Gary Meek

Someone, I think it was Dizzy, said you should only do this if you absolutely have to. Talking about playing jazz for a living. I agree it’s a tough road to hoe. I’ve been lucky enough to have extended periods of my life when I was able to make a living playing only jazz, but if one wanted to have any kind of home life in LA, the Jazz only rule didn’t suffice. At least for me. I missed the golden age of house bands and staff orchestras. I couldn’t make a living wage staying home unless I was willing to do everything. I also honestly wasn’t as good as the guys who were in town doing it at the time. I didn’t have the experience or the skill set necessary to compete. So I took whatever came my way, played keys a lot. There was more work for mediocre keyboard players then mediocre sax players. In my off time I practiced and jammed and listened a lot to the people who were doing what I wanted to do. I don’t regret that period of time at all. I spent a whole year doing nothing but blues gigs on keys and sax. Learning what not to play. Learning that you must study the idiom if you want to fit in. There are so many idiomatic inflections and linear ideas we develop as horn players. If we try to fit the jazz ones into the straight blues, or rock, idiom, it doesn’t fit. If you are smart enough you can bring all the knowledge of all the idioms you’ve studied, for me: jazz, classical, rock, funk, fusion, rhythm and blues, Brazilian jazz and its various grooves, et al. , and bring them into all the idioms you may be asked to play in without disrespecting the idiom. (A good rock player can spot a jazz purist a mile away). Michael Brecker was this kind of player. I’ve always endeavored to be as well. I’ve always found it a fun and interesting challenge. Now I’m getting older, and mostly back into jazz, but can still hang. I’m glad of that.
Thanks,

GM

Noise:
The world is full of all kinds of noise. Not just the kind you can hear. Fear, Anxiety, Anger, all create psychological, or spiritual if you will, noise. I Remember talking to Dave Weckl in the van one day after he had given a clinic/master class, and he said something that really stuck with me. He said “most beginning drummers make a lot of noise. One of the first things I try to teach them is to not make any sound that is not music”. He said a lot of them don’t make it past the first fill. Saxophone players do the same thing only our noise is less obvious as to what it is. Advanced musicians of any kind playing jazz especially can have the same issue. In my opinion and experience, the mind causes a lot of noise. One little mistake and off to the races! Nervousness, insecurities, judgement, of self or what someone else may or may not be thinking. It’s crazy! The listener may not know what it is but he or she can definitely feel it! When we had Dave’s acoustic band with Tom Kennedy, Makoto Ozone, and Myself, there was only joy, humor, excitement, honesty. We were all happy for each other being there. It was a noise free environment. The only comments I ever got were about how much fun that must be. I want that now. Whenever and whoever I play with. Not easy. But oh so worth it!

Do kids get together and jam like we used to? We used to jam somewhere almost every night. Practice all day jam all night. I didn’t go to college. That was my education, but a lot of friends who were in college were jamming with us. Every party I went to had a live band playing. If we didn’t jam we listened to music on real speakers in groups of people together. Then we’d talk about what we had heard and probably play it again and again. Maybe figure something of it out on the piano and start playing it. I always had my ax around close by. Maybe some of this goes on but I think a lot of social listening is gone. Music is either for dancing or ambience. Most kids I see are listening in headphones. Some in groups. Are they listening to the same thing? It seems so isolating to me. Especially to those who want to take music seriously. We also used to talk about the mechanics and technical aspects of music and debate about what sounds better and who is getting the best sound and why. The way engineers and producers do about the whole picture, we used to do about our individual instruments. How can you do that if your not experiencing the music together. I think that’s why live jazz is and will continue to come back. People want to experience music together, at least in my community, and I think elsewhere too. But if they are not doing it, kids should jam more! Call your friends up and get together and play. More fun than computer games or dumb TV shows. Just my opinion.