knirirr

On the topic of energy I came across this article recently: https://andymasley.substack.com/p/a-cheat-sheet-for-conversations-about I'm not sure how true it is, but it's an interesting perspective.

This band is somewhat unusual in that though we're a "jazz" band the material is often along the lines of long reggae grooves with a bit of blues trumpet soloing over the top, and even some lyrics. This is surprisingly popular locally as it is quite accessible. Pretty much all the material is original, composed by the trumpeter or guitarist (or both together).

Fun stuff last night - we in the house band did a favourite piece of mine in the opening set. No other pianists turned up but a bass guitarist did, so I was asked to comp on guitar for a piece so the pianist could take a break. Fun, but when it came to soloing the audience feedback was that the guitar was hard to hear next to the bass. The bassist's volume seemed OK to me so I wonder how much of the issue was that he was plucking close to the bridge, playing in a high register and using roundwound strings.

We've been preparing for a jazz gig in the centre of Oxford at the beginning of June. The set is pretty much sorted out now, and other than a few wrong notes (this is jazz, though) and a flying drumstick everything was sounding good. Some effort has been spent trying to find varied arrangements, with different structure and number/order of solos, which is something we usually do for gigs - see https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/324449-jam-nights-cliquey/page/8/#comment-5458986 for why I mention that...

In my experience this usually happens at jams but not quite so much at gigs. I'd rather a bass or drum solo every 3-4 tunes instead of each one, but it seems impossible to escape frequent bass solos at jams.

There are a small number of gigs lined up, but nothing new, e.g. - Charlbury Beer Festival. - Ramsden Fete. - Charity concert in St. Martin's Church, Oxford. ...plus some as-yet-unconfirmed stuff. I'd be surprised if there were more than half a dozen gigs, but that number is fine with me.

We have sometimes had solo/duo performers turn up at our jam, and have tried to fit them in where we can. Unfortunately, their attempts to play with the band haven't been particularly successful. There are three monthly events in the town of the open mic format and only one which is an actual jam with a full band playing, so we try to discourage the solo/duo stuff and have a website explaining how we expect the session to go.

A sticky or sweaty neck after someone has used one's instrument is never pleasant. I've got a bar towel stashed away for my EUB's neck, though I fear that one day someone will take offence when I wipe it.

One of those drunk idiots once said to me, after chipping a headstock against a wall, "what are you looking at me like that for? These are supposed to be bashed around a bit!"

...a view with which I'd reluctantly agree in the case of the double bass (which offers similar logistical issues to drums and keyboards), but not the bass guitar. BTW, we have had jams where multiple people have brought double basses and or keyboards, which has been a bit of a pain. We have yet to see multiple drum kits being set up, but multiple drummers at a jam are rare.

A house bass makes sense in a jazz context because we're often playing DB and having several of those hanging around is a bit of a nuisance, particularly in some of the cramped pub venues we have to play in. Recently I've been bringing an EUB I got cheaply on Ebay; it doesn't sound as good as the acoustic but will do for the jam, and in any case there are several players who turn up with bass guitars. When they want to play then the EUB fits nicely into a coat rack, out of the way. It is also easier to carry, which means I can bring guitar kit for the large part of the evening when a bass guitarist is up. My personal opinion, which others are sure to disagree with, is that anyone who plays guitar or bass guitar should bring their own to a jam and not complain if others aren't willing to hand theirs over to strangers in a pub.

I have been finding myself a little ticked off with those who habitually turn up at the end of the house band's (short) introductory set, beer in hand, want to play my bass because they never bring one, then vanish out the door the moment the last piece finishes. When I've turned up to jams where I'm not in the house band I make sure to be there at the start, offer to help set up if it looks like that would be useful, and bring a bass guitar.

Ordering from PMT has worked well for me. Their Oxford branch staff will answer emails and give useful information. If I order and decide I need to return something (hasn't happened yet) then I could take it to the branch rather than trying to post it back. The one time I tried posting something back to Thomann it was a bit of a faff.

There does appear to be a market for jazz around these parts; this company (run by a bassist) puts on a lot of decent gigs. As for amateur jazz, we usually get paid for gigs. Not a huge amount, but a contribution towards the various expenses incurred is welcome. The difficulty is in finding those venues where the sort of jazz I want to play would be accepted; there don't appear to be many and they're often booked up. As for sport then as I run the local class I'm the one collecting payments. For big events where I'm invited to teach then there's usually free entry at least (entry fees can be £100+) and perhaps some sort of expenses or board and lodging. Of course, if I simply attend without teaching then I have to pay up in full.

IIRC this is the first bass gig I did (I switched from guitar to fretless bass). Apparently the intonation is reasonable given my experience at the time, but the choice of notes is sometimes a bit dodgy.