IT IS A PRIVILEGE TO PLAY WITH THESE TRULY NICE PEOPLE

I don't care if it sounds odd coming from a man, but I tell you. These folks we have in the workshop played a blinder last night. Absolutely brilliant. Tremendous fun. And each one of them is so modest, so retiring about their ability. Others would shout it from the rooftops. I'm very pleased to be able to call them friends.

We really did do well last night. Performance standard. Read about what we did and what we learnt below. Just about everything we tried worked - bar one.

TWO VERSIONS OF SUNNY. SEE WHAT YOU THINK.
This music is really emotional. Beautiful song, beautifully played. Listen to the guitar player on the track of Sunny. Sparing, open. Quiet gentle song, you can imagine a sunny day, lazing by the river. Then Herbie Mann picks it up, at the last coda he goes into staccato and the piano copies.
The piano plays chords in the fills mostly



And then we go to this, the best known version of the song. totally different. The girls are fantastic. How I
love this music. All of it



Lets do Sunny next week.

WE DID THIS LAST NIGHT
Feed and response 2 bars, worked very well indeed. Try longer bars.
Dave on Guitar played echos of the solos. Sounded nice.
He also used some displaced patterns in a solo.
We all played solos using triplets, with Bob on drums echoing. Yes, got a winner here. Must do more of.
Vic on bass played on the 1 then broke time, mixing with a walking line. This added interest.
This one did not work, but we can try it again. We played a tune out of time, rhythm section sparing, kit using brushes on symbols. Just to create an atmosphere.
Geoff played a coda on the song key.
We also tried solos without backing. Try dropping out backing for the start of the solo, come in bar 5
Chris kept up with everything - at a huge disadvantage because we all knew the songs. Heroic.

VIC DAVE AND MYSELF
I think that we ought to do something in practise, and in the workshop that we don't do very well, if at all. IN our solos we don't play the tune, or extract from it. Dave could you shadow the tunes as the front line play them, whether from ear or by reading? Vic could you try using a bit of the tune in your solos? It means we have to concentrate on the dots.

GEOFF, CHRIS AND ANDREW, DARE I ASK?
Displace patterns. Playing an improvised motif, figure, whatever you call it, then repeat and displace it. I'm not talking about playing a standard riff over a 11 V 1 and doing it in every key. I'm talking about using an improvised phrase over and over. It is not difficult to do. Could I ask you three guys just to try it out please?

PLEASE DON'T THINK I'M TRYING TO TELL ANYONE HOW TO PLAY. THAT IS NOT MY JOB. But it could be my job to make sure that everyone tries things out and is as well rounded as possible. Do you think so?

DO NEXT SUNDAY
The girls, Maria and Nettie are coming in at 6.00 for a rehearsal. We might change this song list if the girls stay on. We'll play their songs. Andrew, do you fancy coming?

Bluesette
Sunny Am and Bm
Bernies Tune Dm
Greensleeves. F
Chameleon

John

Smugglers jazz bands in Sussex
Smugglers jazz workshop, Bosham, Sussex

We could do with another front line player, if you know of them.
There are about 7 of us each week.

This site is to help the Jazz smugglers workshop group and provide information about the following weeks work. We will be working on widening our range of playing styles as individuals, working together in a band, and practising the more difficult things. You need to be able to read.

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In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation. you can sign up directly to this blog site as a FOLLOWER, bottom rh side panel, you'll get all the posts.