While We were Away…

I thought the experiment with the invisible ink went rather well last week. For those of you who missed it, this was Ben the Banker’s report on the previous Jam Session.

Here’s some bullet points from jazz jam on Sunday. Headline: A good jam resulted after a very slow start. I arrived at 4:15 and no one was there. Glen had already set everything up and had to head down to Hastings to visit his in laws. 4:30 Katerina, a singer from Czech, arrived with her partner. 4:45 Taariq arrived with his amp. 5:00 A piano player arrived. Name??? never seen him before.

Played a good set of music with that line up for 45 minutes. Lots of space, almost civilised (perhaps because there were no horn players or drummers ). I even considered asking Taariq to turn up during this bracket because the bass was so quiet. Katerina’s singing was fantastic. Japanese girl arrived with trumpet and did a good job of playing some standards. Deb and Bob arrived and played some tunes. Melinda arrived and announces “are you running that jam Ben??? in disbelief (no respect). wow you’ve come so far (mocking). Thanks for the support Mel!! Mel then played drums, in time, for 6 or so songs. Good Sax player arrived. Name???? Mel sang some songs, Sebastian arrived and we all turned up. Then a guy arrives with some congas…..it was well and truly a jam by this stage.

Not sure what happened from here on, perhaps Deb or Bob know……was still going at 8:00 when I had to leave!!!!!!!

Clearly the lad has grasped the essentials of reportage, as typified by the Melbourne Jazz Jammers Newsletter

(a) Insult everyone equally (b) Never let the facts intrude upon your story (c) Be inconsistent, possibly untruthful, but above all, vague

Now, where was I . . . ah yes, the Lunatic Soup Lounge Jam De Jour, Sunday March 5th (ed: ?? perhaps April) edition. It all went off without a hitch, which is a good thing, as last time we had a hitch no-one knew what to do with it. Ably led by the Captain, and with Doug ”Haircut” Kuhn laying down a solid bass all arvo,we could hardly go wrong… hardly.

Highlights included Keef the Teef back from the dentist and playing the floot… rather well; Bob Vinard on keys, the Hirsh on drums, followed by M. Sebastian, a welcome return from Borthwick the Bass, Harry on bongoes, and a late cameo from the Divine Miss Smith, accompanied by Richard (keys) plus a whole bunch of others, all of whom were young, glamorous, talented and modest, and shall, therefore, remain anonymous.

Stick to the Black keys, they are on special . . . TW