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.