New to the board but I wanted to share this. I've been playing Bari Sax for 13 years and have always listened to old R&R and R&B. I'm 25 and have had the privilege of playing with Big Jay McNeely, Ruth Brown, Barbara Lynn, Young Jessie, Joe Houston, and Roy Gaines to name a few. I don't consider myself a professional musician by any means but I KNOW ORIGINAL R&B. I just wanted to share this story...
Three years ago I had a band in Los Angeles and all we played was late 40's the mid 50's rhythm and blues, r&r, etc. We had a pretty good following in the rockabilly/r&b scene. We covered some of Big Jay's music such as 3-D and Deacon's Hop. It wasn't long before we recieved a phone call from a promoter who wanted to book Big Jay. He asked us if we would like to back him up for the show. AWESOME!!
So we get in contact with Big Jay and arrange a rehearsal at our bass player's house. We were all there early and decided to start while we waited for Big Jay to show up. We played and waited and played and waited and no Big Jay. Finally right as we finished running through 3-D Big Jay knocks on the door. We were wondering if he had trouble finding the house or had problems with traffic or something. He said, "Nah man, I just been out here listenin' to y'all. Y'all sound great! This is gonna be fun!" There were times in the middle of the songs that instead of soloing, he'd let us do our thing and he'd just be bobbing his head with his eyes closed and a grin on his face. We could tell he was relieved that we knew exactly what style he wanted.
He didn't have a specific set list. Rehearsal just consisted of him saying, "Y'all know this one?" And we'd rehearse it once and that was it. He said he doesn't like set lists cause he just picks out songs as he sees fit from the feedback he gets from the crowd, so we just went with that.
That show was the funnest I've ever had. We played for an hour and a half straight and Big Jay looked like he could go on for another three. The rest of us 20-23 year olds were wasted but kept it up. It was a blast. We backed him up one more time after that but the first show was the best.
About a year later, I backed him up in Vegas. Not with my own band but with another band that I subbed for. This band was full of top-notch jazzers. These musicians were much better than I'll probably ever be, BUT THEY HAD NO CONCEPT OF WHAT STYLE THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO BE PLAYING!! Rehearsal was like pulling teeth. Big Jay kept stopping songs and explaining style. I wanted to chime in and open their eyes but I was the sub and didn't feel it was my place. It was apparent that they didn't really listen to the old R&B music. It was fine when we backed up Roy Gaines earlier that night but when Big Jay was up, you could tell that he wasn't very happy. When the band came in for 3-D it instantly fell off about 70bpm. I thought it was pretty ambarrasing for the band but Big Jay still made the most of it. Even though all these players were very seasoned, they sounded terrible compared to the band that I had, which consisted of rookie players, but we knew the style and we had the sound and most importantly we knew Big Jay. It's always important to do you're homework when you're going to back someone up.
If you ever get the chance to see Big Jay, take it! Have a lookout for Easter weekened in Vegas. He's played the last two years at the Rockabilly Weekender at the Gold Coast Casino. You can also still find him playing in Los Angeles once in a while.
-Alex Hernandez
www.myspace.com/orionsax7
P.S.
some music to look for: 4 CD box Set: History of the Honkin and Screaming Saxophone. 13 cd Box set: Bump, Jump, and Jive. 8 CD box set: STOMPIN'
