Something Different
Last week I was asked to sit in with a Jazz Trio. Sounds Great right? Well...
About 1 month ago I was asked to sit in with a small group for a Birthday party. To ensure I was on the same page with the group I met with group leader. Jerry Byville came along to help me work out any details with the music. We played a few tunes and I was feeling pretty good about this outing. He told me that he had been with group for so long that all he was use to doing, was give the rest of the band the intro and they would know what to do. That was great however I would need the name of the tune or at least the key ( I would be using a Fake book.) He told me to tell him the key my chart was in and he would instruct the band to play in that key. ----- O.K.
I was hoping that Jerry would be able to play on Sunday. In this case two horns would better than one. Unfortunately Jerry had other commitments for that day.
So I looked at my fake book running through what I thought were standards noting the concert key for the gig.
Sunday came I went to the location and set up my sax. Then went to search out the band leader
to go over the "standards" and their key. We sat and talked. He looked over my Fake book and said they looked like the songs were in the original key. There should be no problem.
We got started a little late so I spent the time talking with the drummer for the trio. He told me of the times when he was in the Union and would get calls to play with bands from cool jazz to hard rock. Once showing up to play in a jacket when the rest of the band were in sleeveless shirts if they were even wearing one. It was enjoyable killing time with a veteran player.
Well we finally got to play and it started out well. The first tune Don't get around much Anymore went smoothly and When Sunny get Blue got a very warm reception from the party goers. Then the leader started into tunes with out calling out the tune or key. The other members knew exactly what song and key ----they have been playing them together for 30 years. I started to play softer and tried to extract what key we were in by watching the keyboardist hands and transposing to Bb. To say the least I was not up to that challenge. I made alot of assumptions on the keys we were in. I could hear C chords -I hung out on that to the best of my ability. It was quite a workout.
The trio was made up of great musicians that knew their music inside and out. They made very smooth transitions as they moved from one song to another. I felt very much the rookie that night.
Lesson learned
