Sing, Sing Sing!

So we are finally getting a grasp of the Cotton Clubs early swing feel and are well under way to grasping the blend of imitation whilst bringing it in to the 21^st century with our line – up of two guitars, electric bass, piano and drums! In terms of my individual instrument I have spent the week listening to the early drummers of this era such as Chick Webb, Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich, analysing their concept and technique to playing in these big bands. As I mentioned last week it was generally agreed that once we understood the feel, the songs should hopefully fall into place and it seems that this week has shown that it was true. On arrival it was dicovered that our keyboardist Alison had arranged and transcribed the Benny Goodman version of ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’ to our set up. This led to us getting a solid grasp for the structure and all the separate parts and overall making the rehearsal a lot more straightforward. Our lecturer came in and seemed happy with our progress from the following week however we were reminded that due to the upcoming holiday that we were looking up to a maximum of 7 rehearsals before the gig.

Overall, this week has shown the band that we work best with the sheet music in front of us where we can all follow it and pick up at a bar of our choice. It is now been decided that this will be the chosen method for rehearsing as we are now running low on time and need to consider learning three tracks per rehearsal if we are going to accomplish the task in time.

Since we are now on holiday for a week it has become highly important that we keep in touch over the holidays and use the time to practice new tracks on our own.

The Cotton Club it is!

So after disputing and discussing the element of our project the band as a whole has come to the decision to research and perform songs from the Cotton Club. The Cotton Club was famous for its Jazz and even though it featured some of the greatest African American Jazz artists the club was known to refuse black’s entry to the club. This week did not contain as much practical performance however with our new tutor and the knowledge he has of Jazz a greater understanding of our project is now felt throughout the group. Yet again with Jazz, this is an area I am uneducated in especially when it comes to creating the same sound and feel that the drummers of that time did with such virtuoso. As our tutor is a jazz drummer I was able to attain useful feedback on how to improve my playing and recommended music I should be researching and attempting to replicate. In all, this week’s events have been both stressful and educational into jazz and more specifically the Cotton Club sound. Although as a band we feel like we are struggling slightly with this challenge I enjoy the difficulty and experience that the project will bring. It does seem as if we have been coming in every week without an idea and played in what seems to be “musical confusion” but one thing I have learned from this week is to come in with not only a solid knowledge of the song but the whole style and feel that is needed to play it. It seems that once as a band we have managed to recapture the sound of this club the songs will hopefully fall into place and we will be able to relax and consider our performance as a whole.

Although it has been a stressful last four weeks with mixed views on our style and proposal as a whole I feel we are now beginning to get a more solid foundation and look forward to the challenges, lessons and experiences that the project will bring.