes, but which on occasion evolves into a jam session. My brother is a drummer, we go way back playing music together. He's been studying Brazilian drumming lately, so we discussed perhaps working on some Bossa tunes, including Girl from Ipanema, Dindi and Corcovado. He also suggested Makin' Whoopie, citing a recording he'd heard that was a crossover between jazz and country musicians. I also invited some of my college students who were interested in Japanese music culture. Pop joined on guitar, and a local pro drummer sat in on congas. We played the above tunes, among others. A few students did songs from their respective musical traditions or some crossover standards, such as Roberta Flack's Feel Like Making Love and an Amy Winehouse tune. After a couple of hours of playing and watching others play, as the evening drew to a close, my brother, along with Pop on guitar and a percussionist, did Sugar and Shadow of Your Smile. Both jelled wonderfully and felt great, and received enthusiastic applause.

The jam this month at Venue A had some notable moments. Just after I arrived a piano trio did Hush-a-Bye. It's listed as "Traditional" in JSB2. I've seen it called a few times at jams, and it seems to be played by Japanese jazz musicians as a standard. Several YT recordings I found were by Japanese musicians. As far as I can tell, the tune is from the 1952 film The Jazz Singer, crediting Fain and Seelen as composers, and sung by Danny Thomas. Bing Crosby also recorded it in 1953. In both cases it retains it's original feel as a lullaby. While it was played as a jazz ballad at Venue A this month, I've also seen Hush-a-Bye done as a 32-bar moderate swing, with theme, solos trading 4s and the theme out. I couldn't find it in the Hal Leonard Real Books, but Johnny Griffin recorded it as a moderate swing on his 1988 album Woe Is Me and Stan Getz has a version on his 1989 Soul Eyes album, recorded at the Glasgow International Jazz Festival. So Hush-a-Bye is a known entity for sure, but just not to me.

Venue A is a hangout for local pros, and later in the evening when BA, DS and PF were on stage BA invited me up. I called Sugar, one of several times this month. I haven't played at Venue A in a while, but usually when I do it's a couple of tunes. I began with a Cm7-Dm7-G7b9 intro, and once I played the melody everyone sitting around watching reacted. In fact, when I suggested we play it to the bass player, he was humming the melody to himself while flipping through the JSB for the chart. I played the theme in 2 octaves, took a few choruses, as did everyone, and we did fours and out. As has happened before, I flubbed the head coming out of 4s, but this time I was able to keep the groove, just with a few different notes in the low register, and then when I restated it in the high register it fell back in place. I'm in the habit of doing a cadenza after stating the theme for the last time on Sugar, and then ending with a trill on low F-F#-G, climbing up to Cm9. Despite the flub, it got a nice applause, and several people commented on my playing.

I also called Dindi, using a rubato intro based on the original verse, and then setting the Bossa groove with a vamp on Eb6 to Bbm7. It's often done as a ballad, sometimes even a bit schmaltzy, but I think Dindi works quite well as moderate Bossa jam tune. I played the theme in the lower register, and then took 2-3 choruses. I usually practice with 1 chorus and then 4s, so I started to repeat myself in the subsequent choruses. The groove was not quite there at the beginning, but then we settled into it. We all took solos, then 4s and out. I ended by repeating with chords the G-Eb signature melody tones harmonized with Cm, Cm/B, Cm7 and then Bb11 with the Eb on top a few times, then a cadenza eventually ending on Eb6/9#11.

More so than other venues, perhaps due to there being local pros participating, some unusual tunes get called at Venue A. Tonight, one of the pianists called what turned out to be Bolivia. I asked a sax player if they knew what it was; they didn't and began swiping through charts on their phone. Later, I asked PF1 what it was and that's when I realized they were reading it from JSB1. BA started with the signature riff based on G7, then into the theme. I didn't really know the tune but it was quite impressive and everyone was blowing comfortably and having fun. I later noticed on the Cedar Walton recording that they return to the G7 vamp at times between choruses, and seem to stay with the 16 bar form for blowing.

Since I haven't been to Venue A for some time, and I'm planning to go again tonight, I'll add a few thoughts about the venue and players. Overall, compared to other jams, the calibre of playing is quite high. I'm on the mid-to-low end of spectrum here, while in the mid-to-higher end at other venues. I know that some of those jamming are gigging regularly, but not all of them. Yet the level of playing seems quite high. DS2, for example, with whom I've spoken a few times, is a fine drummer but seems to just do it for fun. DS1 was amazing tonight, but I've never see them listed on any local gigs. My hunch is that they're serious amateurs, not gigging but very devoted to playing jazz, the music they love. I don't actually like using the term "amateur," since in English it seems to have negative connotations, even though Andy Merrifield's book The Amateur: The Pleasures of Doing What You Love went a long way toward redeeming the term. If it simply means not playing for money, then most of these people are amateurs, but that has little bearing on their skill as players. There seems to be a devotion to jazz here, quite apart from pursuing it as a vocation. It makes me curious about how "amateurs" are perceived elsewhere.

Another notable feature of Venue A is that although it's a Mom and Pop shop like the other venues, they seem to be less in it for revenue. Pop at Venue C is clearly a businessman as well as a musician, always hustling for gigs and other revenue streams, and they charge to play at the jam sessions, and even for people to play at some events they host. Venue B has elements of both, they charge to play, which I think goes to Pop's piano trio hosting the session, and at Venue D, the jam sessions are framed as learning events with a piano duo critiquing the performers. But Venue A stands alone. No cover charge or drink minimum, with a devoted community, many of whom have dinner there or come just for drinks.

Finally, at the monthly Venue B session there were several spectators for the holiday weekend. Participants included the regular piano trio, plus a trumpet, 2 saxes, 2 guitars, and a few vocalists. A young saxophonist from Tokyo was visiting family for the holiday. There was also semi-pro singer, who shows up once in a while to sing a tune. Tunes called included Take the A-Train, Strollin', Well You Needn't, Fly Me to the Moon, Days of Wine and Roses, Beautiful Love, Softly as in a Morning Sunrise, and The Nearness of You. On Strollin and Well You Needn't, the trumpet and I played the theme together. I asked to play it a little slower and more bouncy than last month, but in any case it's a different experience than at other jams, which to me is a good experience. Both tunes went well, everyone took a couple choruses, and we got a nice applause. Afterwards, the young tenor asked about how I approach soloing, and we had an interesting conversation about jams. On Well You Needn't, there was a problem with the chart, but we agreed to use the Miles Davis changes from the JSB. The trumpet and I played together well, and we agreed to work on Have You Met Miss Jones for the May Venue B jam session.

I participated in more jam sessions in April than usual and there's a lot more to write about, but in the interest of keeping this readable, I'll end here. Thank you very much for reading, and please feel free to post a comment or a question.