JJJ Blog

Hi Everybody,

A couple of excellent jam sessions recently. Our first jam session of 2010 on Thursday, January 14th, was well attended and thoroughly enjoyed by all. A good turnout of 10 musicians made for some great jazz. The lineup was interesting and different to start with; a rhythm section, clarinet and two violins! We played a few numbers to warm us up and started sounding pretty good. Then Ken arrived with his cornet and later on Jim on alto sax and Brian on tenor sax arrived and joined in. Rich and Audrey were sharing the piano playing, superbly backed up as always by Bob on bass and Gordon on drums. Listen to some of the tracks we played here.

On Wednesday, 20th January, we held our first Dixieland (Traditional) Jazz jam session. This turned out to be a fun-filled night way above my expectations. We had a full Dixieland lineup with Al on piano (and Audrey sitting in on a few numbers), Bob DuCharme on bass, Gordon on drums, Olin on banjo, Ken on cornet and vocals, Gary on trombone (yippee! at last we have a trombone player!), John on clarinet and yours truly on clarinet and vocals. Listen to us having a good time here.

Dixieland is where it all started and it was great to have a whole evening playing this fun music. You have got to come along to our next Dixieland jam session and sit in or just listen. I guarantee you’ll love it! Very big thanks to all of you who made this night a success. Traditional Jazz was my parents’ favorite music and I grew up back in the UK listening to this style of jazz. It was great fun and nostalgic for me to get to play some “good old trad”. We had a good audience as well and many of the Jefferson Heights residents stayed till the end. Quite a few came up to me afterward and said how much they had enjoyed listening to us play and asked when we were going to play again.

As this jam session was so successful, Ken Nelson (the original Jazz Rascal!) and I are going to hold a dedicated Dixieland jam session at Jefferson Heights on the third Wednesday of each month. So the next Dixieland jam will be on Wednesday, February 17th. Mark your calendars!

A quick note about getting in to Jefferson Heights on a jam session night. If the door is locked, call the number listed on the keypad at the right of the door and ask the duty staff member for entry. If that does not work, call me on my cellphone 804-928-1786 and I’ll come and let you in. Be persistent, keep calling me! My cell phone will be on but I may not hear it ring the first time due to the music.

That’s all for now. Next regular jam session is on Thursday, January 28th at 7pm. See you there.

Larry