A wholesome jam

Bram feeling it on the keys.

This Thursday was the first jam where I feel like it's really what it's supposed to be. Different flavors of musicians from all over, constantly flowing with new ideas, a fun celebration, a chill and soulful vibe.

The highlight for me was a nice groove that Paco started with a noteless rhythm on bass.

He just arrived from Spain and was recommended to the jam from some of his friends. Looking for a musical community, it seems he's happy with what he found. The groove that he started filled in with Francisco on the bongo and Fico at the drumset. Ali, Kit, and I filled in with some chords and melodies, but the rhythm was the driving force.

Francisco chilling with his friend.

Francisco is also a newcomer to Amsterdam looking for a good community. Before the jam he was telling me a story of playing his drum on the street, when a man started yelling at him to stop. But other people came to his defense, and a little girl tied a ribbon to his drum. Yes, you are appreciated. Sometimes the affirmation is there and sometimes it is not. But good work always has its impact.

Getting the groove on with Paco.

The next jam is on my birthday. I'm wrapping up a wonderful year, 27 (3 to the 3rd power). I expected it would be a joyful year, learning to open myself to be free and true. It has been.

As I close the chapter of 27, I open 28 (4 directions of 7). I hope to continue my outward growth and find balance. Let the celebration begin!

Gig this Saturday - Café Del Mondo, Amsterdam - Neil solo

Last minute booking for this Saturday in Café Del Mondo

It's a bar round the corner from my house, so I was keen to take the gig and add another local to my portfolio(can drinking establishments be collected in a portfolio???). Sandra is still in Sweden, Tamira is off seeing Zack Wylde, Fraser is working, so I have no one to hide behind. I'm going to knock out 2 sets of covers that I've been singing every week at the Jam Sessions.

Poster as always by Kenneth Clarke.

A percussivley policed jam

We had a few firsts at our jam session this week. We had our first Didgeridoo and the police came for a a listen. Not Sting and Stewart Copeland (although if you're listening boys, you're welcome to pop in), but the boys in blue, the fuzz or the Rozzers.

Other than the police following up a noise complaint, it was a damn good night. we had a lot of new faces. Multi-instrumentalists Nate and Francisco were there from the onset and we had some cool chilled out jams with the Didgeridoo and some percussion.

Once a few more people had arrived, despite having had a dodgy throat all week, I kicked the singing off with a few of our standards:

Luckily Eoghan arrived again to taise the bar and teach a few new songs. we did a pretty good jam on 'Movin' on up' by Primal Scream:



Now that I know it, I think I'm going to steal Eoghan's idea and Fraser and I will try it at the next open mike.

Ali also showed up around this point. He's a wonderful lead guitarist, but what I didn;t know is that he prefers acoustic. Ali and Eoghan then did a version of romeo and Juliet with David:

Ali then did some great folk in DADGAD tuning:

Christoph the drummer also made his first appearace at this Jam session. We had many a good Jam at the Mine with Christoph and it was great to see him again. He was there with another new face; Pascal. Sensing some serious talent I paired them with Lorenzo and Robert and we heard some of the best music that the Jam has produced so far; assisted throughout by Nate and Francisco on percussion . Well done boys!

A usual, the CC Muziek Café lounge was pretty full too:

After this the police arrived, so Tamira's set was particularly quiet. The regulars then kept the Jam going until I unplugged things at 1:30am so that I could go home to bed before work.

New article by Neil McKenzie on Technorati

I had an article published on Technorati. It's a short piece about the returns from spotify for amatuer musicians when using CDbaby. The title should read "Spotify for the amatuer musician" but somewhere along the way an "is" got added. So it looks positive in nature, whereas I intended it to be unbiased. Please comment, share and retweet and let me know what you think. If I get some response, I'll do this kind of thing more often.

http://technorati.com/entertainment/music/article/spotify-is-for-the-amatuer-musician/

Singing on Sundays !st Edition with Dené Theron, Danalyze, Petra Jordan, Mariandoro & Noam Vazana 13-2-2011

Review of the CC Muziek Café Jam Sessions in the Amsterdam Stun

Andy at the Amsterdam Stun has given us a great write up and photos in this month's edition. It's available here.

Led Zep and press interviews....

We had another great night last night. The previous week had given me a little confidence in the fact that I could sit back and enjoy the night a little. When I arrived, Robert and Fergus were already playing away. I quickly got everything set up and joined in. We now have a big enough group of musicians that there are several regular faces who are showing up – Bram, Ali, Wally, Roberto etc.

It was a very “Jammy” night, I don’t think I sang until about 23:00 and I was even playing the drums for quite a while.

After last Friday’s couch Jam – and a few new friends came along. Thanks to David and Elisa.

The band I'm playing in all came along(sans Tamira) and we ran through a few of the songs that I still need to work on before Saturday:

Lisa looks particularly annoyed, but no one is really sure why.

We also had a returning drummer in the form of Wally, who kicked off a medley of Led Zeppelin songs:

We managed to make it all the way through Stairway to heaven with nearly the right words. Whole Lotta Love with no words, and Thank You with a lyric sheet. It was great fun too loud, and very entertaining.

While all this was going on, Matthew was interviewing various Jam Session hosts and regulars for a promo video for the bar. Watch this space - embarassing-interview-youtube-moment on the horizon.

As with last week the night closed magnificently with a Set by Giovanni and James which featured lots of guest stars:

Roll on next weekkkkkkkkkkk.............