The “Jingle Jazz Jam” at the Lost Dog Café on Wednesday, December 2nd, from 8pm- 10pm, featuring the band Miles Ahead was a very intimate and open jam session that really seemed to be open to anyone who came prepared to jam alongside the musicians. Everyone who performed was a of a high caliber, setting the bar pretty high for anyone who wanted to play, but every musician seemed more than capable of holding their own among some of the more professional musicians. I was surprised at how easy it was for anyone to join in on the jam session, at one point even the drummer and the piano got up to let two students from the Harpur Jazz Ensemble play along. Everyone in the band seemed very well acquainted with each other and this made for a night filled with great performances and a wonderful experience.
Due to the nature of the jam session, the musicians in the band were constantly rotating, but the rhythm section seemed to stay the same unless the Binghamton students came in for one or two songs. There were definitely around 40 people who showed up, and everyone was packed into a small room that actually had very good acoustics for the type of music being played. The audience was a mixture of all age groups, but there were a lot of younger folks in the audience, which could explain why many of the songs were so energetic and fast paced. People were enjoying the music so much that they were even willing to stand and observe the concert when all the seats were filled.
One of the first songs in the performance was a jazz standard titled, “Straight, No Chaser” originally written by Thelonious Monk. This tune featured five musicians with Gene Cothran on the piano, Michael Carbone on the tenor sax, a drums player, a guitar player and a bass player. My favorite part of this tune had to be the bass solo, because he demonstrated such mastery of his instrument, making use of different techniques and taking advantage of all the octaves on the bass, even though this instrument typical has a lower register.
Most bass players have a hard time with bass solos since many of them are used to just playing simple rhythms to keep tempo, but this bass player knew how create a melodic solo that was exciting to listen to, by using bent notes, and plucking the strings to get distinct sounds. He even managed to take licks from the song “Jingle Bells’ in his solo, while still keeping the swing groove going. The rhythm section managed to keep a steady and driving tempo throughout the piece, even during the drummer’s trading fours when it’s easy for the beat to get lost.
The syncopation was very distinct in this tune, especially in the melody, which could be heard when the band played on the off beats. The melody emphasized dynamics, constantly building up the sound to create a rise in the tension, and creating sudden falls when the dynamics got softer. This song is a 12 bar blues in the form of AAB, and in this tune you can hear the presence of chromatics combined with rhythms played on the upbeats within the melody, giving the tune its catchy chorus. The harmony was played perfectly in the tune with the musicians executing the chord changes perfectly. Since I’ve played this tune in my high school jazz ensemble it was great to listen to it played by professional musicians so I could hear what they did differently, and it was exciting to listen to this group’s take on the piece.
Another classic tune played by the band was titled “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” originally recorded by Bing Crosby. This song featured Tony Gadoy on the flugelhorn, who was able to beautifully play the melody by adding well timed trills and improvising slightly, yet beautifully by slightly altering the melody. He had a very light tone to his instrument, which worked well for the song, because his playing sounded so melodic that if was almost as if you could hear his instrument singing the lyrics of the song. The song began with just the piano and the flugelhorn playing the melody, but then gradually developed into a swing tune with the addition of a walking bass line and a swing groove played by the drums through the use of brushes. The flugelhorn did a great job of letting the tension build up and die down when playing the melody, and he used that to his advantage to create a beautiful sounding chorus.
The syncopation was evident in his playing, which tried to replicate the original lyrics of the piece. The form of this tune was a 32 bar blues AABA, which was apparent in harmony that was heard in the chord changes. The rhythm of this tune became a lot funkier as the tune progressed into the jazz feel, and the melody was a lot more relaxed when it came to rhythm; however, the flugelhorn did alter the rhythm a little bit. This was definitely a great way to slow down the performance and was a really nice jazz twist on a Christmas classic.
One of my favorite tunes in the performance was “Mr. PC” by John Coltrane. This song is another very popular jazz standard that I’ve personally played before, and it was great to listen to the Binghamton students kill it on the solos. The two alto sax players, Stephi and Adam, had great chemistry on this piece, and it was evident in the way that they fed off of each other’s energy while trading fours. When Stephi was playing she incorporated a lot of trills and seemed to take advantage of the tune’s fast pace to play notes in a flurry and play them very quickly together.
Her solo had a lot of rises and falls incorporated in it, and she was constantly building up the tension and releasing it by using notes going up and down the scale. The drummer, Eli Jacobson, did a great job of keeping up the quick tempo, which was important since the beauty of this piece comes from its quick tempo. The syncopation in this tune is actually very tricky, since the saxes have to quickly play a series of chromatic runs, which are played as dotted sixteenths, but they managed to stayed coordinated with one another and execute the melody perfectly. The form of the tune was a 12 bar minor blues in the form AAB, and you could really hear the hard bop feel in the melody and harmonies of this tune. This was definitely one of the more entertaining pieces of the concert, and the energy from the players was incredible.
This jam session was very enjoyable, especially since we got to hear a lot of Christmas classics with a jazzy twist. Jazz has the ability to lighten up any piece, which contributed to the lighthearted atmosphere of the concert. This performance was a great middle ground for people who are familiar with the classic Christmas pop tunes, and those who have a love of jazz, because everyone could recognize and sing along to at least one tune from the performance. The best part of the performance was probably the fact that the musicians weren’t afraid to experiment and try new things, and even though the musicians were constantly changing, they all did a great job of picking up on each other’s vibes, making for a great concert.
