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I waited until set break, but yeah, it happened.
preface: I co-captain a collection of 7-8 reasonably high-level players (4-5 per gig) in a house band that hosts a weekly open mic night for emcees and vocalists. We also open for bigger shows and play for/ behind touring acts and guest artists that come through and need a band. Our Tuesday thing is all improv with occasional drops and teases into tunes that happen organically. We let instrumentalists sit in, but it’s really all about keeping the vibe happening for the people on the microphone. We take short solos mostly to pace and space out the emcees a little bit.
This guy comes in who frequents the funk jam session I host at another club…like, he’s there every time and he acts entitled to the stage. We’ve talked about it. We’ve also talked a lot about him trying to play in the pocket and listen to other players instead of just wailing away on his licks. He has a pretty good sound for what he plays, trends quite a bit sharp almost all the time especially on altissimo, and has only one bag of tricks: very cheeseball smooth jazz. The bass, drums, and keys this week were on a heavy neo-soul kick playing with a lot of chromaticism, beat-shifting, and all the phat chords…not exactly the backdrop for syrupy stuff.
I told him before the night started that it’s not a jam session, the solos are shorter and spread around, vocalists are the feature, and he has to play lines with me. I also said to let us call him up after we played a couple jams and that he should play 3 tunes/jams with us…about 20-25 minutes. Instead He jumped up on the first tune and didn’t stop playing pretty much the whole first set. It was like the keys, bass and guitar weren’t even there, and he stepped all over me. Every time there was a sliver of open space he was playing one of his licks. I fed him line after line both verbally and playing off mic and he just wouldn't join me...forget about picking what I'm playing on the fly. When he did try to play with me he was so sharp I couldn't lip up to match, at least twice I asked him to play in tune if he was going to play unison with me. Just not even listening. To anyone including himself.
At set break he asked me what was wrong (I spent the last two tunes on bongo) and I said I stopped playing sax because there was no space for me. I said every time I grabbed one of his lines he went sideways and wouldn't stay with me, and that he didn't let any of my lines grow into anything because instead of joining me he just noodled around. The two times I started to build into solos he just started playing right over me, and again I mentioned his (chronic) intonation issue. I went outside to chat with the fellas and a woman approached him about playing tenor. He left before I came in. She came to talk to me, said she's a beginner and is learning slowly by ear, knows zero scales, and doesn't even play the full range of the horn yet. I fed her lines and sang them to her while I showed her the fingerings and it was a blast. She played four tunes with us to end the night (once she got up her nerve to come up on stage) and people in the crowd said we made an awesome section.
Feel kind of bad because he's a decent guy and what he does is fine for jam sessions, but I also feel that the dude disrespected the stage and way overstepped guidelines established before we said he could sit in. If people invite you to play with them on their gigs, don't overstay or overplay your welcome.
preface: I co-captain a collection of 7-8 reasonably high-level players (4-5 per gig) in a house band that hosts a weekly open mic night for emcees and vocalists. We also open for bigger shows and play for/ behind touring acts and guest artists that come through and need a band. Our Tuesday thing is all improv with occasional drops and teases into tunes that happen organically. We let instrumentalists sit in, but it’s really all about keeping the vibe happening for the people on the microphone. We take short solos mostly to pace and space out the emcees a little bit.
This guy comes in who frequents the funk jam session I host at another club…like, he’s there every time and he acts entitled to the stage. We’ve talked about it. We’ve also talked a lot about him trying to play in the pocket and listen to other players instead of just wailing away on his licks. He has a pretty good sound for what he plays, trends quite a bit sharp almost all the time especially on altissimo, and has only one bag of tricks: very cheeseball smooth jazz. The bass, drums, and keys this week were on a heavy neo-soul kick playing with a lot of chromaticism, beat-shifting, and all the phat chords…not exactly the backdrop for syrupy stuff.
I told him before the night started that it’s not a jam session, the solos are shorter and spread around, vocalists are the feature, and he has to play lines with me. I also said to let us call him up after we played a couple jams and that he should play 3 tunes/jams with us…about 20-25 minutes. Instead He jumped up on the first tune and didn’t stop playing pretty much the whole first set. It was like the keys, bass and guitar weren’t even there, and he stepped all over me. Every time there was a sliver of open space he was playing one of his licks. I fed him line after line both verbally and playing off mic and he just wouldn't join me...forget about picking what I'm playing on the fly. When he did try to play with me he was so sharp I couldn't lip up to match, at least twice I asked him to play in tune if he was going to play unison with me. Just not even listening. To anyone including himself.
At set break he asked me what was wrong (I spent the last two tunes on bongo) and I said I stopped playing sax because there was no space for me. I said every time I grabbed one of his lines he went sideways and wouldn't stay with me, and that he didn't let any of my lines grow into anything because instead of joining me he just noodled around. The two times I started to build into solos he just started playing right over me, and again I mentioned his (chronic) intonation issue. I went outside to chat with the fellas and a woman approached him about playing tenor. He left before I came in. She came to talk to me, said she's a beginner and is learning slowly by ear, knows zero scales, and doesn't even play the full range of the horn yet. I fed her lines and sang them to her while I showed her the fingerings and it was a blast. She played four tunes with us to end the night (once she got up her nerve to come up on stage) and people in the crowd said we made an awesome section.
Feel kind of bad because he's a decent guy and what he does is fine for jam sessions, but I also feel that the dude disrespected the stage and way overstepped guidelines established before we said he could sit in. If people invite you to play with them on their gigs, don't overstay or overplay your welcome.
