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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
So I went to check out a blues jam...
So I went to check out a blues jam...
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ReedSqueal
376 posts
Feb 27, 2013
9:39 PM
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Never been to this particular jam. I listened for the first hour. All jazz tunes. Waited for the break, then introduced myself to the host. I asked if they played blues. "Yeah, sometimes but it depends..."
Not what I was expecting to hear. Then i asked if they tolerated harp players. He rubbed his chin, looking up at the ceiling and said something like "..ehhhhhhh, yeah kind of but I put them in the same class as banjo players" or something to that effect.
Did I misinterpret blues jam?
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Go ahead and play the blues if it'll make you happy.
-Dan Castellaneta
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nacoran
6539 posts
Feb 27, 2013
10:10 PM
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Lol. Sometimes events morph over time as different people start attending. I've seen "Songwriter's Circle" mean several distinct things too.
I had a rough night at a jam tonight too. I'm not really a jam type. I like playing stuff I know, especially if it's in minor (I prefer playing minor on a minor harp, although if I know the tune I can play it on a major.)
Anyway, the jam was to close out an open mic, and the first two songs were in minor, and the guys weren't 100% sure on the key, and they weren't 12 bar. There was almost no harp in the monitor.
I find a lot of guitar guys tell you what chords they are playing but aren't sure of the key. The host called out 'B' but meant B minor, which I can figure out but I don't have it internalized enough to figure it out on stage when the band is already playing, especially if they aren't starting on the I. I think I'm going to ask them for scale degrees too next time.
I'm also going to check out the host's channel and see if I can't learn a few of their tunes.
Anyway, sorry your blues jam was a jazz jam. Mine was more of a Reggae thing, which would have been cool if I was more familiar with the songs.
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Nate
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jbone
1204 posts
Feb 28, 2013
4:30 AM
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We hit an actual jazz jam several months ago and took the stage on the house band's break. Just Jolene and me. Guy told me we could do 3 songs, and after the second he shepherd hooked us. We were getting the visceral kind of response real blues gets, his guys had been getting the cerebral light hand clap sort of response. So I guess we were upstaging him and his.
We did St. James Infirmary which to me is earthy jazz, and then a Memphis Minnie which is not just a blues song, it had a lot of minors and a different chord progression than a I-IV-V.
After we got our amps off stage a few folks came by and told us we sounded great. Asked us why we didn't do more songs. I just replied that they should ask the host.
Jag and I took the stage a month ago on the west end of town and it was with a house band we know. Probably one of the best rhythm teams around here. We tore it up and should be getting a gig soon. To me that's what a jam is for partly.
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Littoral
797 posts
Feb 28, 2013
5:22 AM
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This territory is not much fun to me. As much attention as I pay to how to negotiate sitting in or playing at jams it's just tough to accomplish something good. The business of venue, the crap shoot of players/combos, sound issues (my gear?) and ego's is all tough enough. Harp player? Nah, we got some New Years noisemakers and a kazoo already.
Ok, it's not that bad but making these things work is a mine field of issues -all of which matter. I wish I had a better attitude about it but I always leave dissatisfied. I should also note that my area doesn't really have the critical mass of people & players to support jams.
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CarlA
278 posts
Feb 28, 2013
5:41 AM
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Blues jams should have notices on the front door with a release statement, kind of like a surgeon generals warning on cigarette packages and alcohol bottles. It should read something like this:
"WARNING, participating in blues jams(especially harmonica players) can result in serious mental fatigue, stress, suicidal thoughts, depression, frustration, discouragement, irritability, insomnia, lack of appetite, possible hearing loss. "
Yeah, that just about sums it up!!
-Carl
Last Edited by CarlA on Feb 28, 2013 5:44 AM
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RyanMortos
1420 posts
Feb 28, 2013
6:10 AM
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Same class as banjo players? As a jazz fan he must know Bela Fleck therefore I would ascertain he must think banjo players & harp players are great musicians.
But yeah some people's pre conditioned assumption of harmonica players is truly saddening. I go to jams in which the words 'I don't know any harmonica songs' or 'that's the only harmonica song I know' have been spoken. What nonsense just play whatever music Ill follow along.
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~Ryan
See My Profile for contact info, etc.
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Thievin' Heathen
163 posts
Feb 28, 2013
5:03 PM
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+1 CarlA
I've always been of the mind that, "as long as I'm playing harmonica, nothing else matters", but I recently had an accumulation of all those anxieties, all at the same time and I had to get out of that bar so fast I almost forgot to pay the tab. I won't be going back there, but Tuesday night I was someplace else and feeling my usual euphoric self.
