art of the jam 56
one of these weeks i gotta make it down to fred's to check out the "josh clark and funky town" jam sesh, before adjourning over to the li'l wreck room to do my weekly duties as gtr player / chronicler o' events for lee and carl's invitational jam. lee allen should be a fairly impartial source, being fred's patio-meister as well as the wreck's jam-meister, and he sez the first few weeks of josh's jam have been stellar. this week, f'rinstance, he enthused that "there was a fuckin' _orchestra_ onstage: _three_ keyboard players, a sax player, marcus brunt on trombone, confusajohn and some kid i never saw before on gtrs. these young cats pull out trip-hop beats and rawk the stratosphere!" after that, most of the aforementioned headed off to the moon (the club, not the earth's natural satellite) for the jazz jam (only two more of those left before myles hayes moves to wisconsin). i was ambivalent when i left la casa, glad there's a lotta musical activity around the fort on wednesday nights but figuring that the action at fred's 'n' the moon would cut down on the number of musos 'n' civilians who made it out to the wreck.
i was cheered shortly after my arrival at el wreck by the appearance of matt hembree, bassist extraordinaire with goodwin, the underground railroad, pablo and the hemphill 7, and oh yes, stoogeaphilia, a cat with a healthy enthusiasm for music in all its forms who digs to play as much as anyone i know 'n' more than most. lee had pinged him 'cos he knew he was going to be late after closing fred's (filling in as manager in quincy's absence), which led matt to comment, "i guess i'm one of the cool kids now." matt was lugging his ibanez (since some mad fool broke all the strings off his fender and didn't replace 'em; wonder how that coulda happened?), and since his amp was awol (actually undergoing repairs in the loving care of soon-to-be-papa-of-twins john zaskoda at sessions music), matt would use lee's bass rig.
after timely pause, drummer brandon wallace showed up and set up his kit, then we tried a few things, a little aimlessly at times but making a few connections. (unlike the jam-meister, who has a degree in conducting, i am a sideman and make no bones about it; i always have my best ideas _after_ i pack my shit.) i was kinda-sorta trying to force matt to solo, even tho he hates to, since i figure a cat who can play complex charts, rawk, groove, and have out-of-body experiences onstage should be able to bogart one every once in awhile. looking out and seeing claudia acosta in the house, i called her up to flow verse over "maggot brain," as has become customary, because (matt's words) "she makes 'us' look a whole lot better." we took a break for liquid refreshment when i saw my sweetie in the house (just doing a touch 'n' go; graduation at her school, always a bittersweet occasion, was the next day and she wanted to be well-rested). wizard o' sound andre edmonson spun some manu chao jams and the jam-meister showed up, a little peaked from a day of rawk that started at 10am with rock camp (prepping his students for a performance this friday, 3pm at the ridglea theater).
we invited claudia back up for the next set, starting off with "oye como va" (matt had been listening to tito puente before stepping out this particular evening) and continuing with a spanish-tinged motif that got the jam-meister inspahrd to set up his little rig and add his five-string bass to the stew (or paella). the energy level picked up considerably (like i said, i ain't a bandleader) as the jamcats ('n' chick) threw down on various improv wonderment, whoeverthefuck it is' cover of jacko's "smooth criminal," and led zep "kashmir." barber mack leader-bassist john shook appeared, so hembree ceded his place onstage (and ibanez axe) to the new arrival.
somewhere in there my dtr and a handful of her friends showed up. we made an attempt to play "pinball wizard" at her request and were rewarded with a round of shots. villain vanguard gtrist bryce harp was in the house, getting some training on running the board from andre. bryce hadn't been able to play at fred's because of some amp issues (jayzus, is it something in the air or whut?!?!?), so i invited him to avail himself of "black gold" (as the jam-meister -- tongue planted firmly in cheek, no doubt -- dubbed my long-suffering but faithful indonesian squier) and my trusty, rusty roland "amplet" (which is going to pay smiling mr. zaskoda at sessions a visit this weekend). he proceeded to wow everyone with his greased-lightning chops and free-flowing melodic invention. matt had brought some small percussion instruments along "just in case," which i distributed among aimee's friends to make them part o' the jam, too.
