HEADS UP: February 25 session will be at TowerLight 3601 Wooddale St Louis Park
Little smaller turn out, little smaller tune list, a good time was had by all.
Checked out the piano available to us. Works fine, sounds good, we need to bring amp to use with it.
Tunes played:
All Blues, Don't Blame Me, Stella By Starlight, How High The Moon, Stardust, Straight No Chaser.
Attendees:
Jack (trumpet), Wes (tenor), Jim (piano),Sam (bass).
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
January 21, 2017
The core was there for this week’s version of the workshop:
Serdar (guitar), Ray (bass), Steve M (alto), Steve H (alto), Jack D (trumpet),
Annie (vocals), Carl (trombone) and Jim D (alto and clarinet).
Ray got us rolling with I
Remember You (II-179). Steve M. called for the little-heard Irving Berlin
tune, This Year’s Kisses (II-399),
with its 6/6/8/8-bar construction. Annie caled a couple of oldies but goodies, Get Out Of Town (II-148), and Georgia On My Mind (II-145). Jim D. shook
out his book and came up with Doxy
(II-111). Annie took another vocal, this time to work on the tricky but lovely I Get Along Without You Very Well (II-174). Jack D. stuck with the standards and Autumn In New York (I-38). Time to
change the tempo, so Annie called Put On
A Happy Face (III-328). Carl didn’t feel like playing In A MellowTone, so he chose Rose
Room (III-340) instead. Another vocal moment had Annie bringing it back to
the ballad with Never Let Me Go (III-299).
Jack and Jim had to pull up stakes at this point. Yours truly was feeling a bit
Nat King Cole-ish with L-O-V-E
(III-252). Annie, feeling a bit contrary, said This Can’t Be Love (III-402). Still, she continued in a very bluesy
tone, They Say It’s Wonderful
(III-400). Unfortunately, Ray had to stop at this point. Serdar nonetheless opted
for a favorite, All The Things You Are
(I-22). Annie took another swing with All
of You as your scribe packed up to head out, and they were playing Steve
M’s call, Body and Soul as I danced
out.
Participant Picks
Billie Holiday, This Year’s Kisses
Ballad of the Sad Young Men
Roberta Flack
Keith Jarrett
January 14, 2017
After finally negotiating a parking spot, your scribe and
his alto rolled in shortly before the workshop participants were ready to play.
Present were Sam (bass), Serdar (guitar), Jack D (trumpet), Carl (trombone) and
Annie (vocals). Steve M (alto) joined the festivities a bit later.
Somehow, I got the first call, and opted for Broadway (I-61). Jack D, next around the
circle, pulled out Long Ago and Far Away
(I-251). I don’t believe we had ever played Carl’s choice, Bessie’s Blues (I-42). Annie took the next one, Easy Living (I-127). She and Carl then
presented us with a fresh chart of Firm
Brown Frame. Serdar is working on All
The Things You Are (I-22), and invited us to work on it with him. Annie
took another vocal, and worked on Hoagy Carmichael’s lovely but surprisingly
confusing I Get Along Without You Very
Well (II-174). Sam changed the tempo with Wes Montgomery’s West Coast Blues (I-436). Steve M pulled
out an old standard, I Left My Heart In
San Francisco (III-168). Annie had a good time with My Heart Belongs To Daddy (III-290).
Back around the circle, yours truly chose Pennies From Heaven (II-309). Annie’s next vocal selection was When I Fall In Love (I-439). Jack D is
always a fan of Bags’ Groove (II-30)
by, of course, Bags. Sam interjected himself in the course of things by calling
Softly As In A Morning Sunrise
(II-395). Back to Annie, we got caught
up in Watch What Happens (II-413).
Carl pulled out a favorite, Robbin’s Nest
(II-330). Purely coincidentally, he swears, when I announced that I had to pack
up, Steve M called Get Out Of Town
(II-148). By the time I was ready to go, the crew was on to Annie singing I’ve Got The World On A String
(III-189).
Participant Picks
Lou Rawls and Dianne Reeves, Fine Brown Frame
I Get Along Without
You Very Well
Nina Simone
Diana Krall
Billie Holiday
Wes Montgomery, West
Coast Blues
My Heart Belongs To
Daddy
Eartha Kitt
Peggy Lee (Double-Time feel)
Julie London (in ¾)
John Coltrane, Bessie’s
Blues
It sounds so different when he plays it…
Saturday, January 7, 2017
January 7, 2017
Happy New Year!
