In May, I participated in 5 jam sessions at 3 venues. I used the Tears nylon string electric all month, through venue backline amps (JC-120, JC-40, Polytone Mini Brute). This guitar is growing on me. Since playing it I've abandoned using picks, which I always felt were cumbersome. I like the less taut strings I'm using, La Bella 900 Elite with polished golden alloy. Ironically, I picked this guitar up on a whim in Tokyo a few years back but never bonded with it. Recently, I've been going through gear to sell things I don't use much. As it has turned out, this guitar is definitely a keeper!

Venue A is a small Mom and Pop shop, an outgrowth of the old Japanese jazz cafe tradition. Once a listening space with high end audio and coffee, Venue A now focuses mostly on live performances by regional jazz musicians. Pop is a musician and Mom does cooking and drinks. It's a hangout for professional and serious amateur musicians alike. Overall the level of playing here is more accomplished than the other 3 venues I play at. It's about a 45 minute drive each way, and since they hold sessions only twice a month, I'm not able to go every month. But it's usually worth the effort, not only to keep in touch with local musicians who I don't run into at the other venues, but also for the humbling opportunity to play with some top-notch musicians. Piano trios are the norm here, and there are some quite accomplished pianists who are well known regionally.

Tonight there was 2 dozen people, including several young players and a vocalist who was gigging the region. There were 3 guitarists including myself, 2 who I know from a local blues club that held jams I used to go to before corona shut things down. He tours with a blues band, and I've played with him at other venues. In the first set, 2 guitarists did Let the Good Times Roll (BB King version, with a guitarist singing) and The Chicken, with a piano trio.

Next, the piano trio did Stella by Starlight, a tune which I recently started studying after listening to it played at virtually every jam session since I started keeping these journals last year. It's a lovely tune. That was followed by I'll Close My Eyes, another jam session staple around these parts.

The blues guitarist returned to the stage and invited me to join him for Georgia on My Mind.

After that, the touring vocalist stepped up and called Spain at breakneck tempo. This tune is quite popular here, and most people know it. I haven't learned the theme and breaks, but sometimes join because the Bm section between the verses is fun for key center ad-lib. But this time I out, so it was just the vocalist with piano and bass, my first time hearing it with vocals at a jam session.

I hit the stage next, doing 2 tunes with a piano trio: Well You Needn't and Beatrice. For the former, since they were reading from the Jazz Standard Bible (like a Real Book), we used the Miles Davis changes (which I actually prefer, with all due respect to Monk). After that I called Beatrice, one of my favorite tunes to play at jams, and took several choruses.

Jam sessions are full of surprises; tonight was no exception. In addition to the blues guitarist and touring singer, there was a sax player who I knew from other jams. Tonight he was playing bassoon, joined by a flautist and a piano trio, doing Roberta Flack's Feel Like Makin' Love, sung alternately by two vocalists.

Another piano trio took the stage, doing Just Friends. BTW, most pianists at Venue A are women; one former regular is now touring and I haven't jammed with her in a while. After getting warmed up with JF, they did Invitation joined by a semi-pro trumpet player, who I knew from years ago when he was a teenager just starting out. They did it super fast, and the drummer was truly amazing to watch. While I don't get a chance to play as much at Venue A as I do at other venues, it's always fun to watch.

Tonight I did get to play a couple of other tunes. The touring vocalist invited me up to play on When You Wish Upon a Star, and we were joined by someone new (to me) who was playing one of the those mini air blown keyboards through some effectors. I comped lightly and took a chorus.

Another piano trio stepped up and invited me to stay, so I called Sugar. If there was one genre of jazz that I'd say is a favorite around these parts, it'd be Hard Bop, so it's always a lot of fun to play those tunes with these people. The young trumpet player then joined a piano trio to sing and play Days of Wine and Roses, another jam staple that everyone knows.

By that time, the crowd was thinning out and I started packing up, but the blues guitarists invited me up to play Autumn Leaves with a piano trio. I recall at another venue when I ran into him, we also did Autumn Leaves, and it was fun to end the evening with that.

I also participated in a monthly jam session at Venue B. It's another Mom and Pop shop, where Pop is a touring musician and Mom runs the house. I got on their mailing list, since their jams are invitation only, through my connection with a trumpet player from another venue. I've been playing here for over a year, and did a gig with Pop and his piano trio last summer. This month, there was PFx1, GTx2, DSx2, a VO, TS and TP. There were also a few people who came to drink coffee and watch. One of the things I noticed about jams that I frequent around here is there's no pressure by the house to entertain an audience. Rather, these are more like community events for and by local musicians. There's not a lot of drinking, and the places don't get noisy; it seems to be removed from a jam session being an extension of a house band's bar gig.

