Last night after getting off work I called up an old friend of mine to see if he was doing anything interesting for Fat Tuesday. A former resident of New Orleans, it was a day that he usually made sure to celebrate in some fashion or another every year, regardless of where he was living at the time.
But instead of planning on some sort of homespun beads and zydeco party, what Armond was excited about was his latest score -- a nearly mint condition Rhodes Mark I Stage Piano that he'd gotten for a steal of a price from a local music store. They don't really make these anymore -- so just finding one is a big deal, but it was clear from the excitement in his voice that this one was not only in fantastic shape, but almost identical to the one he played while playing with various touring bands over the years.
The decision was made to break the instrument in the best way possible, by having a jam session that night. As with any night at the Cafe Beat -- wine and food would be available for all, and if nothing else it was a chance to hang with dear friends I haven't seen as much as I should have in the past few months.
Unfortunately I headed into this adventure knowing full well I hadn't played guitar much at all lately, which made me worry that I might not make a good showing. But the best thing about a jam session is that it's more about the spirit of what you're doing than getting every single note perfect.
So I headed out, drank some wine, traded a few stories, and had a good time catching up. Regardless of periods of time when we don't get many chances to hang out, Armonds house is in a lot of ways a home away from home for me. A couple of years back I spent almost an entire summer in that room mastering tracks for a blues album we were producing at the time -- but even if I hadn't it's just one of those places where everything feels comfortable and right.
So as Armond set things up I plugged my guitar straight into the mixing console, not really overly concerned with effects or anything as much as I just wanted to play some chords and see what might happen. This was about the time Rick Arcusa showed up. Rick's a local musician Armond's been working with a lot lately -- producing and promoting his band and just hanging out with the way musicians sometimes do. Rick's one of those guys who can play just about any instrument he picks up, which works out nicely when you're in a studio that has everything from trumpets to theremins close at hand.
Eventually though we settled into an easy setup with Armond at the Rhodes, me on guitar, and Rick working the bass. It's always interesting when you jam with people you've only just met because there's always a desire to let someone else take the lead. Even if you have an alpha dog personality, you don't want to overpower the session and kill the vibe early. So there was a lot of meandering around trying to decide what to play until Armond almost absently played one of the signature keyboard fills from "Riders on the Storm."
Within minutes we kicked into the tune as much as we could without preparation, occasionally tripping over ourselves in the process -- but eventually finding a nice pocket where we traded a few solos and generally got the few people sitting around to bob their heads with the beat.
This went on for a little while with a few tunes, but it became quickly clear that while we were all easygoing and open-minded as players, our backgrounds and styles were different enough that it was kinda hard to settle on material.
There are generally two types of jam sessions you can be in as a musician. Free-form improvisational things that offer few boundaries or restrictions, where stretching and experimentation are encouraged and help build the momentum of the thing, or (like in this case) trying to find songs that everyone either knows or could easily figure out. Jams like this are more about building bridges between players, trying to find the kind of common grounds that other things can be built from. But mainly, it's just about having fun without having to worry so much about where the next riff is going to come from.
The problem was, we all knew our share of songs -- but our tastes seemed to span three completely different generations of music. Not that this was a bad thing, but more that it left a lot of roads closed to us that might have been open otherwise. Luckily we had an equalizer, because the star of the jam wasn't really any of us so much as it was the new keyboard Armond had bought. So instead of just throwing out song names hoping to come across something everybody knew how to play, the mantra became "What songs do we know that have great Rhodes parts in them?"
As unique as the instrument is, this question is a lot harder to answer than you might think.
It was at this point that I decided to trade Rick out for the bass. Being the youngest one there, it was a pretty easy choice to make. I like to consider myself pretty versatile as a player, but the simple fact is that the songs I knew by heart weren't by and large the types of things we were going to be playing tonight. Nothing to get bummed out about, of course -- but it just seemed like it would have been counterproductive for me to sit there and say
Once the switch was made, it was easier to get things moving -- because as he mentally clicked through his mental library of songs Rick would pick out a chord or two, which usually was enough for the rest of us to fill in the blanks. It turned into more of a classic pop tunes night than the blues jam Armond might have originally envisioned, but sometimes when you take a song that everybody knows and spice them up with your own style and flair it becomes a whole new animal -- which sparks everyone's creativity.
So as that spirit sort of filled the room tunes by Bill Withers, Blues Image, The Hollies, Three Dog Night, and even Buck Owens opened up into new territories -- while songs that we were more familiar with ("Wish You Were Here," by Pink Floyd, "Stormy" by Santana) fell into comfortable pockets that made it easy to groove with.
We even took at stab at the Monkees - which was weird at first but ended up sounding really good by the time we were done with it.
What really made the songs work for this jam though was something that couldn't have existed if we'd opted for more experimental territory - and that was the lyrics. We didn't know every word to every tune, but having to work around the vocal melody kept us from playing too much outside of the songs themselves. Having not played in a long time, and certainly not in these sorts of stylistic confines made this facet an extra challenge for me, especially because in a lot of cases despite having heard these songs for years and years on end, a lot of these tunes I'd never even tried to play before in my life.
I mean, it was a great time and all - and we're hoping to do it again, but I think there actually was a point where I kind of stepped outside of myself and thought,
But instead of planning on some sort of homespun beads and zydeco party, what Armond was excited about was his latest score -- a nearly mint condition Rhodes Mark I Stage Piano that he'd gotten for a steal of a price from a local music store. They don't really make these anymore -- so just finding one is a big deal, but it was clear from the excitement in his voice that this one was not only in fantastic shape, but almost identical to the one he played while playing with various touring bands over the years.
