Jazz in Decatur: The Patio at Java Monkey is a Low Decibel Feast for the Ears

Our new philosophy is "We Want You To Talk While We Play!"  At least, we want you to be able to talk if that's what you want to do.  The reality is, we are there to provide background music for the wine tasting events.  Perhaps we didn't know that before...  We were asked to turn it down last time we were here.  We didn't want the police to know us on a regular basis.  Guy brought a tiny (but not tinny) amp.  I simply turned my GK down a bit.  Jason had to use less air.  Adrian manged to stay low in the mix as well.  We succeeded in the volume stipulation.  Before we started up, Adrian leaned into me and explained that we were not locking in on the swing stuff.  He felt that I was dragging.  Maybe I was.  I tried to play on top of the beat more.  It's hard for me to describe, but he said later in the night that it was much improved in the groove department.  That's good.  I remember times when I thought we weren't on the same page.  Maybe those times were more frequent than I care to admit.  Well, I hate to think that's a weakness at this point - I have so many others that I was hoping I could at least keep time.  I shall be more conscious.

Played the NS EUB and got a few nice compliments.  I pursued the fretless "mwah" aspect of the EUB and really enjoyed getting some of that vibe into my playing.  Folks seemed to respond as well.  Interesting angle that could be exploited more on the upright.  I hear Brian Bromberg going there when he plays, a la his version of All Blues from his upright themed album Wood, heard but not seen here - a gritty live version showcasing his formidable technique is here (dig all those harmonics and that pinky sliding up and back catching the melody while the ostinato continues, never mind the tapping going on around 2:00 or the slapping at 2:30.  Oh well, a bit of the subject here.  What did we play?  Clifford Brown's Sandu, an Eb blues.  I just happen to have a chart handy:

It's a big file so it should print out well, even for a jpeg.  I save those RB pages as bmp's and then as pdf's, so I believe that eliminates any compression issues.  Cool tune, one that Guy called back when we did some shows with Randy Hunter (one of the very best, period) and Tim Nash (a very musical drummer who always blows me away and leaves me thinking, "Why don't I play more with this chap?").  Guy nailed the head and gave us a great springboard for our middle-of-the-road jazz excursions.

No pics worthy of posting.  This place can be rather hit or miss as far as that goes.  I'll try harder next time.