Photos from last session are up
Whew, that was not easy. Parry from Liliana's took great photos - 183 of them. I tried to pick a representative sample, that wasn't difficult, but arranging the photos involved a lot of wrestling with the site. Well, it will be easier next time.
Hopefully, we'll have the all the photos captioned within the next few days. It depends on how my memory for names works. I may need help - check back in a few days and see.
The photos are on the media page along with a link to all 183 photos.
List of jam tunes
At your request we have added a list of tunes commonly called at jams. This should make it easier to know what tunes to learn. The list is one of the menu choices at the top of the page.
Suggested tunes for March 6th
The next jam is Sunday, March 6th, 4-7 pm at Liliana's. Soon we'll be posting a list of tunes commonly played at jams. You can pick from that list or if you're playing in the first set you might want to focus on the suggested tunes. For next time we suggest Watermelon Man and Bernie's Tune.
Bernie's tune is well-known although I've never heard it called at a Madison jam. We're suggesting it at the request of several students. This tune was big during the so called West Coast jazz movement, and was a popular jam vehicle. The A section gives you a chance to work on a minor 2-5-1, and the bridge is a series of repeated 1-6-2-5's, the same chord sequence used for much of I Got Rhythm. Notice the call and response between Scott and the rhythm section in the video. Give this a try when you're jamming.
Watermelon Man is a tune everyone loves to play and one that every jazz musician is expected to know. If you play piano it's important to learn Herbie's vamp. Here are some notes from Sun Prairie High School's Steve Sveum:
- Key of F – 16 bar Blues
- straight 8th note feel
- still opportunity for two blues scales
- solo break – chance for soloist to keep time through break and rhythm section to build and come out of break
- original recording has very “transcribe-able” lines
- Aebersold has a piano voicing book for vol. 54 with transcribed piano parts from Aebersold recording
Below are the chord changes in concert key. The melodies are easy enough to learn from recordings (the best way to learn). Videos follow.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z8Rt4nvd-I]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53JPJw2DX34]
Best jam yet
Wow! What a turnout, what a great time! I'm still pumped! To say the jam was a success is an understatement.
The move to Liliana's couldn't have turned out better. We had a full house the entire time, more jammers than ever before, and tunes that wailed. Thank you Liliana's! Thank you everyone for your appreciative comments. Thank you Madison Music Collective and Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission for your grant to cover this month's jam. And thank you to everyone for your generous donations to the tip jar. Your donations really help us keep the jam going.
Our next session is Sunday March 6th 4-7 pm at Liliana's. We'll put up a few suggested tunes soon. By the way, if you have any suggestions for tunes (or anything else) please leave them on the suggestion page. You can do this anonymously if you want. We want to hear from you.
One of the suggestions we received tonight was to post a list of tunes commonly called at jams. We'll get working on it. We should also have many pics to post soon, and a video that might take a little longer to get on the site. I'll send an email out when we have some of these things posted. If you're not on our email list you can also subscribe to our blog by clicking the icon on the lower right sidebar.