watching lee 'n' shook playing "dueling basses," hembree remarked, "in a way, i wish i was playing, but i'm enjoying the conversation between those two guys way too much to worry about it." in a phrase, the spirit of the jam. 'twas beautiful. matt 'n' i also agreed we've gotta go sit in on bryce's tuesday night gig at the halo lounge over by tcu one of these weeks. so much jammin' to do, so little time. i wanna do it again next week.
i was cheered shortly after my arrival at el wreck by the appearance of matt hembree, bassist extraordinaire with goodwin, the underground railroad, pablo and the hemphill 7, and oh yes, stoogeaphilia, a cat with a healthy enthusiasm for music in all its forms who digs to play as much as anyone i know 'n' more than most. lee had pinged him 'cos he knew he was going to be late after closing fred's (filling in as manager in quincy's absence), which led matt to comment, "i guess i'm one of the cool kids now." matt was lugging his ibanez (since some mad fool broke all the strings off his fender and didn't replace 'em; wonder how that coulda happened?), and since his amp was awol (actually undergoing repairs in the loving care of soon-to-be-papa-of-twins john zaskoda at sessions music), matt would use lee's bass rig.
after timely pause, drummer brandon wallace showed up and set up his kit, then we tried a few things, a little aimlessly at times but making a few connections. (unlike the jam-meister, who has a degree in conducting, i am a sideman and make no bones about it; i always have my best ideas _after_ i pack my shit.) i was kinda-sorta trying to force matt to solo, even tho he hates to, since i figure a cat who can play complex charts, rawk, groove, and have out-of-body experiences onstage should be able to bogart one every once in awhile. looking out and seeing claudia acosta in the house, i called her up to flow verse over "maggot brain," as has become customary, because (matt's words) "she makes 'us' look a whole lot better." we took a break for liquid refreshment when i saw my sweetie in the house (just doing a touch 'n' go; graduation at her school, always a bittersweet occasion, was the next day and she wanted to be well-rested). wizard o' sound andre edmonson spun some manu chao jams and the jam-meister showed up, a little peaked from a day of rawk that started at 10am with rock camp (prepping his students for a performance this friday, 3pm at the ridglea theater).
we invited claudia back up for the next set, starting off with "oye como va" (matt had been listening to tito puente before stepping out this particular evening) and continuing with a spanish-tinged motif that got the jam-meister inspahrd to set up his little rig and add his five-string bass to the stew (or paella). the energy level picked up considerably (like i said, i ain't a bandleader) as the jamcats ('n' chick) threw down on various improv wonderment, whoeverthefuck it is' cover of jacko's "smooth criminal," and led zep "kashmir." barber mack leader-bassist john shook appeared, so hembree ceded his place onstage (and ibanez axe) to the new arrival.
somewhere in there my dtr and a handful of her friends showed up. we made an attempt to play "pinball wizard" at her request and were rewarded with a round of shots. villain vanguard gtrist bryce harp was in the house, getting some training on running the board from andre. bryce hadn't been able to play at fred's because of some amp issues (jayzus, is it something in the air or whut?!?!?), so i invited him to avail himself of "black gold" (as the jam-meister -- tongue planted firmly in cheek, no doubt -- dubbed my long-suffering but faithful indonesian squier) and my trusty, rusty roland "amplet" (which is going to pay smiling mr. zaskoda at sessions a visit this weekend). he proceeded to wow everyone with his greased-lightning chops and free-flowing melodic invention. matt had brought some small percussion instruments along "just in case," which i distributed among aimee's friends to make them part o' the jam, too.
watching lee 'n' shook playing "dueling basses," hembree remarked, "in a way, i wish i was playing, but i'm enjoying the conversation between those two guys way too much to worry about it." in a phrase, the spirit of the jam. 'twas beautiful. matt 'n' i also agreed we've gotta go sit in on bryce's tuesday night gig at the halo lounge over by tcu one of these weeks. so much jammin' to do, so little time. i wanna do it again next week.
posted by stashdauber at 7:50 PM
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