The Workshop began the new year at the Hook and Ladder with a good turnout. Yours truly was the last to turn up, just before the official 3:00 start time. Sam (bass), Annie (vocals), Carl (trombone), Serdar (guitar) Steve M. (alto), Jack D. (trumpet), Jim D. (clarinet and alto), and Wes (tenor) were already there.
Carl got the first call with Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West (Real Book II-408). Going clockwise around the circle, Annie went next with Blame It On My Youth (II-51). Serdar got the next call, going with All Of Me (I-20). Sam pulled something out of his bag and passed it around, a blues called BR2. Back to the vocals, Annie reached into Carousel for the beautiful ballad, If I Loved You; somehow, though, it turned into a mid-tempo swing that worked surprisingly well. Donna Lee (I-123) was next, chosen, of course, by Wes. Another vocal for Annie, this time I Get Along Without You Very Well (II-174)--again, a bit swingier than usual, because Annie is afraid we'd all fall asleep during the solos. I got the next call, pulling out a tune I hadn't heard in years, but spotted in the book this morning: Aquellos Ojos Verdes, better known to America as the Jimmy Dorsey/Helen O'Connell/Bob Eberly hit Green Eyes (III-25). Jim D. flipped around for a few pages until he settled on Black Orpheus (I-49). Annie wanted to do Lover (II-256) as a standard swing tune, but it was in the book in 3/4, so we stayed with that, once we found a satisfactory tempo. Jack picked the Miles Davis classic Solar (I-363). Steve M changed the mood entirely with the old Mama Cass Elliot favorite, Dream A Little Dream Of Me (I-124). Annie wanted things to get a little smoky with The Glory Of Love (III-131); we tried, but I don't know how successful we were. Finally back around to Carl's pick, we played the Charlie Parker tune, Little Suede Shoes (II-282). Our last full song, which we had to do without benefit of a bass, was Serdar's choice, Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise (II-355). In the last five minutes, we started to play some Basin Street Blues as Sam packed up, but others started to leave as well, so we closed up the workshop for another week.
Participant Picks
The Workshop began the new year at the Hook and Ladder with a good turnout. Yours truly was the last to turn up, just before the official 3:00 start time. Sam (bass), Annie (vocals), Carl (trombone), Serdar (guitar) Steve M. (alto), Jack D. (trumpet), Jim D. (clarinet and alto), and Wes (tenor) were already there.
Carl got the first call with Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West (Real Book II-408). Going clockwise around the circle, Annie went next with Blame It On My Youth (II-51). Serdar got the next call, going with All Of Me (I-20). Sam pulled something out of his bag and passed it around, a blues called BR2. Back to the vocals, Annie reached into Carousel for the beautiful ballad, If I Loved You; somehow, though, it turned into a mid-tempo swing that worked surprisingly well. Donna Lee (I-123) was next, chosen, of course, by Wes. Another vocal for Annie, this time I Get Along Without You Very Well (II-174)--again, a bit swingier than usual, because Annie is afraid we'd all fall asleep during the solos. I got the next call, pulling out a tune I hadn't heard in years, but spotted in the book this morning: Aquellos Ojos Verdes, better known to America as the Jimmy Dorsey/Helen O'Connell/Bob Eberly hit Green Eyes (III-25). Jim D. flipped around for a few pages until he settled on Black Orpheus (I-49). Annie wanted to do Lover (II-256) as a standard swing tune, but it was in the book in 3/4, so we stayed with that, once we found a satisfactory tempo. Jack picked the Miles Davis classic Solar (I-363). Steve M changed the mood entirely with the old Mama Cass Elliot favorite, Dream A Little Dream Of Me (I-124). Annie wanted things to get a little smoky with The Glory Of Love (III-131); we tried, but I don't know how successful we were. Finally back around to Carl's pick, we played the Charlie Parker tune, Little Suede Shoes (II-282). Our last full song, which we had to do without benefit of a bass, was Serdar's choice, Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise (II-355). In the last five minutes, we started to play some Basin Street Blues as Sam packed up, but others started to leave as well, so we closed up the workshop for another week.
Participant Picks
Sam
Interlochen Arts Academy 2015
At Sea
Living
Steve H
Green Eyes
Xavier Cugat
Jimmy Dorsey, Helen O’Connell, Bob Eberly
Zoot Sims/ Bucky Pizzarelli
Softly As In A Morning Sunrise
Enjoy.
--SJH
Thursday, December 22, 2016
December 17, 2016
Because of the holidays, we will not be meeting for the next two weeks.
