« Dental work | Main | Christmas presents. »
December 06, 2006
more jazz
We keep finding more jazz jam sessions. Monday: Produce Row Cafe; Tuesday: one at Mississippi Pizza, another at the Lamp; Wednesday: Spice and Jax Bar; Thursday: Proper Eats.
"I think there's more," Ben says, "I just don't know about them. I prefer to have my weekends to myself, anyway."
We went to the Jax jam tonight for the first time, and after a beer Ben got up the courage to break out his sax and call a few tunes. 'Round Midnight was so good I almost cried. It's the saddest song I know.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at December 6, 2006 10:19 PM
Comments
So I've been listening on my iPod at work to the two recordings of Round Midnight I have, one by Dexter Gordon's group in the 70's, one by Thelonious Monk's quartet with Johnny Griffin in 1958 trying to figure out how to play the introductory riff to the song. I got the idea from Bryant Allard that if I'm going to call Round Midnight at a jam session it would be a good idea to know the intro, and possibly also the alternate rhumba ending that not everybody does (Dexter Gordon does it on my recording and Monk/Griffin don't on my other recording). Many people find the song difficult, and there are several ways to do it.
FYI: Dexter Gordon: Tenor Saxophone player famous for playing ballads like Round Midnight, Johnny Griffin: Tenor Saxophone player famous for playing fast, Thelonious Monk: piano player and composer of Round Midnight, famous for idiosynchratic harmonies and rhythms (read: genius).
Posted by: Ben at December 8, 2006 11:36 AM