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garry
360 posts
Feb 28, 2013
5:42 PM
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i had a weird thing happen the other night at a new (for me) jam. i don't go to them much anymore, but went with a friend. it was mostly rock stuff, pretty good, very loud.
after setting up, we did a Tore Up, which went ok. then the inevitable "what do you want to play? i dunno, what do you want to play? who's gonna sing?" nonsense. this went on long enough that it was getting silly, so i said "Elizabeth Reed" as a joke, 'cause nobody's gonna do that a jam. i mean, i know it because i play it with my band, but it's not a "just wing it" kind of song.
big mistake. this prompted five minutes of arguments about whether to play it, but the drummer doesn't know it, getting a new drummer up, one false start, the guitar guy who co-runs the jam clearly not wanting to play it, the other guy insisting that since a jammer had called it, we had to play it, both ignoring me saying it was a joke, i don't care what we play, just pick something and tell me the key. yeesh.
we eventually did play an abbreviated version, came out somewhere between ok-ish and trainwreck. i was the only one who really knew the song, which was funny, 'cause i'm the harp guy, right?
jams. ya never know what you're gonna get.
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Last Edited by garry on Feb 28, 2013 5:43 PM
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capnj
84 posts
Feb 28, 2013
8:08 PM
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Yeah really a crapshoot jamming or sitting in,I keep getting my feet wet,but never really know how the guitar player tunes.
Sat in with a country band,pedal steel guy makes a comment yeah fiddlers and harp players ho-hum,I blow out hard and he digs it.Rockers should be easy,but they think you only know the blues,although they think they do,so mess up your timing,play over your solo,and generally blow you off.Almost as bad if you play great,then they want you gone,cause the crowd mostly likes harp.
I try to play it all,here in vegas thats what happens,lucky theres alot going on,playing mostly with cats that like the harp,not put it down.Keep Ripping,and swinging baby.
Open mikes can be fun,with less pressured mus,went to one lately where I Big Waltered a couple of tunes,totally took over whatever come what may,played some of my best improvs geez dennis gruenling in my dreams.
Last Edited by capnj on Feb 28, 2013 8:29 PM
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Jehosaphat
453 posts
Feb 28, 2013
8:36 PM
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@Reedsqueal
Probably not a good idea to start the conversation with "do you tolerate harp players"
Sorta puts a negative slant on it from the start maybe?
But yeah how crazy is it to advertise something as a 'Blues Jam' and then play Jazz?
There are thousands of excellent blues guitarists and harmonica players who'd run a mile if they were expected to play Jazz.
False advertising at the very least.
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nacoran
6544 posts
Feb 28, 2013
9:00 PM
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Okay, so I've got a new story. Technically it was an open mic, not a jam.
So, this is a pretty packed coffee house at the start of the night. Some poetry teacher at the nearby college was holding his poetry class midterm at the cafe. All the students had to read a poem they'd written, which would have been fine, but it wasn't a high level poetry class, which again, would have been fine, but most of them were doing poems from one particular assignment. They all were "I am... followed by some metaphor, simile or odd declaration. Any one of them by itself would have been fine I guess, but taken one after another it was pretty rough. Fortunately, a couple of his students were actual poets. Two or three of them were actually pretty good, but the parade of poetry delayed the start of the 'regular' open mic considerably, which for me is a pain. I like to work out a little banter in my head before the show, and the longer I have to wait to go up the more likely I am to forget my brilliant witty remarks. :)
Again, that would have been fine, but once they are done, most of the troupe troops out, leaving a much smaller crowd. In reality, it was still a pretty good crowd. It had been standing room only, but now it was just the people in the seats. Again, normally, not a problem. :)
I was a little disappointed though, because tonight was my first time actually performing at this particular open mic, and I had a plan. I have a call and response piece that I do with just my voice and my harp. Tonight I wanted to change it up. I figured, hey, if I can get the audience to sing the response part it will get stuck in their head, and they'll look us up online! Yea me! Yea clever plan! So what if the audience is smaller than it was before. Just get up there, and give them the works. Pull out all the stops. (It didn't hurt that the guy before me played Dylanesque folk harp. Nothing like slightly lowered expectations. Besides, I know this song forward and backward. All I'm playing on harp is the little end tag. The crowd will be singing.
Anyway, I start, and guess what, it's going better than I expect. Everyone is singing MY SONG! Yea me!
It's a funny song about a souped up hotrod and a run in with the law. It's a sing along, and it's funny, so I break before the punchline/rally line. I ask a rhetorical question. Are there any cops in the audience? If there aren't, I sing the line unabashed. If there are, I apologize, and sing the line unabashed (I've sung it for my friend who is a cop. He loved it.)
