First Gig With New Jazz Trio Tonite Set Lists

Rattlin' Bones

Rattlin' Bones

Gold Member
I have first gig with our new jazz trio tonite. Playing tunes mostly from Great American Songbook. Myself on drums along with jazz guitar and electric bass. We also have a singer for most of the pieces. My drum kit is very limited because of space - just a snare and very thin 4" kick (yup - one 20" head and 4" shell) along with hats and two rides. We play very quietly.

Here's set list and my notes:

Set 1

There Is No Greater Love - instrumental. Moderate swing

Wine and Roses – instrumental. Moderate tempo swing

Summertime- swing and shuffle

Exactly Like You- upbeat swing

Taking Chance On Love- moderate swing. Swing quarters on B

Gee Baby Ain’t I Good To You – slow swing. Red wire brushes Bos ride. Swing quarters on B

Secret Love – instrumental. Swing fast popping swing

Autumn Leaves – moderate swing

Shadow of Your Smile – Turn Snares Off. Bossa

Moon River - 3 time. Blue brushes snare only. Keep it simple in 3 time.

Moondance – swing red wire brushes on edge of Bos ride. Drive B with quarters

Set 2

Softly as a Morning Sunrise – instrumental. Swings hard

Green Dolphin Street - instrumental. Moderate swing

Rockin’ Chair – swings. Swing quarters hard on bridge

Sailboat in the Moonlight and You – nice swing. Watch stops.

Sunny Side of the Street- cute upbeat swing. Watch stops.

All The Things You Are - instrumental swing red wire brushes on Bos ride

Lover Man – very very slow slow swing. Use only red wire brushes on Bos ride.

Blue Skies - swing up tempo.

I Wish You Love - Turn Snares Off. Bossa

Feel Like Makin’ Love - Funk
 
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Rattlin' Bones

Rattlin' Bones

Gold Member
Al Strange said:
Sounds fun! Enjoy it mate! :D(y)
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I'm a bit nervous. In the jazz world the musicians are so good they know most of the tunes or if they don't a simple chord chart is all they need. I'm not a full-on jazz drummer it's relatively new for me, so this combo is a great opportunity since they're not demanding anything complicated. And - for this gig (which is a regular once a month gig now) - it's quiet. Even with that small kick I'm using a big fluffy beater. That's another thing I'm learning about jazz - it's less about kick drum than blues or country. It's ride, snare, and hats.

On instrumentals we've only practiced most of them one time. I just wanna make sure I lay down easy grooves at consistent tempo and lock in with bass. Like guitar player told me, "The swing is the thing, man." Which is quite different from some of the blues groups I played with in past who didn't know how to swing. I've played with blues guys who did some jazz but they still wanted shuffles. The Upbeats they dig the swing, man.
 
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Al Strange

Al Strange

Platinum Member
Rattlin' Bones said:
I'm a bit nervous. In the jazz world the musicians are so good they know most of the tunes or if they don't a simple chord chart is all they need. I'm not as full-on jazz drummer it's relatively new for me, so this combo is a great opportunity for me since they're not demanding anything complicated and - for this gig (which is a regular once a month gig now) it's quiet. On instrumentals we've only practiced most of them one time. I just wanna make sure I lay down easy grooves at consistent tempo and lock in with bass. Like guitar player told me, "The swing is the thing, man." Which is quite different from some of the blues groups I played with in past who didn't know how to swing.
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You’ll be fine mate. Stay in lane for a couple of shows to get your confidence up…then you can start relaxing and expressing yourself a little more. I’m sure you’ll smash it!:)(y)
 
Rattlin' Bones

Rattlin' Bones

Gold Member
Al Strange said:
You’ll be fine mate. Stay in lane for a couple of shows to get your confidence up…then you can start relaxing and expressing yourself a little more. I’m sure you’ll smash it!:)(y)
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That's my plan exactly. The guitar player wanted me to take some full solos which would be 32 bars, but I said right now I don't have enough to say with my snare and cymbals to fill 32 bars :oops:

I did buy a wood rim block for the Latin tunes, and also for cuter tunes like Blue Skies and Sunny Side where I can play on rim. The wood gives me a larger surface than just the rim, and sounds better too.
 
Rattlin' Bones

Rattlin' Bones

Gold Member
We pulled it off splendidly!!! Weather was perfect, the place was sold out and packed for both sets, and in my opinion/ the venue owner's/ the patron's opinion's we sounded great. "Cool grooves", "you guys played some great jazz that I don't often hear live"
were some of comments from the audience. And - all our equipment worked !

