The late news

A hectic weekend and start to the work week has delayed the post about the last jazz workshop in February. I think I have had occasion to mention that the workshop has a broad section of participants, from people just beginning their journeys in jazz to people who have been playing for decades. As a result, sometimes songs work well and sometimes they don't- especially if songs that are too complex are called. We had a bit of both this time at the workshop, not even getting through a few tunes once and having some come off quite well. That's the way it goes some weeks.

This week we had two new participants, Paul on acoustic guitar and Rick on piano. We also had some of the regular suspects: Ira (alto sax), Annie (vocals), Dick (vocals), Gene (drums), Wes (tenor sax), Todd (trumpet), Owen (accordion), Craig (guitar) and Tim (guitar). No photos this week as I was too busy playing. Sorry! I'll look through the archives for some photos I haven't yet used.

The song list included "Telemodal" (an original by Tim which turned out to need refinement, no surprise for its first time out), "East of the Sun," "Indiana," "The Nearness of You," "Brown Baby," "Amazing Grace," "Phase Dance," "It Don't Mean A Thing," "Satin Doll," "Blue Bossa," "Like Someone In Love," "Always On My Mind," "Save The Best For Last," "Nancy," "Black Orpheus," "Don't Blame Me," and "There Will Never Be Another You."

I think that I mentioned last week that Todd had done some analysis of the set lists over a four month period and found that we had played something like 180 songs, most of them once or twice and some of them six or seven times. There seemed to be some thought that it might not be a bad idea to put together a core song list from which to choose, so that we have a body of songs with which the participants can become familiar. Ira sent me a list of songs that his quartet uses and I have a similar list from Sam. This would be worth exploring further and will be up for discussion at future workshops.