[quote name='Bilbo' post='922868' date='Aug 12 2010, 03:42 PM']That's my point. IMO, it has to rest with your fellow musicians. In the case of your jazz band, your friends are clearly happy enough to work with you: it may be you have good time and a good sound and they feel able to wait for the rest to come. If your time was all over the place, you would probably have known about it already.
But you have to proceed with some caution because, sometimes, the 'old school' can be delusional and project all sorts of kudos on to your playing that isn't deserved. I used to play with an old guy a long time ago who thought I was the dogs danglies. Not because I was but because he [i]thought[/i] I was. He was a lovely guy and very enthusiastic (he apparently turned down a guitar gig with The Shadows before they became famous and has been kicking himself ever since) but his standards were very low. If you are surrounded by people like him, it can distort your own perspective on your playing (small town hero kind of thing). But, if they are credible players, they can take you forward absolutely.
As for yardstick, in my case there was a bl**dy great elephant in the room. I didn't need a ruler .[/quote]
The parts I have to play are pretty simple, 2 to the bar really, the occasional tri-tone substitution to make things interesting, so probably not as demanding as the stuff you play Bilbo.
But as you said, I passed the audition because of my feel and timing apparently. And I'm slightly exaggerating my "noobness".