The Future of the Virtual Jam

[John A.]

John, this is what you said:



In other words you want to go back in time and have things the way they were before. But that was in Covid (he repeats for the millionth time). When Covid was over nearly all the contributors vanished and went back to their outside lives.

That left a handful of people who wanted to continue with the same idea. I never liked that because it was a thing of its time and was over. But the cry was loud so I took it on.

Eventually it just dried up. The dissent started on the James thread beginning with yourself. You said this:



In other words you were saying the same thing as you are now. And I answered that 101%. Everybody did. But it had lost its spirit (to repeat it again and again and gain).

Wzpgsr, especially, said this:



All you're doing is living in hope of some sort of resurrection. I don't think you're actually doing it for anyone else, it's just something you want; it's an idea you can't let go of.

It's also illogical. What you want is to have tunes to play but your repeated desire is that there be lots and lots of people at the party. The chances of that happening are virtually nil because the lockdown is over, and lockdown was the main reason for its success.

Personally I'm totally bored with repeating the screamingly obvious to deaf ears.

My best tip: Keep posting the tunes religiously every week/fortnightly and hope for the best. If it happens, it happens, you never know.

Ragman, I have also said repeatedly that I realize what I want is not going to happen, am not holding out hope, and am done trying to stir up interest by posting tunes. At this point, you're really the one not letting this topic die. I shouldn't have even answered your "what does everyone want question" because that's only prolonged the pointless talking past one another. I've got nothing else to say on this thread.

[ragman1]

Okie dokie, so be it.

[lawson-stone]

Can I ask you all something?

What is it you all want? There's obviously a level of dissatisfaction, frustration, discontent, call it what you will. But what do you actually want?

The original VJ was a reaction to being cooped up with Covid, lockdown, and all that, but that's gone now. But you're obviously all asking for something. To continue in the same pattern as before? Someone provides a tune and you all play it? But that's been tried again at least twice now and gone nowhere.

State what you actually want, specifically, then see if it can be provided. The trouble is I don't think you know, there's just this sort of general discontent, grumbling, and so on. But that may well have its roots in causes unrelated to the forum, I wouldn't know.

Do answer this because this is becoming endless. Is it the weather? Is it because winter's coming? I don't know!

I think you are over-reacting to the COVID lockdown aspect. There had been discussion earlier about a "Practical Standards"-like group that would focus on jazz originals. As that was being kicked around Jeff took the initiative and started it, with the added aspect of making it solo-centered and more spontaneous, hence the 1-week time frame. Maybe COVID had a role, but not all of us were so severely locked down by COVID, depending on where we lived.

Everything has a life-cycle. This one had a pretty decent run, just like my "Jimmy Raney Solo" group, that covered about 7 of the solos in the book we used, and went on for a few years. But that died, but not without having been a fun exercise and a great benefit to the participants.

your question, however, remains a good one. People drawn to this particular group obviously wanted something, and now that they aren't finding it (evidently), it's useful to ask them just what they do want.

[lawson-stone]

Personally I'm totally bored with repeating the screamingly obvious to deaf ears.

Maybe you are confused as to who is not hearing.

[mr. beaumont]

I think you are over-reacting to the COVID lockdown aspect. There had been discussion earlier about a "Practical Standards"-like group that would focus on jazz originals. As that was being kicked around Jeff took the initiative and started it, with the added aspect of making it solo-centered and more spontaneous, hence the 1-week time frame.

I suppose that was a selfish twist I put on it, but I really wanted to hear people IMPROVISE, not work out a cutesy arrangement or hear every single poster play the melody...I felt like it's understood, yeah, know the melody...but we all don't have to play it. But I felt there was a real lack of people just "going for it" around here and yeah, I wanted to force folks (and myself) out of the comfort zone a bit, in what was hopefully a safe space.

Whether things were "locked down" or not, when the thread was conceived I certainly wasn't going and hanging with strangers anywhere. So the concept served a purpose, to react as realistically as possible to a tune in the moment, kind of like a real jam. Here's this tune, what are you going to do with it? Because playing situations aren't always perfect...sometimes there's no rehearsal, no warning...and you sink or swim, or politely bow out.

So I do think now, maybe that isn't a necessary outlet for a lot of the people who were posting. I stopped posting every week as I've taken on some more projects and responsibilities in my life, and for me, picking and choosing when I could post went against my personal objective, which was to play every week no matter my comfort level. Obviously, there's tunes we played that I would have sat out at a real jam...but this was a "controlled environment," so I figured "what the hell." It's not like there's anybody here who never plays a clam.

I do think the further exploration of jazz tunes by jazz artists would be a good thing, maybe now at a slower pace, a deeper dive, if you will. If Reg takes over, I'd be interested in seeing where it goes, even though he may as well be speaking Aramaic in his explanations of stuff...I'm not smart enough for it.

[ragman1]

I wanted to force folks (and myself) out of the comfort zone a bit

Hey, ragman, more energy, if you'd be so kind :-)

[lawson-stone]

I suppose that was a selfish twist I put on it, but I really wanted to hear people IMPROVISE, not work out a cutesy arrangement or hear every single poster play the melody...I felt like it's understood, yeah, know the melody...but we all don't have to play it. But I felt there was a real lack of people just "going for it" around here and yeah, I wanted to force folks (and myself) out of the comfort zone a bit, in what was hopefully a safe space.

Whether things were "locked down" or not, when the thread was conceived I certainly wasn't going and hanging with strangers anywhere. So the concept served a purpose, to react as realistically as possible to a tune in the moment, kind of like a real jam. Here's this tune, what are you going to do with it? Because playing situations aren't always perfect...sometimes there's no rehearsal, no warning...and you sink or swim, or politely bow out.

So I do think now, maybe that isn't a necessary outlet for a lot of the people who were posting. I stopped posting every week as I've taken on some more projects and responsibilities in my life, and for me, picking and choosing when I could post went against my personal objective, which was to play every week no matter my comfort level. Obviously, there's tunes we played that I would have sat out at a real jam...but this was a "controlled environment," so I figured "what the hell." It's not like there's anybody here who never plays a clam.

I do think the further exploration of jazz tunes by jazz artists would be a good thing, maybe now at a slower pace, a deeper dive, if you will. If Reg takes over, I'd be interested in seeing where it goes, even though he may as well be speaking Aramaic in his explanations of stuff...I'm not smart enough for it.

All this makes perfect sense for me. Living in a rural community, and having continuous access to my workspace throughout COVID, this was never for me a "COVID thing." I really wanted to shed songs like Joyspring or Grooveyard or Nica's Dream, and this group scratched that itch for me. I enjoyed hearing other takes on the tunes, and many of them I had to learn them from the start. I dropped out mainly because I found some of the feedback to my and other posts tiresome and unhelpful, and I have a hard time "just ignoring" people. I decided I had to drop out just because I didn't like seeing myself becoming more quarrelsome than I already am!

[kris]

Are you suggesting that because Covid is no longer keeping people at home there's no reason to continue the VJ, Kris?

The world turned upside down during the Covid pandemic.
Communication via computers has developed a lot during this time.. e.g. online learning.
It seems to me that there is an overload of computers and there is a slow process of returning to the difficult reality.
For example, I am slowly returning to playing concerts and spending less time at home.
It is very difficult.