Tunes played, roughly in order, included My Foolish Heart, called by TP with a piano trio. I arrived late, so they were already playing, and I followed along in the JSB, having my first coffee. TP next called Have You Met Miss Jones, which we agreed last month to work on and play together. We did the theme in tandem and took a couple of choruses each. It was a little slower than I prefer playing but TP called it. What I like about this tune is the cycle of 3rds on the bridge that's a lot of fun to weave through, and always reminds me of Coltrane.

I stayed on stage as TP sat out, and called Stella By Starlight, which I'd been working on recently. No matter how adept I am with a tune at home in my comfort zone, on stage it's like 50% capacity. But I think that's a good thing, a benefit of open jam sessions, which are opportunities to learn in situ. I counted it off as a moderate swing, played the theme as written more or less, and only in the high register, took one chorus, which was tentative and not very inspired, and got a little lost on a return to the theme after 4s, but it basically sounded like a partial ad-lib on the theme, and then I got back into it half way through. Wasn't bad for the first time playing this live in a group. Perhaps I should call it more often.

I sat out and GT2 stepped up to call There Will Never Be Another You, followed by If I Were a Bell. The latter seems a straight ahead tune, so maybe worth working on, although I'm not sure how often it gets called. GT2 was a little too loud comping for PF and BA solos, which I notice among some guitarists at open jams.

Usually Venue B has several vocalists, all students of Pop, but today there was just one, and she called My Funny Valentine in Fm and All of Me in F major, for which she distributed charts. I comped lightly, but mainly left the ad-lib to PF.

After the VO set, TP invited me to stay and called Sandu, basically a blues in Eb, but with a complex theme and slightly different changes and breaks. The ad-lib was just an Eb blues, and it was fun though some communication was not clear about whether we'll do 4s or not on this so it's not to be assumed that 4s are always done, apparently. Another in situ learning experience.

After a short coffee break, PF had to leave. Pop asked GT2 and I to join, and we did I'll Close My Eyes with TS, who is a regular at one of the other venues and who comes here on occasion. He also called I'll Remember April and The Night has 1000 eyes, both in a Bossa style.

I sat out, and watched GT2, DS2, TP, TS, do On Green Dolphin Street without bass nor piano. That was followed by TP calling Love for Sale, for which I joined GT2 and BA stepped up.

DS2 then suggested Summertime and started a heavy funk groove. I joined on an Am vamp, at which point BA joined in. TP played a bit, but seemed uneasy without a chart. I was taking liberties with the theme, not really stating it fully until near the end, though the last phrase of the theme became something like a marker, a sort of place holder. I did some minimalist variations on chording, BA took a solo, but I think TP was still looking for a straight-forward statement of the melody.

It came to me that among the more seasoned players, this kind of opening up a tune is natural, but for the usual jam sessions everyone more or less sticks to the chart. I'm sort of in between, taking chances and being adventuresome like those more adept than I, but without their skills. I can do it on a tune like Summertime, with the right chemistry of players. It was a lot of fun, and DS who started the whole thing had a blast!

After that I sat out, and GT2 did All the Things You Are as a duo with BA.

Toward the end of the session, I called Well You Needn't, which TP and I agreed last month to play together. I did the theme in a low register. For the B section I used 6/9 chords, thinking of the Kenny Burrell version, who used Miles Daves changes. My ad-lib went better than usual and took at least 2 choruses, working in some Arabic tinged riffs. It felt good this time, maybe it was DS2, who seems to have a style that I can easily lock in with. After that, I called called Dindi as a medium tempo Bossa with DS2 and BA1. I stuck to the form but branched out quite a bit on the ad-lib. I didn't get lost out of 4s, it felt good and was enjoyable.

I suggested a song for everyone to play. Someone chose Blue Bossa. I stayed on stage and we played with all the remaining players. I got it rolling with a Bossa vamp on Cm9, and it felt much more comfortable this time than previous times, maybe because it was a bit slower, though not too slow. It was a good set, and TP and I agreed to work on Sugar to play together next month.

The last song of the session was Confirmation, played by TP, TS, GT2, BA, and DS. I didn't know it well so sat out. I followed along on the chart, and thought it was better that I sat out; it was quite fast, not my forte, and I don't have the rhythm changes upon which it is based internalized. It also has a 2 page chart in the JSB, which is difficult to read on the fly.