We don't have a PA system, so we improvised with outputting our singer's amp to a larger integrated sorta PA amp and used that as a monitor. It was close to me so I could easily hear the singer, who was at other end of the performance area. Bass on my right. That helped a lot being literally right next to bass because our jazz guitar player, when he gets in a good groove, it's sometimes hard to tell where his "one" is.

So busy setting up and playing and greeting friends who turned out that I forgot to take pics of my very skinny kick drum and the rest of my kit. Sorry! But here's a close up of me lol. I wore that shirt to try and blend in with the lavender plants :cool: And yes I was swinging quarters!
IMG_3115-1.jpgIMG_7635.jpegIMG_7635-1.jpg
 
roncadillac

roncadillac

Member
Rattlin' Bones said:
We pulled it off splendidly!!! Weather was perfect, the place was sold out and packed for both sets, and in my opinion/ the venue owner's/ the patron's opinion's we sounded great. "Cool grooves", "you guys played some great jazz that I don't often hear live"
were some of comments from the audience. And - all our equipment worked !

We don't have a PA system, so we improvised with outputting our singer's amp to a larger integrated sorta PA amp and used that as a monitor. It was close to me so I could easily hear the singer, who was at other end of the performance area. Bass on my right. That helped a lot being literally right next to bass because our jazz guitar player, when he gets in a good groove, it's sometimes hard to tell where his "one" is.

So busy setting up and playing and greeting friends who turned out that I forgot to take pics of my very skinny kick drum and the rest of my kit. Sorry! But here's a close up of me lol. I wore that shirt to try and blend in with the lavender plants :cool: And yes I was swinging quarters!
View attachment 120312View attachment 120313View attachment 120314
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Awesome! Congrats!
 
newoldie

newoldie

Silver Member
What are the blue and the red brushes you have- what brand are they, and what's the difference between the 2?
I use VF Live Wire brushes when I have to use brushes (infrequently) as they have a small bead on the end of each wire and can generate more sound, which I need.
 
roncadillac

roncadillac

Member
newoldie said:
What are the blue and the red brushes you have- what brand are they, and what's the difference between the 2?
I use VF Live Wire brushes when I have to use brushes (infrequently) as they have a small bead on the end of each wire and can generate more sound, which I need.
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I was curious about the same thing. I assumed they are different gauge or stiffness of wires but I could be wrong.
 
Rattlin' Bones

Rattlin' Bones

Gold Member
newoldie said:
What are the blue and the red brushes you have- what brand are they, and what's the difference between the 2?
I use VF Live Wire brushes when I have to use brushes (infrequently) as they have a small bead on the end of each wire and can generate more sound, which I need.
Click to expand...
The red = VF Live Wire yes! They're louder. The blue brushes are just plastic bristles I use them when I'm only stirring the soup on snare and not doing anything with cymbals: Promark B400. They're pretty much just like VF Jazz rake brushes from what I can tell. But they're blue. They retract like the VF, too.
 
Rattlin' Bones

Rattlin' Bones

Gold Member
Bo Eder said:
Do you guys do Streisands’ “Evergreen”? 😉
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Hi Bo!!!

No, Streisand is not in our repertoire right now. Most of what we do is from Great American Songbook and jazz standards, with a few exceptions like Moondance and Makin' Love.

Gig story: Last nite before first set and before patrons started showing up for their 7:30 reservations I asked the guys if we could warm up, maybe an instrumental from 2nd set and just warm up on it. Instead, guitar player suggests ""All Blues". I have never played that ever in public. Don't think I ever played it in my basement by myself either lol. But I've listened to the "Kind of Blue" album a zillion times. I knew it was heavily driven by bass, and we have a great great jazz bass player. So I said sure. And we really played it well. I just followed the bass player's groove and off we went. We're adding it to set list. I wanna add "Moanin" too.
 
Bo Eder

Bo Eder

Platinum Member
Rattlin' Bones said:
Hi Bo!!!

No, Streisand is not in our repertoire right now. Most of what we do is from Great American Songbook and jazz standards, with a few exceptions like Moondance and Makin' Love.

Gig story: Last nite before first set and before patrons started showing up for their 7:30 reservations I asked the guys if we could warm up, maybe an instrumental from 2nd set and just warm up on it. Instead, guitar player suggests ""All Blues". I have never played that ever in public. Don't think I ever played it in my basement by myself either lol. But I've listened to the "Kind of Blue" album a zillion times. I knew it was heavily driven by bass, and we have a great great jazz bass player. So I said sure. And we really played it well. I just followed the bass player's groove and off we went. We're adding it to set list. I wanna add "Moanin" too.
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I was kidding. I always ask for “Evergreen” from all the bands I see.
 
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