30s, 40s, 50s….jazz, swing….upbeat for dancing….. romantic and smoochy…we do it all!
Well, last night’s rehearsal was a stomping success! We had great fun trying out different numbers at different tempos, aiming for 150 bpm – and it was really surprising how well they worked! I was dancing, the band were dancing, so much energy in room 10 last night!
We’re buying some more upbeat songs to add to these, so our dancing set is well on its way.
And lovely Ailsa, playing her alto sax, has decided to join us, so it seems we didn’t scare her too much last week!
Remember that party I mentioned a few weeks ago? Well, Karen, the organiser, came along to our rehearsal the other day, to see if we were the sort of band she was looking for, and…… we are! But we have to get more dance-type numbers to play, which is great, as that’s what we should be doing – people want to dance and have fun.
And Ailsa came along for the first time too, playing her alto sax. She was brilliant! Though I suspect she was surprised at the amount of sight reading she found herself doing…! Well played, Ailsa, I hope you weren’t put off!
Although we were down in numbers this week, we decided to meet up anyway – it’s often interesting doing songs without some of the instruments ..concentrates the mind! And tonight was no exception…
As Dan said – it looks like Hazel does everything! I think the rest of us could just stay at home, and let her play…we missed her so much tonight! And with Joël away too (we missed you, Joël!), our music was very ‘bare’ tonight – we had to lots of counting, timing our ins. And that was just when we weren’t laughing! (With each other, not at each other. Of course….!)
Hopefully a full house next week though. And a bassist coming along for a try-out, which should be interesting.
Sorry, no recordings yet – the quality of the recording wasn’t good enough.
Mark made a few recordings of us last night, as he seems to think we’re beginning to shape up (at last!) – we hope to add some snippets to this site soon, to give potential clients a taste of what we can do.
I missed last week’s practice as I was away, so this was the only sax I’ve seen for a fortnight! Back to work for last night’s practice though, and it was a great one. My friend Aladar came along to play his double bass with us, and it was amazing at the difference it made to our sound! Of course, he won’t have time to join us very regularly, as he’s so busy, but hopes to get to gigs, which is fantastic!
Now, all we need is a pianist/keyboard player…..anyone?!
Well, hopefully for a lot more nights than that – we’re starting to plan gigs! One at the end of July, but hopefully another before that, in Chipping Sodbury, and possibly a party in June. And lots of exciting ideas and plans! I can’t wait!
It’s been great just playing together, but we’ve always said, right from the start, that we’re not going to be just a rehearsal band – it’s just that there’s so much rehearsing to do, when all the material is new! But we do seem to be bedding in really well together now, our set is taking shape, and having some dates to work towards will be a terrific way of concentrating the mind…!
We had a full house last night, all the regular members were there, and David too, trying out as second alto sax (it’s a sort of two-way audition!) Anyway, both auditions must’ve gone well, because he’s decided to join us!
This is great, as we have a lot of good music for alto sax, and it’ll help Mark out too. I had to turn my vocals pa up a bit…they’re getting louder!
All we need now is a bassist (preferably double bass) who can commit to being at most rehearsals – so if you know anyone, sing out right away! (Wait…I’ll just rig my pa so you can be heard…)
room 10 