knirirr

I'm not sure about any other genre but in the jazz world there are more bass solos than one could ever need. I even use the bow for some and yet the solos keep happening.

In Chipping Norton there's a "community piano" provided by the town council for the use of the general public. They even tune it from time to time and most of the keys work! This afternoon we used it to do a bit of busking as a means to promote the local jam session. A recording of Blue Bossa (a well-known jazz standard often used at jams) can be heard here. The public passing by seemed to like it; a few compliments were received and around £19 and four cans of beer were dropped into one of the drummer's cases. A nearby bakery offered free pies/cakes which the pianist was pleased to accept. The only passer-by who appeared less than fully pleased was one who commented that we needed a guitar in the band (we don't agree).

As a main band I'd have to say Mingus Tree, which I joined probably 4-5 years ago. Most of the members are based in Charlbury and we mostly play around that area, e.g. at the beer festival or other Cricket Club events such as the Oktoberfest. Also fetes, pubs, and sometimes private parties. The gig schedule is pretty relaxed, which suits me nicely. The material is jazz, though the tunes are quite accessible with fairly simple arrangements, catchy grooves (sometimes Ska or Reggae-like) and lyrics to some of the pieces; listeners who "hate jazz" have often told me that they enjoyed our sets. It's almost all original material written by the trumpet and guitar players (who founded the band long ago). There's not much I've managed to get on record but there is a video of us struggling through some bad weather at Ramsden fete and a song from a Charlbury gig where I was recovering from an inner ear infection and struggling to stay upright. I'd like to get a proper recording done but never managed it.

Normally I only listen to instrumental jazz and don't pay attention to lyrics. But, I found these entertaining and thought the song not bad at all:

That's a bit like my situation, except that anything I buy and don't like I leave gathering dust in a corner or give away because no one else appears to like it enough to offer me money for it. Similarly, though I am trying to resist as there's nothing I actually need right now...

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.

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.

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 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.