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!
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.
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.
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.
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:
Being the co-host of the Thursday Tunes Jam Session has been a real joy. I feel like our last jam reached a new level of expression for our musicians. We had a positive vibe going, with a good rotation of musicians at each instrument, and a constant flow of creative ideas on the stage.
As a keyboard player, I really enjoyed hearing some of the other keyboard players, Naro and Brian. Naro has an awareness and presence when he plays, with rhythm and dynamic support for the group. Brian played some awesome blues. It was really beautiful to hear how both these guys were heard without stepping on anybody's toes. They are masters of backing off and accenting at the right moment.
The question was brought to me about what our jam is, and what are the expectations. For me, the jam is an opportunity for musicians to come together and express themselves. We encourage new arrangements of musicians and the emergence of new styles. Sometimes we play covers of songs that have some space to jam (we've got a book of chords to choose from), and sometimes we just jam on spontaneous chord progressions or the blues. It would be great to see somebody explain how to play an original song and do that too.
Mostly we encourage people to come together on the stage, but I think it's acceptable if a group or individual wants to perform a couple songs on their own to get some exposure and experience. But even then maybe it is best if the door is open for others to contribute their own musical energy, and the original members might open their ears to a new idea. Nobody should feel excluded in our jam session.
A highlight of the night was when the musicians really got rockin' and people jumped up on the floor to dance. Roberto had the energy going on the drums, and it was great playing with him. I also enjoyed complimenting Danielle's singing on the melodica. And it was great backing up "We don't need no education" on the melodica, while Danielle added a melody from another song (what was it again??).
Neil is an experienced musician and jam session host, so it's fun working with him. Oftentimes he is directing things at the stage, while I am mingling with the audience to find out who is waiting for a chance to get up on the stage with some complimentary musicians.
In the end I'm really happy to help manifest an environment that is fun for musicians and people who just enjoy listening to live music. It's cozy, welcoming, and René is always there to chat it up at the bar (he has some crazy stories...ask him about Brazil!)
Last night (Thursday the 3rd) the Jam in CC Café turned out into a huge variety of Jams by Musicians that let the whole evening roll.
From Musicians playing Coversongs to just starting to play without a plan and interacting with each other to doing your own thing backed-up by the others. The audience was singing loud with us!
The people from De Plug Amsterdam played some nice 70 classics; and the Guitarbuilder of Rebel Relic Amsterdam took us on a raptrip and everyone began to dance.
Andre Smoge; the master of tuning in with whats going on on stage, popped and subtilly adding something nice by guitar and voice.
Danielle (Danalyze) sang some funk and soul in a jam and tried to get people to play with each other.
Devin played Keyboard and really showed his talent on the Melodica this night. He is currently working on the website of the café www.ccafe.nl and i think the new version is online, check it out! Devin's website.
Two Singers amused us with Purple Rain where they actively communicated with the audience so everyone ended up singing too! Garreth and a Lady whose name ill post as soon as i know it.
Rene the owner of the cafe sang proud mary with a female singer supported by Deen on Drums and Robert Shaw on Guitar amazing us with his solo's.
Pianoplayer Brian Hickey came over towards the end and just jumped right up stage while Danielle was playing the Drums. They've played some Music before in the past but never in this setting which was great fun!
Brian can play anything and he showed us that until the place closed! Wonderful!
DeboraJCarter's on which he playes the Piano:
http://www.deborahjcarter.com/JBTD9823.htm
Tamira and her friends James and Giovanni came in too and played some great Covers. . Followed by a James and Danielle duet Cover of the Verve!
The evening ended with James and Brian Hickey on piano which was a very interesting combination!
Lets keep this interacting on stage spirit up everyone! See you next Thursday at CCcafé!
Several monthas after Tamira's album appeared - Sandra's is now up there. For those that don;t know Sandra - she was an integral part of the Jam Session when it was at Coco's Mine. Take a listen:
A great Jam last night. I'm finally managing to focus on the musicians and accepting that I don't have much control over how many people turn up to watch us. When I arrived, Fergus was there to play bass and I was pleased that Eoghan had come down to see what we were doing. Fico was also there - and he always has fun while he's playing, so it made for a good start.
