knirirr

On 27/06/2025 at 10:22, knirirr said:

Gigging again tomorrow:

 

https://www.charlburybeerfestival.org/live-music-and-entertainment/

For this gig we were supposed to play various sets around the festival site to spread our jazzy vibes (according to the site).

I guess that this made us look a bit like buskers - at one point a child accosted me between tunes to offer me 50 pence. Nice that it was the bass they liked best. The audience appeared to like what we played, but it's quite accessible jazz.

The weather was quite good:

 

Last night I did a dep gig for a U3A jazz band as their usual chap has various health issues and had been advised by his physician to take a rest. He actually turned up to watch and, fortunately, appeared to like what he heard. 

Not many in the audience, but it was a fairly rural venue. Nice building, though: https://thehallevents.org.uk/

Gigging again tomorrow:

https://www.charlburybeerfestival.org/live-music-and-entertainment/

...then a jam on Sunday.

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread but I saw this:

https://bsky.app/profile/oxfordpedestrians.bsky.social/post/3lsgqfm6hlk2v

...and wondered if the building being demolished is the one ABC Music in Oxford occupied during the 90s. 

My best (and most expensive bass) is an acoustic upright so that really ought to come out for jazz gigs. It has only been broken once (neck crack from a fall when unloading afterwards). 
For a local jam in cramped quarters I use an EUB I got cheaply on Ebay. I would do the usual trick of a fancy carved bass for gigs and a cheap laminated one for jams, if I had space for two acoustics. 

12 hours ago, Rosie C said:

 

 

...though I am considering a monocle!

 

I tried that for a while, before the other eye also worsened. These days monocles only appear to be made in certain set diameters and gallery depths rather than made to fit the wearer; if those standard sizes are right for your eye then you should be fine. Otherwise, it is likely to fall out frequently and be uncomfortable to hold in pace.

Three acoustic guitarists, two saxophonists, a brass player, a drummer, a singer with amp and mic, plus me playing unamplified. Somehow, I managed to be complained at for being too loud. 

We usually get booked for the Ramsden fete, finishing the musical entertainment for the day, and this year was no exception. As is the tradition, it rained towards the end of the show. Right near the end the drummer's bass drum pedal broke and he was summoned via the event PA to move his car. I have a large blister on my middle finger after some vigorous plucking.

Despite all this, the audience clearly enjoyed it, we were asked to extend the set a bit, and we got paid. 

Connections to pmtonline.co.uk now timing out, sadly. 

On 23/10/2024 at 12:07, Jimhew said:

This is an advert from September 1993.

 

Nice - thanks for posting it.

The ad I saw had a fretless bass on it (which I bought) but it was a little later than the one you posted.  I only have one picture of the bass, and one recording. 

Monday's rehearsal involved going through some vigorous pieces on double bass, ready for a gig a week on Monday.

This resulted in some blisters, so I thought I'd take it easy at tonight's (mostly gypsy jazz) jam and play electric. My other half suggested I try her very short (23.5"?) scale 5-string, which was an interesting experience.

I could manage it well enough when I knew the changes, but trying to read charts and find the right notes on a tiny instrument with an extra string was a challenge. I think I got away with it, but only just.

As part of Oxfordshire Artweeks we did a couple of sets in the garden outside an artist's studio in Charlbury. This was a rare chance to play fretless electric as the performance space was a bit cramped.
A few seconds of one of our tunes can be heard here, if anyone fancies it (I'm hidden behind a bush).

I wonder what effect this merger with DHL will have: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwywd2wzxp2o
 

Probably not an improved service...

Plex does the trick for me; the streaming source is my collection of mp3s and if I want to keep something I'd get the CD/mp3s.

There are some good apps for Plex such as Plexamp and Symfonium. The latter also handles streaming URLs so I can get SomaFM stations and TSF Jazz  in the car.

When I used to use iOS I tried Apple music but found it horribly buggy and Apple's support useless.

I see complaints about tablets for jazz gigs from time to time on forums, but the pros around these parts don't seem bothered by them, and glancing at them doesn't appear to affect their playing.

For our next planned gig I'll need my iPad for one piece as it's hard to remember and not played often, but could play from memory for the rest.
So much stuff that's unfamiliar, or boring (makes it hard to remember), gets called at jams that I couldn't get away without one. Plus,  my jazz skills are never going to be up to transposing on the fly for singers for anything but the most basic of changes.

On 26/04/2025 at 23:22, Bolo said:

Besides the IP theft each query takes a tonne of energy to process. Like a Cummins diesel rolling coal compared to a lean euro6 for a regular search engine query.

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...
 

5 hours ago, zbd1960 said:

 

 

You do not need to have everyone taking a solo in every tune, but that's what a lot of jazz groups do.

 

 

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.

12 hours ago, Geek99 said:

 

how does a solo acoustic player fit in with a jam night, where by definition more than one person would be playing at once. 
I do  agree that a given night could feature both setups, if the house band take a break, for an example but that’s an edge case 

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.

18 minutes ago, gjones said:

I occasionally played a gig where jammers were allowed to get up during the interval. I never did like people using my bass (you never know where they've been...yuk ).

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.

13 minutes ago, chris_b said:

Any idiot, drunk or not, can get up and damage your gear, so they are required to bring their own.

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!"

3 minutes ago, peteb said:

 

My view has always been that if you are not prepared to let someone else play your bass, then you shouldn't take a gig as the bass player in the house band at a jam session. 

 

...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.

22 minutes ago, peteb said:

 

. A few people would bring their own instrument, but the expectation was that you would provide a house bass that most people who got up would use.

 

I generally would bring something decent, but usually not my main gigging bass (for the pub jams at least).

 

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.