Anyway, this lone voice pipes up. 'How about a retired cop?'
I smile and say, 'Eh can you give me a ticket?'
This disheveled old guy starts wandering into the stage area towards the microphone, talking about how he used to be a cop. Not a beat cop, but a high up, secret intelligence kind of cop. He's mumbling so the crowd can't hear him, but there is no actual stage, so he is able to walk right up in front of me. This is the first time I'm performing this song this way, and I'm trying to make it work, and this guy is trying to have a private conversation with me in the middle. It takes what was probably only a minute to talk him into wandering back off, but it seems like hours. Finally he clears out. I repeat the question, explaining that my car is an '87, so it doesn't drive fast anymore, so please no cops ticket me (which was the whole belabored punch line.) I deliver the line, "And the cops can go to hell". The audience, thankfully has stayed with me. I manage to muddle through the rest of it. I forget to tell them not to do the 'yeah, yeah, yeah' and can find the starting note on the easiest snippet of harp I play to finish, but I consider it a victory. The next song, all harp, no lyrics goes better. :)
(Right now, I'm going on the fat guy/non-drinker version of a bender. I'm hoping some of my non-diabetic friends come over and help me finish this chocolate cake I bought!)
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ReedSqueal
377 posts
Feb 28, 2013
10:59 PM
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@jehosaphat - yeah, that crossed my mind on the drive home. I guess I could have phrased that another way for sure.
Some damn funny stories in this thread though!
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Go ahead and play the blues if it'll make you happy.
-Dan Castellaneta
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garry
363 posts
Mar 01, 2013
3:23 PM
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i forgot to mention, one of the guys running the jam is apparently ted nugent's bass player. go figure.
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Goldbrick
93 posts
Mar 01, 2013
6:08 PM
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The "blues" jams in Miami can be interesting to say the least. Usually I am the drummer for these and you find out quickly that a lot of folks seem to think blues is " classic " rock,
I usually find out while folks are hashing what to play and I start a shuffle beat going. I will suggest something like Kansas City or Route 66 to start off. When some guys start looking lost- I know its either time to go or bang 4/4 all night
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CarlA
283 posts
Mar 01, 2013
7:06 PM
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@goldbrick
What are some good spots for genuine blues jams in Dade? Any good ones in Broward??
-Carl
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Goldbrick
94 posts
Mar 01, 2013
8:36 PM
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The gentleman who had the longest running jam with good musicians was Jeff Richmond. Tragically he was killed in a motorcycle accident on the way to Daytona not long ago.
Luna Star Cafe in North Miami is about the best now-but is geared to the acoustic side-check their calendar they are usually scheduled on Tuesday nights and alternating Saturdays. Luna has a good website with info
Tomorrow night I am gigging with a guy who will be starting something new and -I will post when I get the info from him. It will probably be in the Hollywood area.
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CarlA
284 posts
Mar 02, 2013
4:56 AM
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@ goldbrick
Thanks for the info! If the Hollywood jam gets going let us know. Hollywood is right around the corner from me.
Thanks!
-Carl
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Goldbrick
95 posts
Mar 02, 2013
10:42 AM
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@Carl
Busking some blues tonight(Saturday) in Coconut Grove at Fuller and Main across from Barracuda Bar-7-9:30 pm-Feel free to drop by.
You can get me at cydneyrose@aol.com
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CarlA
285 posts
Mar 02, 2013
10:53 AM
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I work until late today, so I won't be able to make it, but I would definitely be interested in stopping by next time. I'll drop you an email later today. Have fun tonight! Weather should be beautiful tonight, nice and cool
Last Edited by CarlA on Mar 02, 2013 10:54 AM
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Goldbrick
96 posts
Mar 02, 2013
8:17 PM
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@Carl
Jam is at Buddy's place in Hollywood. Washington and Dixie 8-12am. Monday nights
I haven't been to that one as I work Monday nights so can't tell you talent level.
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Georgia Blues
31 posts
Mar 08, 2013
6:53 PM
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If any of you ever happen to be in Athens GA on a Thursday
night check out the Office Lounge. Paul Scales and The Shadow
Executives Have been hosting along running blues jam... And I mean for several years now. And it's the blues... Straight up.
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Alex
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harpburn
28 posts
Mar 09, 2013
4:06 PM
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Open mics can be a funny old buisness. usually I get asked to come up and jam with some old guy playing some sort of folk music with odd non-bluesy chord changes. Most of the time 3rd position harp works well and is interesting. But most people 'round where I live don't know what a harmonicas supposed to sound like nor really care. So a bit of simple harp blows the place down compared to some of the other crap going on.
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