DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

So, I played a jazz gig a couple weeks ago. It was a stretch. Fortunately it wasn’t a pure swing set; that’s the sort of stretch that leaves permanent scarring.

My friend Oli, wizard of the Hammond organ, and local guitar pro Burjor Dastur had booked a show at the Ace. They’ve done a lot of gigs as a duet but were thinking the show would benefit from a third instrument, even one that tends to be loud and somewhat busy. Enter my great big acoustic kit. Well, I left the cowbell at home.

We rehearsed once, the day before. It was rough. The idea behind this particular trio is to take jazz standards and turn them into electric fusion songs. Hopefully without turning them into Jazz Odyssey. The challenge for me was that I’ve never heard, much less played, any of the jazz standards that served as the basis for our set list. In contrast, Oli and Burjor can play them forwards and backwards, in any key, in any time signature, and from the sound of it, frequently did so during our rehearsal.

During load-in, I noticed a big sign outside the pub announcing the line-up for the evening. For me this was a random pick-up gig, so when I saw a band called “CORE” listed to go on stage during our slot, my first reaction was “oh, cool; they found a real band to play tonight!” It hadn’t occurred to me that this random pick-up trio might have a name.

But the gig went really well. The other guys are smoking, and they’ve played together a couple hundred times, which is of course a big help. I played pretty well too.

Oli owes me a copy of his recording of the show. If I can find an excerpt that stands up to the cold harsh (not to mention sober) light of day, I’ll post a clip here.