The decision was made to break the instrument in the best way possible, by having a jam session that night. As with any night at the Cafe Beat -- wine and food would be available for all, and if nothing else it was a chance to hang with dear friends I haven't seen as much as I should have in the past few months.
Unfortunately I headed into this adventure knowing full well I hadn't played guitar much at all lately, which made me worry that I might not make a good showing. But the best thing about a jam session is that it's more about the spirit of what you're doing than getting every single note perfect.
So I headed out, drank some wine, traded a few stories, and had a good time catching up. Regardless of periods of time when we don't get many chances to hang out, Armonds house is in a lot of ways a home away from home for me. A couple of years back I spent almost an entire summer in that room mastering tracks for a blues album we were producing at the time -- but even if I hadn't it's just one of those places where everything feels comfortable and right.
Every time I go back there it makes me wonder why I ever letAs night moved on and the wine began kicking in, people began gravitating towards the musical instruments in the living room. At first it was just messing around, but soon after more people started showing up -- and the need to find out what the Rhodes sounded like became imperative.
myself fall out of the habit of stopping by on a regular basis.
So as Armond set things up I plugged my guitar straight into the mixing console, not really overly concerned with effects or anything as much as I just wanted to play some chords and see what might happen. This was about the time Rick Arcusa showed up. Rick's a local musician Armond's been working with a lot lately -- producing and promoting his band and just hanging out with the way musicians sometimes do. Rick's one of those guys who can play just about any instrument he picks up, which works out nicely when you're in a studio that has everything from trumpets to theremins close at hand.
Eventually though we settled into an easy setup with Armond at the Rhodes, me on guitar, and Rick working the bass. It's always interesting when you jam with people you've only just met because there's always a desire to let someone else take the lead. Even if you have an alpha dog personality, you don't want to overpower the session and kill the vibe early. So there was a lot of meandering around trying to decide what to play until Armond almost absently played one of the signature keyboard fills from "Riders on the Storm."
Within minutes we kicked into the tune as much as we could without preparation, occasionally tripping over ourselves in the process -- but eventually finding a nice pocket where we traded a few solos and generally got the few people sitting around to bob their heads with the beat.
This went on for a little while with a few tunes, but it became quickly clear that while we were all easygoing and open-minded as players, our backgrounds and styles were different enough that it was kinda hard to settle on material.
There are generally two types of jam sessions you can be in as a musician. Free-form improvisational things that offer few boundaries or restrictions, where stretching and experimentation are encouraged and help build the momentum of the thing, or (like in this case) trying to find songs that everyone either knows or could easily figure out. Jams like this are more about building bridges between players, trying to find the kind of common grounds that other things can be built from. But mainly, it's just about having fun without having to worry so much about where the next riff is going to come from.
The problem was, we all knew our share of songs -- but our tastes seemed to span three completely different generations of music. Not that this was a bad thing, but more that it left a lot of roads closed to us that might have been open otherwise. Luckily we had an equalizer, because the star of the jam wasn't really any of us so much as it was the new keyboard Armond had bought. So instead of just throwing out song names hoping to come across something everybody knew how to play, the mantra became "What songs do we know that have great Rhodes parts in them?"
As unique as the instrument is, this question is a lot harder to answer than you might think.
It was at this point that I decided to trade Rick out for the bass. Being the youngest one there, it was a pretty easy choice to make. I like to consider myself pretty versatile as a player, but the simple fact is that the songs I knew by heart weren't by and large the types of things we were going to be playing tonight. Nothing to get bummed out about, of course -- but it just seemed like it would have been counterproductive for me to sit there and say
"How can anyone not know how to play California Uber Alles?"Rick is the lead singer in a working cover band -- so it just made sense to let him have a melody instrument. Besides, bass guitar is a fun instrument to play -- it's boomy and loud, and offers a lot of chances to experiment with the spaces in-between the notes than a keyboard or guitar does.
Once the switch was made, it was easier to get things moving -- because as he mentally clicked through his mental library of songs Rick would pick out a chord or two, which usually was enough for the rest of us to fill in the blanks. It turned into more of a classic pop tunes night than the blues jam Armond might have originally envisioned, but sometimes when you take a song that everybody knows and spice them up with your own style and flair it becomes a whole new animal -- which sparks everyone's creativity.
So as that spirit sort of filled the room tunes by Bill Withers, Blues Image, The Hollies, Three Dog Night, and even Buck Owens opened up into new territories -- while songs that we were more familiar with ("Wish You Were Here," by Pink Floyd, "Stormy" by Santana) fell into comfortable pockets that made it easy to groove with.
We even took at stab at the Monkees - which was weird at first but ended up sounding really good by the time we were done with it.
What really made the songs work for this jam though was something that couldn't have existed if we'd opted for more experimental territory - and that was the lyrics. We didn't know every word to every tune, but having to work around the vocal melody kept us from playing too much outside of the songs themselves. Having not played in a long time, and certainly not in these sorts of stylistic confines made this facet an extra challenge for me, especially because in a lot of cases despite having heard these songs for years and years on end, a lot of these tunes I'd never even tried to play before in my life.
I mean, it was a great time and all - and we're hoping to do it again, but I think there actually was a point where I kind of stepped outside of myself and thought,
"Holy crap, did I really just say Jeremiah was a Bullfrog?"
[Listening to: Gene Pitney, "Town Without Pity"]
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