June 4th
Our next jam is June 4th and features the stellar line-up of Dave Cooper - trumpet, Johannes Wallmann - keys, John Christensen - bass, and Rodrigo Villanueva - drums. Join us and listen and learn from Madison's best jazz musicians.
Featured tunes for this week are Recordame, and Impressions. Recordame is a good vehicle for practicing 2-5-1 progressions that descend by whole steps, a common progression. I've found the entry into the melody after the intro and after solos can be tricky. Make sure you have that down.
Impressions is a modal tune with long stretches of sitting on a chord before changing. One of the challenges is keeping track of your place and knowing when the chords change. Thinking in 4 or 8 bar chunks helps. The form is AABA which means 24 continuous bars of Dm. A common mistake is skipping an A section and playing it ABA.
Lastly, I'll be back running the jam at this session. Mike is taking the day off because his wife is expecting their 1st child in early June. He expects to be back on June 18. We'll rotate jams for awhile until he is ready to do two a month again.
Welcome!
Welcome to Madison Jazz Jam! Our performances are free and open to the public, donations accepted. Join us if you an aspiring jazz musician, or a fan interested in learning and listening to jazz. The Schedule page lists dates, featured tunes, and house band members. The jam is always the 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month.
If you are new to our jam please see How it Works and Guidelines. Briefly, the 1st set is aimed at players that are early in their development and/or interested in learning from the house band. More experienced players may prefer the typical jam session format of the second set (beginning around 5:30).
You may use our drums, keyboard, and upright bass. With our PA we can accommodate a vocalist, flute, or violin. We do not have a guitar amp, guitarists should bring their own. It's best to bring any portable gear you need.
Your progress will be much faster if you memorize the music, but music and stands are allowed. There may only be one stand so consider bringing your own. More questions? Please see the links above or scope out the jam in person. Come talk to us, we're friendly.