Yeah, times have changed. But if I get a call to put together something for a gig, I’ll be calling people that know tunes, otherwise they’re still fumbling with their real book or iPad when we’re already a chorus through Green Dolphin St. I’m not saying you have to know every tune, but bog standards like Stella, All the Things, Fly me to the moon, What is this thing, etc should be able to be played from memory, is that too much to ask?
I don’t want to be stuck playing Real book changes, people that know the tunes can pickup on any substitutions I’m doing (I will mention them if I remember), and that’s not going to happen if they’re concentrating on reading changes from a book.
A big part of the problem is that there are far fewer gigs around. Helps to be playing this stuff a lot, (if that’s what you want to do). Imo, to be able to play jazz, you have to play jazz, obviously you need your theory, etc, and theory is fine, in theory
I totally get it, and I don't feel comfortable playing with real jazz cats. That hasn't stopped me from getting plenty of Real Book gigs with other musicians who essentially play out of the book. FYI we do alter some of the changes and I have actually had soloist get on me because I throw a tritone sub or add a properly altered none chord tone here or there, because it makes them have to work harder.
I have had a few gigs with players who have the tunes memorized. This is under the context of me doing them a favor when their normal bass player is not available. I am always very transparent with my limitations and they assure me it will not be a problem, but somehow on the gig, it frequently is. It always slays me how they have to wait till the last second during their talk over to say what the next tune is. There have been gigs, where I almost walked off the bandstand because the songs are announced at the last second and then immediately counted off. I may seem like a hack to you, but that does not mean I like to embarrass myself. I slays me how impatient and unkind people can be when you are doing your best to help them out of a bind.
Now if I were immersed in a bit larger and more authentic jazz scene, then maybe things would be different. But like I said previously, most of the time when I played combo music, it was for background purposes and I had a lot of other musical priorities and plenty of other duties competing for my time. My talent is very generalized, so I can play jazz, but I am far from a jazz specialist.
Playing out of the Real Book was easy and automatic. It's something I typically did at the end of the day after I had rehearsed 5-6 hours in concert band, big band, or a rock band...the rest of the musicians would go home and the rhythm section would go play cocktail hour and/or dinner music.
I halfway suspect that I lack a certain aspect of aptitude related to memory, but it could be that I was never presented with the proper environment and mentoring. I am largely self taught when it comes to jazz, and I picked up the skills I needed to succeed in my job, but not to do what you think I should be able to do.
What I have noticed is I tend to improve when I am surrounded by people who are better than I. Towards the end of my playing career, I was nailing my parts and lot's of others were not. Basically at some point either the musical standards declined, or I improved to the point that I was well above average. Either way, the consequence was that I started getting frustrated and loosing interest.
Maybe things would have been different and I would have continued to grow if I were surrounded by a bunch of hot jazz musicians who could hand me my @$$. But that didn't happen, so I chose to become an audio tech instead.
I totally understand that you would not like to play with someone like me. But if you ever need to ask a hack to do you a favor, consider showing them a bit of grace and making an effort to give them the time to turn the page if that is what they need to do a good job.
