We had a nice, friendly crowd last night at the Tin Star Saloon.
Click any picture to enlarge.
People always seem to enjoy the Wednesday night jam.
We were happy that our good friend Daniel Talache (second from right) could join us. He led us off on a Stevie Ray version of Mary Had a Little Lamb.There's more: A Tisket, a Tasket. Click to listen to the music.
Don, on Daniel's left came up from Albuquerque to join us for a set.
"Coast to Coast" Frank was there.
Pete (left), from the Santa Fe Band Controlled Burn and owner Ray Dera took us on a blues tour.
Pete then led this sweet little number.
Next, Ben took off on another blues jam. You can hear my little 1923 C Melody sax in there somewhere just before Frank went nuts on the trumpet.
The C Melody is a fun horn to take to a jam. It is the only saxophone that plays in the key of C. This one is a 1923 Conn nickel-plate. I have a modern Beechler hard rubber mouthpiece on it that lets it breathe a bit freer than the original.They stopped making C Melody saxes in 1933, so they are a bit hard to come by. I was lucky to find this mint condition Conn a couple of years ago and have been occasionally taking it to jams since.
That's it for this one. See you at the next one.
--Doug
It's pretty cool that a group of musicians can just get up on stage together and make music. That must be challenging, but it looks like a lot of fun as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks, 7:12. It is both challenging and rewarding. A lot of the credit for being able to put a group of musicians together who might not even have ever played together before, and still make it sound like music goes to the jam leader, Ben Lucero.
ReplyDeleteBen runs his jam with a combination of freedom, and the strictness of a high school band leader.
The environment that Ben and Ray provide at the Tin Star Jam is open and welcoming to all musicians, but professional guidance is provided as well.
Still, it is a jam, and every set is an experiment. Some of them work, and others, well, can be slow, painful train wrecks.
Lately though, we've had a lot of fun and made some decent sounding music in the process. The credit for the successes needs to be split between Ben, Ray, and the folks who join them on stage.
As an aside, I've noticed that more of Santa Fe's really good musicians have begun to stop by the Tin Star on Wednesday nights. I think the music is only going to get better.
--Doug
hey, this is Donivan from Albuquerque, just wanted to let you know that I had a great time at the Tin Star, and enjoyed jammin' with everyone, the people were friendly and I hope to be back soon.
ReplyDeletethanks
DC