Next Week: TowerLight, 3601 Wooddale Ave. 11am-3pm
Quite a crowd of rhythm players this week. Raphael (bass), Steve C (piano), Serdar (guitar), and Steve H (alto) were there to get things started. Waymond (bass, drums) arrive shortly thereafter, followed by Wes (tenor), Craig (guitar), Terry (guitar), and finally Carl (trombone) and Annie (vocals). Victor bused in from the far reaches of the city, but only arrived as we were wrapping up at 3:00. We had enough rhythm players that we went looking for the TowerLight drumset: no sticks, but some large plastic cooking spoons filed in nicely.
The first four of us got started with Raphael's suggestion, On Green Dolphin Street (IV-321), which we had a hard time finding in any of the volumes until we remembered the "ON" in the title. We were about to get started on Alice in Wonderland (I-17), when the recently arrived Waymond's presence suggested the use of drums, which took a few minutes to gather and assemble. By now Wes was in the building, and we got through a couple of rounds of Serdar's pick, Billie's Bounce (II-44). Steve C. was feeling Ellingtonian, so he opted for I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart (I-188). Craig was on board now, and Waymond returned to the bass and called for Cedar Walton's Holy Land (II-166). Wes counted off a moderately paced version of Boplicity (I-58). Craig's choice was one we worked on last week, Feel Like Makin' Love (III-119).
Carl and Annie had come in two songs back, and were now ready for action. The vocal portion began with Annie's choice of Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man (I-68). She followed that up with the very different Afro Blue (I-11), which all agreed we should go back to next week. Terry having joined us at some point, it was his turn for an instrumental option, which was Autumn Leaves (I-39). Annie worked on a couple of ballads next: the melodically tricky Never Let Me Go (III-299), and the harmonically complex Detour Ahead (I-105). For the next instrumental, Carl pulled out an updated handout of Walkin'. We returned to Annie's vocals with I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free (I-195), followed by Let There Be Love (III-236). Serdar had asked for Summertime (IV-435) earlier, so we took that as our final instrumental of the day. We closed out the session with a round for everyone, vocalists and instrumentalists, on Song For My Father (I-373).
Participant Picks
I Let A Song Go Out Of
My Heart
Ella Fitzgerald, Barney Kessel, Stuff Smith, Ben Webster
Johnny Hodges
Sonny Stitt
Thelonious Monk
Afro Blue
Mongo Santamaria
John Coltrane
Enjoy!
--SJH
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