This should be interesting...

[thisnameistaken]

I seem to have agreed to do two 'jazz' gigs this month. Well, sort of. One's a short set of gypsy jazz stuff, the other will be about 3 hours of slow standards on boxing day for some function attended by old people.

I've not played any jazz before. Well not live anyway. I'm pretty happy that I can do the gypsy stuff since it's mostly blues and popular tunes but the with the standards there'll be a lot more busking required. It's a very low-pressure gig though and they'll all be slow tunes so I suppose it's a good way to dip my toe into reading charts which I haven't done for 15 years or so, but it's a quartet so there's the bonus fear of being required to chip in with a few solos.

Bit nervous. Any advice?

[Nico@Bass]

Do you know the songs already you are going to play? Else you can prepare at home Don't worry just be yourself on stage and play what you feel is right.

[thisnameistaken]

I've got a list of the tunes for the gypsy stuff, but not the other one. I don't know if I'll get a full list of tunes for that one, which is why I'm worrying! And I just know they're going to have some funny ideas about what keys they want to play in, just to confuse me even further...

Edited December 4, 2012 by thisnameistaken

[RhysP]

Don't worry about the 3 hour gig for old people - they'll all be asleep after 20 minutes.

I knew a guy who used to go around old peoples homes with an electric keyboard providing musical entertainment - he gave it up because he couldn't handle the amount of people who died while he was performing.