Cool evening, hot music

It was unseasonably cool today, only 72F for a high. We had a great turnout at the McRae Park building for the Monday evening jazz workshop. Regulars Sam (trumpet), Wes (tenor sax), Gene (drums), Christian (piano), Tim (guitar) and Ira (alto sax) were joined for the instrumental hour by the another Tim on bass, his daughter Romney on baritone sax and Todd on trumpet. Joining us later were Annie and Vicki (vocals) and Scott (guitar) and Jim (baritone sax). The main focus was again on songs to be played at the Freedom Jazz Festival on 8/1/09 (see the link over on the right).

This week I actually remembered to write down the tunes and the attendees! For the first hour we focused on instrumentals including "Four Brothers" (arranged by Christian), "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed," "Yardbird Suite" and "St. Thomas" (played at a gentle, tropical, almost Jimmy Buffet tempo). The vocalists joined in and we played "I'll Remember April," "What Is This Thing Called Love," "East of the Sun" sung by Vicki and "Feeling Good," ""The Masquerade Is Over," and "Don't Go To Strangers" sung by Annie. Jim sang "Tangerine." We also played "Straight, No Chaser" as an instrumental in the middle of all the vocals.

The cool thing was that the new participants- Tim, Romney and Todd- fit in well and sounded good. Scott, a professional jazz guitarist and former workshop regular who stopped in spontaneously, added interesting ornaments and passing chords to the half-dozen tunes he sat in on. Several of the songs got their best airing ever, including "Four Brothers," "Elizabeth Reed," and "Feeling Good" in particular.

All in all a good and fun evening. Hope to see you next week! Maybe I'll eventually manage to remember a camera and to write things down...