Saturday, November 13, 2010

First jazz gig is an exercise in faith...

Tonight, after a church supper, I am headed out to play my first jazz gig EVER! I've been working at the bass again - practising and taking lessons as well as doing my own study and drills - but tonight is trial by fire time. I should be fine on the oldie pop tunes - and I can cut a decent reggae groove - but when we start doing "Take the A Train" or "Fly Me to the Moon" I know I am out of my depth.


Don't get me wrong, I LOVE those songs, but I don't know the genre well enough to feel truly confident. So, this is all about flying by faith and trusting that what I know will be good enough - and that I will learn from my mistakes. Richard Rohr of the Center for Contemplation and Action has been writing about "adult spirituality" of late - learning about the way of the heart during the second half of life - and he is very clear: unless you are open to learning from you mistakes, you'll wind up a cranky, tired old grouch who is afraid of life.

I expect that sometimes tonight I'm going to be totally bewildered. At other times, I'll get the root notes but not a whole lot more. And when I least expect it, too, something wonderful is going to happen. That's the thing about faith: we are not in control. All we can do is watch and wait and respond when the moment is right. I am grateful for the chance to start playing with my jazz buddies so that I can get some good mistakes under my belt... and really start to swing!

PS: so the gig went reasonably well. LOTS of mistakes for me - but not more than some of the other guys, too - which was humbling and encouraging. I still have ENLARGE the charts so I can really read them in the dark. And I have to start listening to some of the jazz standards so I can get a feel for them. And I have to keep practising my scales and turn arounds. But... for a first time gig, I have done LOTS worse! What's more, Andy is a killer at working the crowd and we threw in tons of old rock and roll which made me feel right at home. A very sweet night and I am grateful. We even did "Play That Funky Music White Boy" by request!

2 comments:

Peter said...

Ah, a wall--and each wall is a beginning of growth. Know what ya mean, brother.

RJ said...

Yes, yes, a wall and growth and failure and blessing all at once!

getting into the holy week groove...

We FINALLY got our seed and wildflower order in! By now we've usually had seedlings started but... my new gig at church, Di's health...