View from the guitar chair

Sam and Vicki, above.

Once again the Jazz Workshop met in the classroom at McRae Park. The focus today was on working up songs for the April 4th "Bunny Breakfast" gig; performing at park events is part of how the Workshop pays for the use of the facilities. Today we had some new faces and some returning ones- Luis (electric bass), Tony (upright bass for the first hour or so), Christian (piano), Wes (tenor sax), Jim (tenor sax, clarinet, piano and vocals), Jarret (alto sax), a trumpeter whose name I have managed to forget (but his picture will be posted below to make up for that), Sam (trumpet), Craig (guitar), Gene (drums), Norman (drums and piano), Annie (vocals), Vicki (vocals) and Tim (guitar). That's a baker's dozen!


The horns

For the first time, at Sam's suggestion, we met at noon for an "instrumental hour" and then the vocalists joined in at the usual time. This was well-liked as it allowed the instrumentalists time to stretch out on solos that isn't available when working out songs with vocals. As an interesting side effect, the group played much more cohesively when backing up the singers, too.


Christian and Luis

Songs played included "Yardbird Suite," "Meditation," "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans," "Four," "Nature Boy," "I'll Remember April," "Blue Bossa," "St. Thomas," "I Love You," "Easter Parade," "East of the Sun" and probably a bunch of others that I have forgotten.

Next week- 3/28/09- we will again start at noon for an hour of instrumentals before the start of the Workshop at 1:00PM. Be there if you can!