Jammin with the Fellas

Last Saturday, I had maybe the most musical night of my entire life!

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We had a cookout at the boathouse where we keep our sailboat, and the planned entertainment was a jam session. Quite a few of the boaters play instruments. One of our number, Whitey, drummed professionally for years, and a couple of the others had brief periods when they toured as well.

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My own experience is much more limited, though in the last 5 years, as my confidence has grown with my sax playing, I’ve had half a dozen or so fun experiences jamming with others. I’ve also had a few humbling experiences, including the only other time I joined in with Whitey and some of his mates.

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But Whitey is a loving and open spirit. And he got it that the past disaster had as much to do with me not getting time to feel out the others, or even tune up properly, as it had to do with any lack of musicianship. So he’d been all over me the last two weeks, making sure I was gonna show up, and with my horn, and ready to play.

Well, what a night it turned into!

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We jammed and we grooved and we flowed! It was beautiful. The first couple of tunes started tentatively enough, each of us deferring to the others to choose a key or a rhythm, then building from there. But after awhile, spontaneity kicked in. Whoever got an inspiration just started in on something, and the others piled on. K.B. led the way, with a sweet, sensual guitar. Backing him was Vaughan, with his steel-string riding his lap, and Chris with an electric keyboard. Antii and Whitey took turns on the drum kit, but Antii also had an electric bass, the new instrument he’s learning, and both Vaughan and I took turns at that.

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Yes! I took a turn on the bass! I’ve always loved bass, and have dabbled at it before, but it was a complete surprise to find myself grooving along, laying down the bottom while we rocked the open garage and folks danced up a storm.

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My main turn was with the sax, and I wasn’t perfect, but I did pretty well. The biggest piece was getting over being self-conscious. And I was sooo conscious of the mike, which others kept coming over to adjust, moving it closer to my bell, to better pick up my sound. I was tightening up when blowing into the mike, thinking way too much about every note I aimed for. But each time I turned away – which I did a lot at first, to find a pocket to play out of – I immediately loosened up and began to play fluidly. Finally, I caught on, and was able to forget myself a little, and to bring out the sense of play that frees me, that finds the melody, the energy, the magic that brings any music alive.

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And we, as a group, we soared. When I was able to pull out of my head, and to listen to what we were cooking up...it was awesome. K.B. was a total revelation. It took him awhile to loosen up too, but when he did, he took charge. His riffs! His creativity! The ways he was bending his notes, adding pedal effects, creating harmonies and embellishments...a virtuoso! And when I or Vaughan or Chris was soloing, K.B. provided the perfect rhythmic accompaniment, accenting and enhancing all of our flourishes.

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But what made it such an expansive night for me was...I SANG!

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It was totally unplanned. But, we’d gotten loose and easy and high from our playing, and from how well we sounded together. And when Karen got up to grab the mike, and did a version of “Mercedes Benz” that had half the audience joining in, I was inspired to follow her up with “Dock of the Bay”. I got so into it, I even found myself improvising lyrics, and playing into the audience. And Ron even jumped in at the end to provide the whistle chorus!

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Ponczka was astonished. “My Kirb!” she kept exclaiming. “You sang! You sang so good!” And she urged me to sing more, which I didn’t plan to do. But a bit later, K.B. got going on a funky guitar riff, and Chris and Antii joined in on it. And next thing, I was grabbing the mike again and going into “Papa was a Rolling Stone”.

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I really surprised myself. I realized the next day that I’d never have sung, or likely even played the bass, if I’d thought about it ahead of time. Even the sax playing had to come about with some spontaneity. In fact, with the previous embarrassment in mind, I’d only been able to bring my sax by telling myself it wasn’t a commitment to play, that I’d “see what happened”, just let it go how it was gonna go. And by flowing with the moment, I was open to experiences that I never saw coming. And it was exhilarating!

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I want to do MORE!

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And imagine if I begin to WRITE like that!