We had a lot of fun running through various songs and and exchanging ideas. It was a very song oriented start to the Jam. Normally I throw out a few songs to warm people up before we try to bring together some jams, but we plays a number of songs led by either me or Eoghan. It was great to have Eoghan along to take the lead a little and also to sing some great harmonies for the stuff I was doing. The stuff I remember is Sympathy for the Devil, Talkin' bout a revolution, Man on the Moon, Whiskey in the Jar and Dancing in the moonlight.
We also had a new face at the Jam - Cecile - who started very well by getting us to Jam a version Glory Box by Portishead and then slotted in really well on vocals and guitar.
After that, Danielle arrived and I felt there were enough people who could play guitars and sing, so for the first time so far in our Jam Sessions - I took to the drums. It's been a while, and I get pretty self-concious about whether my bass drum is in time, but I'm pretty sure I coped okay and no-one noticed that I've not played in months and my brain disagrees with my arms about my drumming ability.
After this, I sat back with Karolina and let everyone do their thing. We had almost no audience, but around 20 musicians. Robert came along and Karolina even played(Zombie). The night closed with me playing Bass, Robert playing guitar, ????? playing keyboards and Den playing drums.
I had a great night. I think I'll branch out to Bass and Drums more often.
My second jam session of the year, and we’re starting to relax into the rhythm of the thing. People are turning up and know what’s going to be happening. We had a pretty slow start tonight. Our “house band” still consists of Devin Deen and I. Tonight we were pretty quickly supported by Andre Smoge, who is a Norwegian I had met by chance the night before. He’s a jack of all trades musician who I don’t think fully showed his full deck last night but he was keen to jam and play bass, guitar or jam some vocals which is always good.
We started with an extended Jam of Sympathy for the Devil to an almost empty bar. This gave way to some free jamming with Andre skat singing. I’m not convinced it’s the stage for free jamming. No one seems to be able to hear each other and it can drift toward a rabble at times. Still we persevered and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. After that the bar got a bit busier, I ran through a few songs with ted on Bass and then a younger guy on drums(Name to be added) joined us.
After a short break, some of the regular musicians(meaning they’ve been before) showed up. Dave, Robert and Coco’s own James started the inevitable blues jams to blow away the cobwebs. Slow minor blues a la Since I’ve been loving you and various other bits and pieces.
After that things went all Latin, José from Venezuela and Janan(sp??) from Cuba who gave us some great latino loungey music. Danielle Cornelissen and Will joined in on drums and guitar to and there was even some dancing:
From this point, I knew there were enough musicians about that I could have a seat and start to enjoy it without the stress of wondering if I’ll have to perform too much or if the bar will be totally dead.
While it all went latin up the stairs, I had discovered that Tamira and Lisa had sneaked in down the stairs:
Tamira and Lisa took to the stage backed by Devin, Deen and Alfons. The stage was getting busy and my previous plans to sit on my arse and take some photos were quickly thwarted by the dreaded decibel meter which seems to edge above 86dB every time anyone enjoys themselves or my arse hits something soft.
Okay. Rant over. Tamira and Lisa were wonderful, and the practicing is starting to pay off. They have a gig in CC Muziek Café on the 29th January, and it’s guaranteed to be a fun evening.
By the time Tamira finished everyone was ready for bed, but the diehards stayed on for around an hour of Danielle jamming with Robert, Deen, Andre, Dave and Devin. Very extended versions of Louie Louie, Ring of Fire and The first cut is the deepest made for a great close to the day and luckily it was during this that Andy Reeves from the Amsterdam Stun pooped in, so I can only assume that he thinks it’s always that coherent. Thanks Danielle.
All in all a great night which started with me unnecessarily stressing about no musicians coming; but it turned out to be a pretty good night. We still don’t have the audience numbers that we’d like but hopefully happy musicians is a good sign that word of mouth should start to take effect.
Here´s some of the songs that appeared during the evening:
As with most of my posters, tickets, flyers and album covers... the poster is again by Kenneth Clarke at Keep It Creative... let us know what you think?
Last night was the first Jam of the year at CC Muziek Café. Devin has been holding down the fort while I was in Scotland for Christmas. From now on I expect every Thursday to be filled with the trials, tribulations and joys of hosting a Jam Session.