The other 3 sessions this month were all at Venue C, yet another independent Mom and Pop shop, but with both Mom and Pop being full time musicians in a variety of genres. They hold a weekly jazz session, at which I'm a regular. I feel most at home here, because despite the cultural and linguistic differences, we are similar in generation and musical tastes.

To keep this journal from getting too long, I'll focus on a broad overview of the participants and the tunes played at all 3 Venue C jams, with a few observations.

Over all 3 Venue C jams, we had 4 guitarists (GT1 myself, GT2 semi-pro regular, GT3 semi-pro irregular, GT4 networking irregular). Other participants by instrument included TP (regular), PF (regular), BAx3 (regular x2, irregular x1), DSx3 (regular x1, irregular x2), VOx3 (irregular x1, newcomer x2). There were also a few people coming in and out to watch, usually friends of the participants. Jams at these venues are not based on entertaining an audience; they do that other nights with concerts, etc. Jams are mostly for musicians to enjoy playing together, sometimes networking, or honing their skills in situ.

At jams in Japan, participants often use the 2 volume Jazz Standard Bible, something akin to but not the same as the Real Book. It was put together by Osamu Koichi, who studied at Berklee but is now a gigging bassist in Tokyo.

Together, the 2 volumes have about 500 tunes. Here's a list of tunes played, in alphabetical order from each JSB, noting who called it when available.

JSB1: All the Things You Are x2, Alone Together (GT1, GT2 x3), Beautiful Love (TP x2), Black Nile PF, Blue Bossa (GT2&4 x2), Candy (TP), Cute (TP), Doxy (TP), Feel Like Makin' Love (GT2&3 x3), Four, Have you met Miss Jones (GT1), I Could Write a Book (PF x2), I'll Close My Eyes (TP), It Could Happen to You (PF), My Romance (PF), Night has 1000 Eyes (BA called, PF played theme), Green Dolphin (GT2), Rhythm-a-ning (PF), Solar, Stella by Starlight (GT1), Shadow of Your Smile (GT1), Shiny Stockings (PF), Softly as in a Morning Sunrise, There is No Greater Love, and There Will Never be Another You (GT2).

JSB2: Armondo's Rhumba; Dindi (GT1 x3); Sugar (GT1 x3); Road Song (GT2 x3).

Vocal charts: Days of Wine and Roses (in C) VO1, Recado Bossa Nova (in Cm) VO1, Mona Lisa (in Bb), Softly as in a Morning Sunrise (in Gm), Bye Bye Blackbird (in C), When You're Smiling VO1, Blue Bossa VO2.

Random observations:
Alone Together gets called often at these sessions, usually at a moderate tempo. Trading fours presents a challenge, given its 14 bar A section. One time this month, the pattern was 4 soloist, 4 drums, 4 soloist, 2 drums; another time it was 6 soloist and 8 drums. Other months, we've gotten lost and bring it back with some non-verbal communication. Checking some random online videos, I found either no 4s or getting a little lost and bringing it back; in one case the soloist took 8 bars and the drummer 6.

Mostly at Venue C there are multiple guitarists, but in some cases only 1, or very rarely none. At the first session this month, I was the only guitarist and played 2 hours non-stop; in the second session I played on everything for the first half, until another guitarist arrived and I sat out.

A notable moment was when PF called Black Nile. It gets called once in a while, usually pretty fast but not breakneck. This time, we all got into a zone and seemed to float above the changes, at least from where I was sitting. Afterwards, BA said, with a big somewhat surprised smile, "I didn't know where I was!" I noticed at other sessions, with skilled players jamming, the changes are left behind, although the form remains the same. It seems to suggest playing no changes, or creating a non-tonal forward momentum. Some pianists do this, eschewing or obscuring the changes beyond recognition with substitutions. It comes back with either non-verbals, body language, or musical cues. And probably intuition. In my case, I sometimes use ascending chromatic shapes to move things forward without creating any kind of harmony. In the case of Black Nile this, it was a little of both. None of us were super skilled, but we somehow kept it together playing beyond the changes.

There were some comping issues, and I always think of a JGO thread on laying out during a bass solo, letting the pianist tinkle or punch a bit here and there. But at the Venue C sessions, guitarists continue comping through a bass solo, in a sense ruining the dynamics. Not sure why they don't hear that. I learned my lesson doing that a couple years ago, when there was a gigging bassist at the session, watching one of our regular bassists play. During the bass solo, both guitars, as well as piano, continued comping, until he stood up and bellowed, "GUITARS!!" That and our discussion here made me quite attentive to these matters; it's part of learning in situ.

Thanks for reading, I hope you found it interesting. I'd love to read your comments or questions.