[Harp-L] Jams, Etiquette, etc.

["Bob Maglinte" <bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,
I know there have been plenty of people on this list feeling miffed about 
"pros" taking their jam time away, or getting snubbed by them, but having 
hosted one at one time, there are dilemas that most jammers will often never 
understand. Keeping them organized and preventing musical train wrecks can 
be an enormous challenge, plus keeping the NON-jammer audience entertained 
with decent quality music also comes into the equation, and if there's a set 
of jammers up there that have the crowd really jumping into a fenzy, it's 
more likely to see them go on for a bit longer time than for another set of 
jammers where the audience response by comparison is quite mild to put it 
politely. If the audience sees a pro in the audience hanging out, they're 
gonna want the pro up there.

Did any of you jammers ever think that some of those pros may be scouting 
possible talent for their bands by any chance?? I'll bet you that most don't 
even think about that for a NY minute, because there have been pros going to 
scout for people, and in the business, things happen and you have to keep a 
roster of possible subs/future band members 24/7. Not only are they keeping 
an eye out on your solos, but how you back up other musicians, how you 
interact with others, how you conduct yourself at ALL times, be it on the 
bandstand or not, and that's just for starters. I've had some great sounding 
jammers made to look like idiots by other jammers who mindless riff over 
everything without a clue. When I hosted the jam at Gilrein's in Worcester, 
MA during the mid 90's, there was a guitarist who was under age, so his mom 
brought him to the jam, and he eventually wound up being my regular guitar 
player, and was also a terrific harp player in his own right, and he later 
went on to play with Jerry Portnoy, James Harman, Kim Wilson, and The 
Fabulous Thunderbirds, and that was Troy Gonyea. While he was up there, he 
was paying constant attention to EVERYTHING going on around him, learning a 
lot as he went on, further honing excellent rhythm and 'comping skills, and 
was humble right from the outset.

How many times some jammers tend to treat a jam like it's their paying gig 
is amazing, and some of them act more like a prima donna than most of the 
pros that I've met over the years. Too often the worst whiners in the jams 
are people no other jammers, let alone pros, want on their bandstand. There 
are some jammers who will not listen to anything except themselves, and 
there are those whop cherish and take to heart whatever advice you can give 
them and will work on it, coming back and then you can see some terrific 
results happening.

There are some pros who may have just moved to the area very recently and 
it's also a way for them to connect with the local scene and meet with other 
musicians they may want to recruit or be recruited, and meeting possible 
future followings in that very same jam audience. This is something many 
jammers don't realize.

One poster (whose name I can't recall at this moment) mentioned having a 
teacher who wnt on the jam playing over everything. I have seen a lot of 
this too, and this is a case of someone, pro OR amateur, not listening to 
what's going on around them and not understanding groove and feel, and what 
would be appropriate in one groove/feel can be an absolutely a nightmare in 
another. The wrost case of all was having a clarinet player playing stuff 
that belonged in a Dixieland Jazz feel over a more funk oriented Albert King 
feel, which clashed so badly, it was pathetic.

Many times jammers don't realize is that the house band is often being paid 
FAR less than if it was their regular gig they'd play, (it's not uncommon 
for a band that normally gets paid $300-500 for a regular gig is too often 
only being paid $150-200 for hosting a jam) often providing the use of their 
gear, and it's EXTREMELY rare that the venue having the jam owns ANY  of the 
gear on the bandstand, except for maybe possibly the PA, and even that's 
unlikely, and because it's usually the host band's gear that the jammers are 
using, jammers have no business abusing it, be it cranking the amp up 
without asking first, laying drinks, smoking materials all over the amps, 
pounding the drums excessively hard, etc., and I have often said prior to 
letting the jammers begin playing that any such crap or abusive attitude 
towards anyone, I won't hesitate to physically throw them off the bandstand, 
and I most certainly have.

Plenty of jammers are saying "I want my turn to play," but one thing that 
too often gets lost in learning how to play, is learning how to LISTEN, and 
though there are a lot of jammers who do eventually learn how, there are far 
too many on the other side of the coin who don't, and they're usually the 
first to whine about everybody else, and they usually spoil things for 
everyone and make everyone else around them look positively awful. There are 
plenty of times one can learn more by listening than just playing all the 
riffs you just learned how to play, so that what you do in the future can be 
musically more productive.

I know everyone here may have some differing opinions about this, but I 
think more than a few of you need to think about some of these things that 
I've mentioned.

Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
MP3's: http://music.mp3lizard.com/barbequebob/