Yes, our next jam is July 5th, the day after 4th of July. Will that affect the turnout? Maybe, maybe not. We’ve had large turnouts on other holiday weekends, during the Super Bowl, and high school graduation day. On the other hand it was a lighter turnout at our last jam on Father’s Day. Either way is okay. A large audience is more fun to play for and a small group means more playing time per jammer.
One thing is predictable, our band will sound great! This week’s super lineup includes Dave Cooper – trumpet, Doug Brown – guitar, John Christensen – bass, and Rodrigo Villanueva – drums.
The featured tune is, “Mack the Knife,” AKA “Moritat.” You’ll want to learn this song as it continues to be popular and is commonly requested at gigs. To the best of my knowledge a fakebook version doesn’t exist. A chord chart and backing tracks are available on Learn Jazz Standards, and the melody is easy enough to learn and memorize from recordings. We’ll play it in Bb concert. Here’s Frank Sinatra singing it. Notice how the intensity increases as it rises by a half step every verse? This is how it is often done but jazz musicians like Sonny Rollins, and Dexter Gordon also played it all in one key. In order to keep it simple we’ll do it their way. So, when you’re done listening to Frank listen to Sonny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW0RgtRLd1k