Devin, Deen and I had a practice the previous day before opening to run through a few things. I’m hoping these Wednesday sessions give us a chance to build a semblance of a house band, but I was a bit disappointed that it was just the three of us running through my Open Mike chords, maybe I tried to do too much on my first week back at work. The mood lifted when Marcel Gorski came in and I ran through a few old classics with him. Sadly he couldn’t be there last night.
Anyway… I was there nice and early to get things set up, and was glad when Fergus came in. I met him through Fraser at a drinking session few months back and remembered that he said he played the bass. It was good to see a new face. My on-going fear of the Jam Sessions is that it’s just me stumbling through songs, and I don’t yet have a core group of people who’s talents I know; I miss Javier, Fraser and Sandra.
Before we even had things set up, we had a band of Devin, Deen, Höskuldur, Fergus and Me. It was enough to run through a few songs and blow off the cob webs. Fergus made a great difference to our Bass-less practicing the previous night. I think we probably did Angie and Dancing in the moonlight. Pretty soon a quiet guy named James joined in with some wonderfully improvised acoustic guitar over the top of everything. We continued like this through another several songs, before I eventually was able to take a break and leave the band to a few jams.
It was sounding pretty good from off the stage. The bar was still pretty quiet but it was good to hear a jam still continuing while I wasn’t playing. Ted and Mathew were there to talk to René about making a promotional video(watch this space).
After a while I returned to the stage and we ran through some more Jammy songs now that I had a feeling for our Ad-Hoc band of the night. If memory serves me correctly we ran through Knockin on Heaven’s door, All along the watch tower and Battle of Evermore with Marco now adding some acoustic guitar. By the time I finished that lot, we also had Dave Harmonica Hulks, Geert and Robert waiting to play. The combination suggested blues was the order of the Jam, and I left them to shuffle away for a good 20 minutes.
Tamira had been chilling in the smoking area down the stairs waiting for the band to go on. I was quite jealous of the coziness down in the smoking area, while I was upstairs being paranoid that everything wasn’t running smoothly. Eventually her Bass player(Lorenzo arrived) and we put together a band to do Tubthumping, Boots and MGMT… before we returned to some blues Jams until the end of the Jam.
All in all it was a pretty good jam. It started slowly, but eventually there was lots of happy musicians playing away who seemed to be really enjoying themselves. We still don’t have enough audience members braving the tough January weather and Winter Depressie to come out and see us, but hopefully with the number of musicians we have that will slowly come.
Below is a list of some of the songs that cropped up during the night:
I have now been hosting Jam Sessions in Amsterdam for over a year. This grew out of our Acoustic Sessions at Molly Malones. Once Fraser started managing Coco´s Mine, for 6 months we ran a very successful Jam Session on what had to be the smallest stage in Amsterdam:
I have now been hosting Jam Sessions in Amsterdam for over a year. This grew out of our Acoustic Sessions at Molly Malones. Once Fraser started managing Coco´s Mine, for 6 months we ran a very successful Jam Session on what had to be the smallest stage in Amsterdam:
Despite the night being success, the Mine stopped doing live music. Ours was the only night where the musicians played for free, and the place really wasnt big enough to merit paying a full band, so another one bit the dust. I didn´t really mourn. Working 9-5 while holding down a successful jam session with only a handful of trusted helpers was a pretty big drain on the energy levels and it also prevents you from being able to explore other musical avenues.
Inevitably after a few recording projects and various aborted attempts to find a regular band to play with, I jumped at an offer to start doing it again. The offer came from an unexpected trip to Café De Kluis to deliver a cable for a mate who was playing there. After a 5 minute conversation with the barman he asked if I´d host a weekly Jam:
This Jam session was cancelled after week one due to disagreements between the bar manager and the bar owner. I assumed it had been a tiring but enjoyable one off, but after a few weeks I got a pphone call from René the Bar Manager to say that he had left Café De Kluis and bought his own music bar. He was keen for us to host a weekly Jam. I decided that Thursday would let me have a day off the morning after the jam every second week, and Thursday Tunes was born.
We´re still working out what works in the venue and what doesn´t, but we´re hoping to build the great atmosphere we´re had in the past and provide forum for musicians to let their hair down a little and meet some like-minded jammers:
Our basic rules are that anything goes... leave your ego at the door and only make mistakes if you have the balls to make them loudly and smile while you do so... There´s a house Drum Kit, Piano and Guitars and Bass Guitars....
Bram feeling it on the keys.
