First Serious Gig Next Weekend - Help!

[FreaqyFrequency]

I have played a rock cover gig before, but I have never played jazz until last week.

The band leader tells me that I have the greatest facility of any bass player my age he's ever met, and he can tell that I'm dedicated to learning what's necessary, but that I haven't been exposed to Charlie Parker/Thelonius Monk/Miles Davis type jazz, so the idea of walking a line is very foreign to me.

I'm playing a fundraiser for a scholarship dedicated to a singer in our group who was killed recently. We're playing the tunes "Four", "Confirmation", "Pollution", and an original tune, "We Love Being Here With You". The last two I'm catching onto very quickly, but the first two I have to walk at 180 bpm, and I have VERY little experience walking between chords as said before.

What would be your advice to me on how best to prepare for this gig?

[JimmyM]

Download those songs, get the Real Book charts for them, and listen to them and work on them constantly until the gig. This guy's throwing you into the deep end, but apparently he thinks you can hang, so you probably can. It means he has respect for you and thinks you will rise to the occasion.

[bwv1013]

walking at 180 will definitely get your feet wet on jazz, good luck!

that being said, i've had plenty of jazz gigs that were a bit more than i could chew, here's a couple pointers that got me through:

1. be comfy with the song form. know where the sections are so if the combo leader decides to jump around you don't get sunk.

2. know the melody. this can help you find your way if you get lost and is a good basis for a solo if you are called upon.

3. when walking at fast tempos, i make damn sure i hit something good for beat one, and use beat 4 to get me there. if you fudge the middle notes, do it with style, swing the hell out of everything and no matter what keep good time.

best of luck, let us know how it goes!

[FreaqyFrequency]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

Download those songs, get the Real Book charts for them, and listen to them and work on them constantly until the gig. This guy's throwing you into the deep end, but apparently he thinks you can hang, so you probably can. It means he has respect for you and thinks you will rise to the occasion.

He actually gave me the sheets for all of them, and I've just spent that past hour and a half working on playing them to the CD and to my looper's drum machine.

I can tell he really respects me for doing this, because I didn't meet him until 2 Tuesdays ago. It turns out that he played piano for Frank Sinatra, along with a laundry list of bands from the 60s to the present. He's just so awesome on the piano that during our practices (2 thus far), I've only just started being able to keep up with him, and that's with him slowing down about 60 bpm! But he knows that I'm trying my best, so he's not giving up by a long shot.

To BMV - Thanks for the advice! This will more than likely be my head being dunked, let alone my feet getting wet. I will certainly be getting back to you after the fact.

Also, rumor has it that the head honcho for the music department at a local college I plan to attend will be watching us. The biggest thing I'll probably have to focus on is keeping my legs from turning into water.

Thanks again Jimmy and BMV,

-Sean

[FreaqyFrequency]

I got back from the gig about two hours ago.

It went absolutely fantastic.

We played 6 songs, and someone else filled in for me on the last one.

I believe the setlist was thus:

I Love Being Here With You - Peggy Lee
Pollution - Tom Lehrer
Four - Miles Davis
Confirmation - Charlie Parker
Tenor Madness - Sonny Rollins
Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars) - Antonio Carlos Jobim

Since I've had so little time to learn jazz before tonight, I really dug in to the facial expressions and looking like I was having the time of my life, and afterwards there was much proof that that strategy was effective.

At one point I overpowered the singer a bit, and the band leader signaled for me to turn down. All I did was changed my dynamics, didn't touch the volume, and there was no further complaint.

What I was happiest to hear, though, was actually about the most embarrassing part of the gig that I think happens to everyone at least once or twice during their career: the provided cheapo cable pulled out of my active bass. (strangely enough, the resulting POP was right on beat )

However, I kept my cool, slowly turned around to turn down the gain and volume, plugged back in, turned the levels back up, and came right back in on verse 2.

The man in charge of the music department of a local college saw me, and told me he was really impressed with my playing and would love to have me there. Score!

It was a great night, and the band leader is now discussing taking me to Colorado next year, and into the recording studio before that! I am just so excited right now, I never thought that anything like this would happen to me.

I look forward to more reports like this. My next one will be next month.

Thanks for reading/listening,

-Sean

[Oratorio]

That's awesome Sean! Almost the same thing happened to me recently. I had a gig with some friends at my local college, and we had a blast playing. I used to be a rocker like yourself, but now I find that jazz/funk is so much more rewarding music to play. I also got complimented by one fantastic bassist Good luck with your next one!

(I also found that playing the same note for two beats is not as bad as it may seem at first. Used with modesty it can sound pretty good!)

Cheers!