Our next encounter will take place Saturday, January 7, 2017 at the Hook and Ladder, Minnehaha and Lake in Minneapolis. Set-up at 2:30, play 3 to 6 PM.
We are extremely grateful that the management of TowerLight has been so gracious as to let us play in the basement theater for the past few months. In return, we gathered in the lobby of TowerLight to play for whoever wanted to sit and listen, or happened to be passing by, for two hours on Saturday afternoon. Turns out, you could hear us down in the kitchen as well, and the reviews weren't bad. On hand were Sam (trumpet), Serdar (guitar), Jack D (trumpet), yours truly (alto), Tim (drums), Annie (vocals), Carl (trombone). Special guest appearance by Optimum Trajectory's Chip M, a former Workshopper who took over the bass duties. And Tim's wife also filled in for part of the second half on piano. We hope she joins us in the future.Annie and Carl had to leave after the first hour, so we got all the singing done up front. In the second half, all instrumentals. Unfortunately, I did not keep track of which songs we played, but it was quite a few off our standard Christmas repertoire. The listeners were very kind and appreciative.
Some holiday favorites:
Baby It’s Cold Outside
(original from the movie Neptune’s Daughter (1949), with side by side versions by Esther Williams and
Ricardo Montalban, and Betty Garrett and Red Skelton.
Debbie Duncan and Dennis Spears, I Love The Winter Weather/Baby It’s Cold Outside
Oscar Peterson, God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
Tony Bennett/ Count Basie Orchestra, I’ll Be Home For
Christmas
Enjoy!
--SJH
December 10, 2016
Preparation time for our appearance before actual people in the lobby at TowerLight on Dec. 17. Sam (bass, trumpet), Tim (guitar, drums), Steve M. (alto), Jack D. (trumpet), Steve H. (alto), Wes (tenor, clarinet), Carl (trombone), Annie (vocals), Ray (bass), Serdar (guitar) and Greg (guitar) all showed up at various times. The surfeit of guitar players eventually got Tim to take up his natural position at drums, and Ray's coming off the bench to fill in for a few tunes despite his recovering from injuries gave Sam some time on the trumpet.
Not going to get too descriptive today. We started out with a few non-Christmas tunes: Little Boat (I-245), Have You Met Miss Jones (I-172), and Beautiful Love (I-40). Then we got rolling on Christmas songs in preparation for 12/17. We covered Silver Bells, Merry Christmas Baby, The Christmas Song, Let It Snow, Feliz Navidad, Winter Wonderland, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, I'll Be Home For Christmas, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
--SJH
Not going to get too descriptive today. We started out with a few non-Christmas tunes: Little Boat (I-245), Have You Met Miss Jones (I-172), and Beautiful Love (I-40). Then we got rolling on Christmas songs in preparation for 12/17. We covered Silver Bells, Merry Christmas Baby, The Christmas Song, Let It Snow, Feliz Navidad, Winter Wonderland, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, I'll Be Home For Christmas, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
--SJH
Thursday, December 8, 2016
December 3, 2016
The Workshop will be performing for the residents of TowerLight on Saturday, December 17, from noon to 2pm.
Workshop this Saturday, Dec. 10, 11-3 in basement theater of Towerlight.
An interesting mixed bag of songs--a bit of Christmas, a bit of the old standards. Joining in the fun this week were Sam (bass), Steve M (alto), Bob (trombone) Jack D (trumpet), newcomer Tim (guitar), Serdar (guitar), Annie (vocals), Carl (trombone), and Steve H (alto).
Sam kicked things off with Bye Bye Blackbird (II-73). Bob dipped into the Christmas song list with The Christmas Song (C-38). Steve M chose How Deep Is The Ocean (III-150). A bit of the blues from Jack D, calling Bags' Groove (II-30). Yours truly was in the spirit of the season, pulling out Let It Snow! (C-122). Tim joined in with a quiet rendition of White Christmas.
Back around to Sam again, he surprised us as usual (and if it is usual, is it a surprise?) with Once I Loved (I-311). Serdar was looking forward since two weeks ago to take another run at Softly As In A Morning Sunrise (II-355). Bob decided to go with a shorter tune, with St. James Infirmary (II-338).
By this time Annie and Carl had arrived, and since we had to pull out by 2:00, we had Annie call all the rest of them. She started out with an oldie, "Deed I Do (III-92). We went Christmas again, doing a reprise on The Christmas Song, only this time without a lot of instrumental solos. For something a bit more upbeat, Annie chose Don't Blame Me (I-121). It Never Entered My Mind (III-205) was the next call. We finished our time together with Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (C-174).
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