The other night I headed down to a coffee shop in Monterey to check out a jam session.

Had heard good things about it….

It’s once a month on the second friday, which maybe it stick around in the back of my head, but not necessarily remember it or have that night free when it came around.

Based on the comments about it by my friends (most recently from a percussionist in my band.\) and just wanting to play, I made some space to go.

The house band, with the leader on soprano sax, really could play!

My friend and I both went and met a few other musicians/singers in the audience including a young guy who played congas.

He went up and played ‘Sugar’ by Stanley Turrentine.  Was thinking about playing ‘Footprints’ but the leader of the group already had played that one.

That went pretty well.

Thought I was going to play right after that, but they ended up playing a few more songs, so I set down my horn.  The set included ‘Red Clay’ – a Freddie Hubbard tune I really like.

After a little while I went up and a singer went up, so I accompanied her.  Didn’t know the tune, but was able to use my ear and play along pretty well for the most part.

Then I was thinking about playing ‘Nature Boy’…. but realized it didn’t really fit with the style of music that was being played.  So I asked about ‘Work Song’.  The leader of the band suggested ‘Moanin’ instead, which is actually a bit like Work Song.  So we played that.

The way I played the melody was a bit rough at first, but I had heard the song quite a few times and got the hang of it.  Soloing over that was a little rough too by ear, went decently.  Made me want to really learn the song after I got home.

At the end of the night, the leader of the band called my friend and me up to play ‘Now’s the Time’ (a blues by Bird).

All in all, the jam session was a lot of fun.  Heard great musicians, got to play with them, and got me thinking about stuff to work on afterwards.

Think I’ll head back next month.

Do you have any stories about jam sessions?  Leave a comment!