Of my 3 months so far trying out the music scene in Chicago, pretty much each week has been an experiment, from attending jazz and rock jams, auditioning for a couple plays, teaching private (piano) lessons, getting hired part-time with a community college, etc.
Each of these things involved me getting a little bit outside of my comfort zone, at least socially. I don't think of myself as being particularly outgoing. In fact, I still remember scoring almost perfectly in the middle of the extrovert/introvert Myers-Briggs Test I took in college. So yeah, I'm not extremely bashful by any means, but it does take some social effort on my part to get out there night after night in club after club.
This past week has been unique, however, in that I really had to get outside of my comfort zone musically. This included my first ever Free Jazz jam session on Wednesday and my first time being featured with a turntablist/DJ.
Now this wasn't the first time I'd done any "free" playing before (and note: I'm putting "free" in quotes or caps as I'm referring to Free Jazz, which references a particular genre of jazz, not a statement about its lack of cover charge, although because it takes such special listeners to appreciate, it often is free of charge!). Now most jazz musicians my age enjoy experimenting a bit with the avant-garde from time to time. And I particularly like the idea of dissonance, moving into consonance. After all, isn't it dissonance (or conflict) that makes a story great?
That being said, I usually prefer my dissonance when I know it will eventually resolve, at least partially. Free Jazz, however, embraces dissonance on its own; no resolution needed. And Chicago's jazz scene is often noted for it's underground "free" scene. So despite my lack of experience with this genre, I decided to seek it out.
My seeking led me to The Constellation, a really hip music club known for its adventurous musical offerings each night. Each Wednesday they feature some type of jazz group and then transition to their Sound of the City Workshop, which is currently one of the only true Free Jazz jams in Chicago.
The group this past Wednesday featured vocalist Paul Marinaro and drummer/percussionist Mikel Patrick Avery. Their unique, intimate set consisted of pairing solo voice with everything from woodblocks to a cardboard box to a "Kaz-umpet" (Kazoo/Trumpet). It was really cool, by the way.
And then it was time for me to jump in! After setting up a drum set and bass, various instrumentalists (including myself) joined the stage for some organized (or actually not-so-organized) chaos. And like much of the free-er stuff I've heard in my life, there were some great moments and there were some...uh...more "interesting" moments. And in actually, all the musicians were really talented. I was amazed at how comfortable everyone was with what they were doing.
In fact, I often think there are two most important things when playing Free Jazz: listening to the others and playing with confidence. No matter what comes out of your horn - and there are always strange sounds emanating from Free Jazz music - if you play it confidently, it often somehow works. If the audience has an open mind, they will trust that you know what you're doing, even if you yourself don't.
And so while I know Free Jazz isn't maybe the most accessible type of music on the market (biggest understatement ever?), I really appreciate what these musicians are trying to accomplish, taking music to places it's never gone before. And doing it not because it sells, but because they love the adventure.
On Friday night, my wife Rachel and I headed to Wicker Park as I was invited by DJ Shazam Bangles to sit in with him at a literal underground club called Door No. 3. After a couple other DJs and 30 minutes or so of Bangles' own great stuff, he had me come up to the mic and join him.
It took me a few minutes to get into the groove, which with a DJ is constantly changing. One thing I didn't consider beforehand was the issue of tuning. DJ's often pride themselves on transitioning between records, which involves matching the tempos by speeding up or slowing down records. This in turn alters the pitch of the recordings, so I was constantly adjusting my mouthpiece to try my best to match the pitches.
But once I got a hang of this, however, and when we found a couple of grooves that worked nicely, I thought we had some great moments. Like I said earlier, I've never really gotten the chance to improvise and interact with someone scratching records. Plus, both this and the Free Jazz jam also really allowed me to use some of my "beatbox sax" extended techniques, giving me the chance to mimic a scratching sound and lay down some of my own percussive beats.
So could either of these things turn into something bigger for me? Who knows. But I hope to do more of this kind of stuff in the future, further stretching my musical limits and opening my ears to new ideas. As I've told friends so far, I really have no clear idea where I'm specifically headed, musically. But I do know I'm really fortunate to get the chance to experiment with so many new and exciting musicians.
So what will it be this coming week? How about some Country and Zydeco!
Well, maybe not yet, but I do need to visit one of the many Blues jam sessions around town soon. I'll keep you posted,
Derek
P.S. If any of my Chicago readers are free on Tuesday or Friday night, I'll be again hosting the weekly "Space Jam" on Tuesday at 9pm at North Bar; and then I'll be doing my BEATBoX SAX thing around 9:30pm opening for a local funk cover band on Friday. Maybe I'll see you there!
