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....
