Well I know you'll all have been losing sleep wondering how I got on. No? Oh well, I'll tell you anyway!
Just to recap: Me a long time rock 'for fun' bassist trying to play a few jazz numbers on my battered fretless in a trio at a charity concert.
Firstly, I was C****ng myslef as 3 hours before the gig the (pro) drummer called, in a right state, to say he couldn't play. His working band had booked him even though he was down to be unavaialable. He was gutted but threatened with an immediate exit from his band if he didn't do their gig.
Anyway, at out gig, thank God, the young lad who was doing the sound for the event, and a very posh classical piano piece, offfered to stand in.
Second suprise, Arthur (the pianist) & I were asked to play quietly for about 15 minutes before the start as people were getting settled. We just just jammed quitly I have no idea what we played (no dots), apart from a bit of 12 bar we did, but it was remarkably well received and I loved it. The people in the front row were laughing as they could hear Arthur shouting the odd chord change to me! I think one of the tunes was called Midnight In Vermont which was real slow & sexy on my fretless mmmm! Well I mean 'easy' really! Oh and 'Misty' .
For the our main slot we played Satin Doll, Girl From Ipanema (bosa nova) and Here, There and Everywhere (again slow & sexy). The young lad came up trumps, he even did a solo in Satin Doll. He's so talented it makes me
Anyway it all went well, I was pretty happy with my playing and I thought we sounded pretty tight. The guy on the sound desk kindly said he enjoyed our slot best out of everything as we were the only act to get his foot tapping (and there were some pretty deadly good muScians there!) However, it has to be said, we were the last act of the 1st half and Satin Doll was the first bit of music in a major key!
So anyway, the best bit is the whole event raised over 700 uk pounds (1200 USD?) for Retrak, which changes the lives of some of the most deprived kids in Ethiopia.
Arthur & I will certainly continue playing together & he has mentioned another gig at a local jazz night coming up.
Bring it on
Cheers for all the advice and encouragement.
Russell
