JGBE Virtual Jam (Round 56) - Jeannine

**wzpgsr** · 02-09-2022, 12:29 AM

Hell or high water for me tomorrow.

**ragman1** · 02-09-2022, 08:15 AM

you can do it, you can do it

**John A.** · 02-09-2022, 10:00 AM

Originally Posted by wzpgsr

Bruce Forman posted this today. Maybe he’s a closet virtual jam participant.

You never know ... Or maybe he heard Barney play it once ...

Originally Posted by grahambop

Donald Byrd uses a simple motif (probably derived from the melody) over those bars and just keeps varying it slightly. Makes a good contrast with the longer lines he plays on the other sections.

Yeah, great version!

Originally Posted by wzpgsr

Hell or high water for me tomorrow.

Jump in, the (high) water's fine.

So, as I've mentioned a few times, there's a weekly jam in my neighborhood that I frequent. One of the other regulars (sax player) and I have been talking about calling Jeannine for ages, but whenever we're on the stand either somebody else calls a tune or we call it and nobody knows it, so it hasn't happened.

Anyway, last night, we finally managed to assemble a combination of players who know it - tenor, bari, and alto sax, piano, bass drums, and me. It was a blast. Nothing beats a horn section playing those first 8 bars in harmony.

**ragman1** · 02-09-2022, 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by John A.

tenor, bari, and alto sax, piano, bass drums, and me. It was a blast.

Phew, that's a relief, for a moment I thought you were going to say it was a total car crash :-)

But, more seriously, how did your solo go?

**John A.** · 02-09-2022, 11:33 AM

Originally Posted by ragman1

Phew, that's a relief, for a moment I thought you were going to say it was a total car crash :-)

But, more seriously, how did your solo go?

It's a fun tune that I know pretty well, and I counted off the tempo, so all was right in the world (at least compared to a tune I crashed on earlier).

**ragman1** · 02-09-2022, 11:59 AM

I'm glad. As you said to William (that's my name for wzpgsr now because I can never remember that, or pronounce it. Actually, I think he's a spy, knows how to derive unfathomable letter codes) that Abm bit is all about two lots of four, etc, etc.

Hope he's all right...

**John A.** · 02-09-2022, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by ragman1

I'm glad. As you said to William (that's my name for wzpgsr now because I can never remember that, or pronounce it. Actually, I think he's a spy, knows how to derive unfathomable letter codes) that Abm bit is all about two lots of four, etc, etc.

Hope he's all right...

You mean wxyzpdqrverbls? I think his real name is Endeavor.

**ragman1** · 02-09-2022, 01:17 PM

Like the spaceship?

Oh, wait, that was the Enterprise... but if he's daring to go where no man has gone before he'll be fine.

That Abm thing is like a blues couplet:

Woke up this morning, looked around for my shoes
Woke up this morning, looked around for my shoes -----> F#m

**John A.** · 02-09-2022, 01:24 PM

Originally Posted by ragman1

Like the spaceship?

Oh, wait, that was the Enterprise... but if he's daring to go where no man has gone before he'll be fine.

That Abm thing is like a blues couplet:

Woke up this morning, looked around for my shoes
Woke up this morning, looked around for my shoes -----> F#m

No, like Inspector Morse, a reference to another person who conceals his real name, which I thought would be less obscure to a Brit who conceals his real name.

**ragman1** · 02-09-2022, 01:41 PM

It's sheer modesty. I can't have the world flocking to my door

**ragman1** · 02-09-2022, 01:51 PM

I've looked it up. You mean the prequel to Morse, the 'young Morse'. I've never seen it but I know Colin Dexter died recently. There are some episodes on YouTube so I might take a peek.

**John A.** · 02-09-2022, 02:04 PM

Originally Posted by ragman1

I've looked it up. You mean the prequel to Morse, the 'young Morse'. I've never seen it but I know Colin Dexter died recently. There are some episodes on YouTube so I might take a peek.

I mean the character Endeavor Morse. His concealing (and ultimately revealing) his name is more a theme in the books and the original than in the prequel series, but applies there as well.

**ksaric** · 02-09-2022, 02:26 PM

Originally Posted by John A.

I mean the character Endeavor Morse. His concealing (and ultimately revealing) his name is more a theme in the books and the original than in the prequel series, but applies there as well.

"Morse prefers to use only his surname, and is generally evasive when asked about his first name, sometimes joking that it is Inspector."

**ragman1** · 02-09-2022, 02:29 PM

Ah!

'Why is Morse called Endeavour?

In the novels, Morse's first name came from the vessel HMS Endeavour; his mother was a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) who have a tradition of "virtue names", and his father admired Captain James Cook.'

Inspector Morse - Wikipedia

**ragman1** · 02-09-2022, 03:06 PM

I think it's a bloody ridiculous name, poor sod! At least he wasn't called Bounty because that's also a chocolate bar

JGBE Virtual Jam (Round 56) - Jeannine-index-jpg

**John A.** · 02-09-2022, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by ragman1

I think it's a bloody ridiculous name, poor sod! At least he wasn't called Bounty because that's also a chocolate bar

He thinks it's a ridiculous name, too. Hence all the concealment. I wonder what wkrpqxrbgokcrnbc has to hide ... or "Ragman1" for that matter.

