knirirr

On Sunday I managed a piano trio gig (pictured). This was good but most of the audience sat outside due to the heat. Then there was a jam where I cocked it all up. Caught something unpleasant as well.

It wasn't me; I don't post on Twitter any more. There was some scat at last night's jam session but I refrained from perpetrating the dastardly trick mentioned.

The most inappropriate request(s) I recall: Drunkard: Give us a go on your bass! Me: No, p**s off! Drunkard: Give us a go on your piano! Pianist: No, p**s off! Drunkard: Give us a go on your drums! Drummer: No, p**s off! Drunkard: Give us a go on your sax! Saxophonist: No, p**s off! Drunkard: *dances wildly for a few minutes then succumbs to the drink and falls over* It turned out that the drunkard was a lecturer at a well-known English university.

Sorry about the brevity - we were lucky to even get that much video!

A few weeks ago I mentioned an outdoor gig where wind and rain were a bit of a nuisance (particularly for the drummer) . I have since received a video of part of one of our numbers (*) which I thought might offer some entertainment value: (*) Probably one of the least exciting ones; it's mostly one chord in Bb.

I can (particularly a nice bit of piobaireachd), though I've slacked off recently due to the lack of somewhere remote yet convenient for practice. As for slap, I can't play it because I've never tried to learn, and wouldn't want to.

I have no need to wear them for playing, unless I’m required to look at sheet music in which case glasses are essential. Unfortunately none of my glasses are ideal for the distance and position.

As it happens I'll be driving to Swansea in September, though I won't have much free time whilst I'm there.

I've now got a second box. Soon, both these will have to go for recycling.

Nice! Normally I'd not like blue but the colour suits it. Same here. But, seeing a good deal, I couldn't resist this, which arrived a few days ago.

As it happens there's a local jazz jam where some of the soloists have a very fluid conception of what the form is, starting and finishing at apparently random points with perhaps a shout of "back to the head, everyone!" whilst we're just entering the B of AABA etc. etc. They never notice, so much as with the "follow the singer" advice above I have to follow them to avoid the whole thing falling apart.

This afternoon's gig was at the Ramsden Village Fete. The brief, apparently, was: Start 30 minutes before the end and keep playing until the beer tent has been drained dry. The covered stage area had little protection against sun coming from the sides so it was uncomfortably hot. But, not for long! This is England, and so some wind and heavy rain was along soon enough to fix that problem. Luckily the amps escaped but the drummer and his kit got very wet. The audience seemed to be enjoying the set and they wouldn't have fancied leaving anyway in such weather, and we had fun and got paid.

There's a large outer box and a smaller inner one; the inner originally contained a Telecaster. Available for collection or I might be able to drop off locally if I'm heading your way at some point.

Personally, not since school, but the cricket club appears to be a popular social venue in the town. They have bands playing on Friday evenings during the summer, with a covered outdoor stage set up for that purpose. There are even Hook Norton beers at the bar.

Last night's gig was at Charlbury Cricket Club. It went nicely, though I had some trouble remembering which tune was which (I blame concussion from the previous gig).

Is this the sort of thing you mean?

An EUB on a stand might be even better: https://www.thomann.de/gb/ibanez_ub804_mob.htm

I too was involved in a coronation garden party performance; a gig at 13:00 at such an event (Charlbury), then off to a rehearsal for a show next week, then to another pub gig (Royal Oak at Ramsden) for a gig at 18:00. If you play in that latter pub and are over 6' tall take care when hurrying out of the bar to the car park; I missed the first two of three sets due to sitting in an ambulance dealing with the head wound obtained from that door frame, having ducked enough for the first one but not for the sneaky second frame just behind it...

How about https://youtu.be/3U_jem9q_mg ? I think the bass helps a lot on this one though.

I’m reminded of a time that a rock guitarist joined me for a session in a jazz group. Seeing a few bars of Dm7 on the chart he asked what he might be expected to play over that. I suggested D dorian/C major to keep it simple. “What? Don’t know it!” “What scales do you know, then?” ”The blues scale, and the other one.”

A lot of the stuff I listen to is ripped from CD or vinyl. Some has been purchased as digital downloads (e.g. from Bandcamp). I have no use whatsoever for the usual streaming services but all my music is on a Plex server at home so it is accessible from any of my devices wherever I have a network collection. Apple music, when I tried that, was horribly buggy and for some reason wouldn't sync to all my devices. Their usual troubleshooting steps (reboot, reboot everything else, wipe data and restore, wipe and don't restore) were of no use.

Even though I suspect I wouldn't like it I've often fancied a go on a Rickenbacker, 4001 or 4003. I noticed that some people in this thread mentioned that a double bass would be on their list. Do any of you own Rickenbackers and live in/near Oxfordshire? Perhaps we could come to some arrangement...

Last night's gig was in a tiny venue - the Three Horseshoes in Charlbury. The scroll of my bass was a couple of inches under the ceiling and it had to stay in place, held upright, during the interval as there was nowhere to put it down. The rooms were very cramped as well. Good gig, though - the audience appeared very pleased with the music. I was also incredibly lucky and found a large parking space right outside the front door of the pub. Though the band advertises as jazz the BL wants material that is easier on the general public's ear and so it tends to involve quite a few long grooves with obvious blues or reggae influence.