What a turnout! Vocals and rhythm and horns—oh, my! We had
Gene on drums, Sam on bass and trumpet, Greg on guitar, Steve M and
Steve H on altos, Wes on tenor, Todd on trumpet, Jack K on trumpet and drums,
Carl on trombone, Ray on bass, and Annie and Dick on vocals. With the number of
people who showed up--and were actually all in the room at the same time--we had to run more solos per song, so there were fewer
songs this week. But everyone was in good form, and a very enjoyable afternoon
ensued.
Starting with Sam, Gene, the Steves, Wes, Todd and Jack, we
played an arrangement of Jimmy Giuffre’s Four
Brothers. It’s always good for us to work through things written with
harmonies, and anything that is new; Sam likes to stretch us whenever it is
feasible. We agreed to return to it another week. Gene then suggested Milt
“Bags” Jackson’s Bags’ Groove (Real Book II-30), a groove everyone
really settled into with extended solos.
Wes called for another groove, this time Dizzy’s Groovin’ High (I-166).
Yours truly requested Indiana
(II-201), which swung along at a good clip. Jack changed the tempo with a
ballad, My Romance; he took the
statement of the tune and another chorus, and closed out playing the tune again
with only horn chords behind him. Todd chose All The Things You Are (I-22) at a nice medium swing. Steve M
decided to challenge us with Round
Midnight (I-345), which sounds a lot easier to play than it is, with some
intriguing chord changes.
By this time, Ray had arrived, followed closely by Annie,
Carl, and Dick. Annie got us moving with
It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got
That Swing ((I-224) which, it turns out, is true. Sam the Challenger pulled
out Jeannine (II-212) to test our
modal chops (mine are none too developed). Fortunately, Dick followed up with In A Mellow Tone (I-206). Trying one she
had not previously done with the group, Annie sang Just In Time (II-222), though it sounded as though we had been
together for a long time. On his turn, Dick decided on Out of Nowhere (I-318). Annie likes to add flourishes and use her
classical voice on certain songs; Poor
Butterfly (III-324) gets a Madame
Butterfly introduction. We rocked on through Sam’s next pick, St. Thomas (II-339). The beautiful My One And Only Love (I-288) was Dick’s
next choice. We tried another that Annie had wanted to check out, but hadn’t
covered before, Rodgers and Hart’s Lover (II-256),
in 4/4 and 3/4. As 3:00 approached, we took on I’m Confessin’ behind Dick’s vocals.
At this point, our usual end time, your scribe had to leave,
but most everyone else remained behind for more fun.
Despite the large turnout, I got hardly any requests for
this week’s Participant Picks.
Dick said that the piece he couldn’t think of last week was When I Look In Your Eyes, with Anthony
Newley singing to a seal. Unfortunately, I cannot locate it on YouTube, so if
anyone knows where we can view it, please send word.
Annie, having just sung it, suggested Just In Time. I have the movie version with Dean Martin and Julie
Holiday, and another one with just Dino and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra.
The ever-watchful Sam sent his in
ahead of time, and you just never know what to expect from him. Here we have
Snarky Puppy playing Lingus (We Like It
Here):
I have a fondness for blues tunes
that don’t quite follow the traditional chord structure. This all started when
I first heard Ham Hock Blues, with
Lionel Hampton, Zoot Sims, Teddy Wilson, George Duvivier, and Buddy Rich. The
final four, instead of the usual V7, IV7, I change, goes #V7, V7, I.
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