Jazz Workshop

We had a great night at the Royston Jazzworkshop last night. I am not sure if it was the heat or the music but everyone seemed to be in the mood for a good blow. As we play our repertoire alphabetically we are currently ploughing through song starting with the letter 'S'. Last night was Satin Doll, Straight No Chaser, Song for My Father and Sidewinder.

I think I did fairly well. Satin Doll I have played a couple of times now and slowly getting the feel of how to change the rhythms so that they are interesting. I had never played Straight No Chaser before so just fell back on playing the blues scale. I would prefer to play something different but until I know the songs better it will do for now.

Song For My Father is a song I played for hours with my jazz teacher so am confident with it but still have lots of work to do.

Side winder was a new one too and just struggled through.

All in all I had a great night and felt very high afterwards. this is the music I want to play. The Harlow Concert Band is alright but it does not compare with improvising and jazzing like this. It may only be at an amateur level but it will do for me.

Harlow Concert Band

At the Jazz Workshop

Last night I attended the jazz workshop that I have recently joined and I had had another great night. I have been messing about with playing jazz for some time now but never had an outlet for my playing. I have a huge amount to learn but had nowhere to put my theory studies into practise.

This workshop has solved that. Don't get me wrong I am still struggling with the chords and sales but each week getting more and more confident to be experimental.

Last night we played, Summertime, Now's the Time, St. Thomas and Sister Sadie. Summertime I tried to play just the b minor pentatonic scale (I play alto sax) and it sort of worked but I did not quite like what I was playing. But it felt like good experience not just messing the melody.

Now's the Time was for my instrument a d blues which I am familiar with and had a good time with he d blues scale. But now I understand what others have said about too much use of the blues scale can get boring. I will find other scales that I can use to make it more interesting. Both St Thomas and Sister Sadie were a bit of a disaster for me as I had no idea what to play over the chord progression. But that is the value of a workshop like this. It shows your weaknesses and gives you something to work towards.

I drove home with a real buzz and sang along to the Miles Davis CD ' Kind of Blue'.

I love jazz.

Adam Glasser

On the 25th June we went to GoogliesJazz to see jazz harmonica player Adam Glasser. We had a fantastic night and I thoroughly enjoyed his music. The chromatic harmonica is a rare instrument to be heard and even rarer in the jazz world. But this guy created great sounds and deserves a wider audience.

His repertoire was a mixture of jazz standards and South African jazz. In fact a particular South African number was the highlight for me. The tenor player Bill Yeomans of the house band had obviously never seen some of the chord charts before that night but this did not put him off. After the melody which, had a very african taste to it, he got down to improvise. He done a great job and it was clear that he did struggle at first but once he got the harmonies in his head he hit the right notes.

The whole audience errupted at the end as did Adam Glaser himself.

A night to remember.