**ragman1** · 02-09-2022, 03:33 PM

Nothing, you can come round for tea any time... but on the internet I've never been happy with real ID's. Maybe it's just me. My You Tube name's Alfred Scoggins... and if you believe that you'll believe anything

**wzpgsr** · 02-09-2022, 11:21 PM

Man, could have used more time with this tune. Love it, but the tempo is killing me.

**ragman1** · 02-10-2022, 10:10 AM

Well done, W. Not easy. You did the head perfectly, of course. I cheat by doing everything slowly but I'm a wuss :-)

**John A.** · 02-10-2022, 11:26 AM

Originally Posted by wzpgsr

Man, could have used more time with this tune. Love it, but the tempo is killing me.

Sounds good. It didn't seem to me like you weren't making the tempo, and it did seem like you were able to generate ideas to run with. Maybe a little shaky in terms of being consonant with the changes initially, but then you seemed quite locked into the harmony. I didn't find this backing track particularly fast (many recordings are faster), but I did find it hard to follow. The right hand comping is really busy and in places it seems disconnected from the the bass and drums. This is a real "groove" tune, but this track (despite being organ/drums) doesn't groove very well, so I found it hard to lock to its time. When I picked this tune I had it in mind that there were better backing tracks out there, but, alas, this the best of the 'em.

So tempo might not actually be the problem. But if it is, a thing I've found helpful in getting myself up to faster tempos is to go into iReal and play the head and a couple of choruses at a comfortable tempo, then bump it up 8-10 bpm, and keep doing this until it's way faster than I can handle with 1/8 notes, I force myself to to try to hang with that for a few choruses, then it bring back down to something faster than my original tempo. Then I use that as a starting point for the next cycle. I find that doing this for an hour or so on a tune can reset my sense of "comfortable" to a higher level. There's also the learning mode in iReal, but I find doing several choruses at each tempo works better than bumping it up with each chorus.

**ragman1** · 02-10-2022, 01:12 PM

Now I just sit at home but I used to find a scotch and a lively audience worked wonders on the pace my brain/fingers could move. Not that I'd recommend it, of course.

In fact, cancel that, it's the road to ruin

**wzpgsr** · 02-10-2022, 02:00 PM

Originally Posted by John A.

Sounds good. It didn't seem to me like you weren't making the tempo, and it did seem like you were able to generate ideas to run with. Maybe a little shaky in terms of being consonant with the changes initially, but then you seemed quite locked into the harmony. I didn't find this backing track particularly fast (many recordings are faster), but I did find it hard to follow. The right hand comping is really busy and in places it seems disconnected from the the bass and drums. This is a real "groove" tune, but this track (despite being organ/drums) doesn't groove very well, so I found it hard to lock to its time. When I picked this tune I had it in mind that there were better backing tracks out there, but, alas, this the best of the 'em.

So tempo might not actually be the problem. But if it is, a thing I've found helpful in getting myself up to faster tempos is to go into iReal and play the head and a couple of choruses at a comfortable tempo, then bump it up 8-10 bpm, and keep doing this until it's way faster than I can handle with 1/8 notes, I force myself to to try to hang with that for a few choruses, then it bring back down to something faster than my original tempo. Then I use that as a starting point for the next cycle. I find that doing this for an hour or so on a tune can reset my sense of "comfortable" to a higher level. There's also the learning mode in iReal, but I find doing several choruses at each tempo works better than bumping it up with each chorus.

Good points, thanks. When I feel like it's the tempo causing issues, it's because I can't be as deliberate or timely with what I play. I might "pre-hear" something or have a line shape in mind, but just can't execute it with the right fingering, or I come in late, etc. "Audiating" ahead of the changes is huge, I think, and when I am less familiar with a tune, the going gets rough at, well, any tempo! I am a big fan of the Howard Roberts Superchops method for gradually building comfort with a tune—reminiscent of the approach you describe above. This tune in particular seems like it would benefit from feeling the tempo in half-time.

**lawson-stone** · 02-10-2022, 02:07 PM

Originally Posted by John A.

It's a fun tune that I know pretty well, and I counted off the tempo, so all was right in the world (at least compared to a tune I crashed on earlier).

I keep trying to imagine you crashing on a tune... and I just can't.

**John A.** · 02-10-2022, 02:12 PM

Originally Posted by wzpgsr

Good points, thanks. When I feel like it's the tempo causing issues, it's because I can't be as deliberate or timely with what I play. I might "pre-hear" something or have a line shape in mind, but just can't execute it with the right fingering, or I come in late, etc. "Audiating" ahead of the changes is huge, I think, and when I am less familiar with a tune, the going gets rough at, well, any tempo! I am a big fan of the Howard Roberts Superchops method for gradually building comfort with a tune—reminiscent of the approach you describe above. This tune in particular seems like it would benefit from feeling the tempo in half-time.

Sometimes you have to abandon that kind of control and just play, let your "muscle memory" and stuff that burned in by practice take over. Leave the thinking more for the overall shape and performance of what you're doing (e.g., deciding line direction/shape, note density, phrasing, repetition, dynamics), but leave actual note choices to the fates.