Audio Samples from our recent 'Gel Session'

[tZer]

I have a group of friends I get together every blue moon and we have a 'Gel Session'. I am sure you all have some idea of what I mean, but to be clear, what we do is show up at my friend's basement studio with beer, munchies and instruments for a jam. Nothing is scripted - we just start riffing and see where it goes. We record everything - warts and all. This one started at 9pm and I did not roll into my driveway until well after 3am... good time!

I have a some exerpts and even a couple full-length (20+minutes... yikes!) samples online. All spontaneous stuff. Please, if you have the patience and can stand listening to basement tapes, have a listen and let me know what you think. All typical 'we were just jamming disclaimers' are in play. This all rather aimless rambling - but there are moments that are pretty cool.

For perspective, here is the cast of characters:
Manley - Baker guitar/synthesizer - Boogie Amp
Jim - Tele and Fender 2x12 amp - Mandocello (bazooki) - Congas
Cary - Another Baker and Boogie setup
Jeff - Les Paul and Mini-Marshall
Sean - Drum Kit
Me (Tony) - Bass (Fender Jazz V) - POD - Ampeg SVT Monster

[Clickity]

Apologies for putting up such self-indulgent material, but I have done a lot of posting with no samples. Figured it was time I exposed myself a little - I am scared....

[Razor]

Good sounding jam! What did you use to record everything?

If all the impromptu jams I performed in went as well as this one.....well, I'd be very happy!

[tZer]

I am so relieved! Thanks! If you would like, I can ask Manley to provide me a more specific list of equipment he uses - he is getting really good at this recording thing. He has a really nice basement studio setup including 2 Delta 1010's, a complete array of eq's and all that other jazz - a 16 channel Yamaha board - some really nice mics and on and on...

BUT he used his mobile setup for this which consisted of 2 really nice mics, a nice pre-amp the M-Audio FW410 into his wife's Dell - Software, Sonar 5.0 producer's edition. We pretty much hit record and let the chips fall where they may. All live, as the room delivers... We really like the way the room sounds.

This was the first time this drummer played with us and he absolutely rocks!!! He is my new favorite drummer to jam with. The rest of us have done this a bunch of times - each time is a stellar experience - one I am sure you have to be there to fully appreciate, but still...

Thanks again!

[ebladeboi123]

Not bad, but the keyboardist is bad solo'er (sorry).

I really dig the guitars especially the rhythm guitars. I would steal some of your riffs... but well thats stealing

Dan

[tZer]

Yeah - the keyboardist is actually the Tele guitar player (Jim) who decided to sit and tinker with the keys. He has no piano skills at all, so there is no reason to apologize - he is not a keyboardist. :-) - I do like the general idea he had though. I think the electric piano sound he accidentally found sounds a lot like Traffic - which is cool even if his chops are, well, non-existent.

That's one of the things we like to do - try things we don't normally do to see how it goes. That is one of the great things about these no-holds-barred jam sessions.

And feel free to lift riffs. We may or may not be using them ourselves. Since this is not a real band - just a bunch of guys who jam every so often, it is unlikely that much of this material will ever become anything more then what you hear today.

I am currently combing through the hours of recordings 'mining for gold' - looking for really usable hooks and progressions - but I have been doing that for years and we still haven't made anything coherant come of it. I have already transcribed the hooks and progressions from the first sample (Rolling Bass in A...) I can pretty easily see how that one can be turned into a 'Jeff Beck-ish' instrumental jam... We'll just have to wait and see.

But if you do use a riff, let me know. I would love to hear what you do with it.

--tz

[Super Dwarf]

you guys sound great, i really like Am I Dead Yet? but thats alot of guitar takein up too much bass space hehe

[tZer]

Thanks a lot, man! There is actually about a solid 4 hours of recording - many of the excursions are over 30 minutes long! I have a lot of material to comb through for gems.

We really enjoy our 'gel sessions' even if the music doesn't end up in a traditional song format - we love jamming off of each other.

Thanks!