Another entry about jazz at the End cafe? Boring!

That may seem like the case, but it's quite different now, because I'm not just listening anymore. I wrote a journal about it on January 27th.

Original title:
"Why this journal is late"

The reason I couldn’t submit this journal last monday is simple: I didn’t have time to write it on the weekend, because I was getting ready to play at the End Café on sunday night. So now I figure that I ought to write about what that was like.

Two sundays ago, The Fab and I were listening to live jazz at the End Café, as usual. Then Jason, the tenor player, came up to our table and asked, “So, when are you guys gonna come and play?!” “When we’re good enough,” I replied. “If I waited until I was ‘good enough’,” he said, “I would never play.” He made us promise to bring our instruments the next week. So we did.

We had four songs in our repertoire: “Equinox” by John Coltrane; “Little sunflower” by Freddie Hubbard; “Tune-up” by Miles Davis; and “Mr. P.C.”, also by Coltrane. I had been nervous the whole day. When I stepped onto the stage, though, all my questions of “What scales should I use?” etc. just disappeared. The band was Jason, Ian (bass), Graham (drums), and Jim (guitar). Ian began playing the distinct intro to “Equinox”¹. I was standing next to Jason. Were we going to play the melody together, or would I play it on my own? I opted for the former. Then, when it came time for solos, Jason and I soloed at the same time (I guess you’d call that a duet). This went on for some time - the drums got louder and more intense.

One of the most interesting things about the experience was finally being able to hear what musicians talked about on stage. Jason was guiding me through it: “After this bass solo, there will be a drum solo, then there might be a vamp coming up, or we might just go straight back to the melody, so be ready for that.” The said drum solo was incredibly dynamic - during one insanely quiet bit, I was kneeling right next to the bass drum, wondering if anyone else could even hear it.

We then played “Little sunflower”, and took a break. Fab and I returned to the stage at about twenty-to-nine for the last two songs of the night - “Tune-up” and “Mr. P.C.” Both were much faster then we were used to, and the band was bigger - we were joined by Jerry (trumpet) and another Jim (alto). There was also a different drummer, Alicia. My solo on “Tune-up” was probably my best that night, and Fab’s solo on “Mr. P.C.” was explosive. Jason told us, “You’re welcome to come back and play any time you want.” It was an excellent learning experience.

And That is why I didn’t do any homework last weekend.

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1: “Equinox” is most commonly played in the key of C minor, but according to The Jazz Theory book, “the best players like to play it in its original key, C-sharp minor” (the latter being a harder key to play in). When Jason asked which key Fab and I played it in, he was quite impressed that we fall into the “best players” category.
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We played the following week as well, but only on two songs, and took a break on the third week. This coming sunday, we'll play again, and just an hour ago I learned a new song: "Maiden voyage" by Herbie Hancock. I'm going to aim to learn Wayne Shorter's "Footprints" soon as well.