Each of these things involved me getting a little bit outside of my comfort zone, at least socially. I don't think of myself as being particularly outgoing. In fact, I still remember scoring almost perfectly in the middle of the extrovert/introvert Myers-Briggs Test I took in college. So yeah, I'm not extremely bashful by any means, but it does take some social effort on my part to get out there night after night in club after club.
This past week has been unique, however, in that I really had to get outside of my comfort zone musically. This included my first ever Free Jazz jam session on Wednesday and my first time being featured with a turntablist/DJ.
Now this wasn't the first time I'd done any "free" playing before (and note: I'm putting "free" in quotes or caps as I'm referring to Free Jazz, which references a particular genre of jazz, not a statement about its lack of cover charge, although because it takes such special listeners to appreciate, it often is free of charge!). Now most jazz musicians my age enjoy experimenting a bit with the avant-garde from time to time. And I particularly like the idea of dissonance, moving into consonance. After all, isn't it dissonance (or conflict) that makes a story great?
That being said, I usually prefer my dissonance when I know it will eventually resolve, at least partially. Free Jazz, however, embraces dissonance on its own; no resolution needed. And Chicago's jazz scene is often noted for it's underground "free" scene. So despite my lack of experience with this genre, I decided to seek it out.
My seeking led me to The Constellation, a really hip music club known for its adventurous musical offerings each night. Each Wednesday they feature some type of jazz group and then transition to their Sound of the City Workshop, which is currently one of the only true Free Jazz jams in Chicago.
The group this past Wednesday featured vocalist Paul Marinaro and drummer/percussionist Mikel Patrick Avery. Their unique, intimate set consisted of pairing solo voice with everything from woodblocks to a cardboard box to a "Kaz-umpet" (Kazoo/Trumpet). It was really cool, by the way.
And then it was time for me to jump in! After setting up a drum set and bass, various instrumentalists (including myself) joined the stage for some organized (or actually not-so-organized) chaos. And like much of the free-er stuff I've heard in my life, there were some great moments and there were some...uh...more "interesting" moments. And in actually, all the musicians were really talented. I was amazed at how comfortable everyone was with what they were doing.
In fact, I often think there are two most important things when playing Free Jazz: listening to the others and playing with confidence. No matter what comes out of your horn - and there are always strange sounds emanating from Free Jazz music - if you play it confidently, it often somehow works. If the audience has an open mind, they will trust that you know what you're doing, even if you yourself don't.
And so while I know Free Jazz isn't maybe the most accessible type of music on the market (biggest understatement ever?), I really appreciate what these musicians are trying to accomplish, taking music to places it's never gone before. And doing it not because it sells, but because they love the adventure.
On Friday night, my wife Rachel and I headed to Wicker Park as I was invited by DJ Shazam Bangles to sit in with him at a literal underground club called Door No. 3. After a couple other DJs and 30 minutes or so of Bangles' own great stuff, he had me come up to the mic and join him.
It took me a few minutes to get into the groove, which with a DJ is constantly changing. One thing I didn't consider beforehand was the issue of tuning. DJ's often pride themselves on transitioning between records, which involves matching the tempos by speeding up or slowing down records. This in turn alters the pitch of the recordings, so I was constantly adjusting my mouthpiece to try my best to match the pitches.But once I got a hang of this, however, and when we found a couple of grooves that worked nicely, I thought we had some great moments. Like I said earlier, I've never really gotten the chance to improvise and interact with someone scratching records. Plus, both this and the Free Jazz jam also really allowed me to use some of my "beatbox sax" extended techniques, giving me the chance to mimic a scratching sound and lay down some of my own percussive beats.
So could either of these things turn into something bigger for me? Who knows. But I hope to do more of this kind of stuff in the future, further stretching my musical limits and opening my ears to new ideas. As I've told friends so far, I really have no clear idea where I'm specifically headed, musically. But I do know I'm really fortunate to get the chance to experiment with so many new and exciting musicians.
So what will it be this coming week? How about some Country and Zydeco!
Well, maybe not yet, but I do need to visit one of the many Blues jam sessions around town soon. I'll keep you posted,
Derek
P.S. If any of my Chicago readers are free on Tuesday or Friday night, I'll be again hosting the weekly "Space Jam" on Tuesday at 9pm at North Bar; and then I'll be doing my BEATBoX SAX thing around 9:30pm opening for a local funk cover band on Friday. Maybe I'll see you there!