What happens when an “internet drummer” turns up at a real jam session?
Will all those hours in the practice room translate into real music with humans, or will everything fall apart after the requisite 30-carefully-edited-seconds that are the stock-and-trade of today’s Tiktok drum universe.
Last Friday, I decided to test it out.
I went to Smalls, possibly the world’s most famous jazz jam session, which livestreams everything to audiences of thousands on YouTube, to test my mettle. Would I fold as soon as things went “off script”, or would I “dig deep” and find my footing.
Of course I’m 98%jesting. Sitting in in jam sessions is a mundane act thousands of musicians of every stripe do every week. It’s something my students do with regularity. And it’s something I used to do a fair bit earlier in life. But it’s also true that I’ve on a roughly-ten-year hiatus from playing for real audiences with real huans onstage. And that there were some questions in my head about whether I’d have “cobwebs”, or if I’d be able to “get back on the horse”.
And for fun, I decided to take my camera to my very first foray back into live music. Where there was a genuine possibility I’d forget a tune, or lose the form, or get stage fright.
This video is also not just about me attending a single jam session, but rather a bit of a “confessional” about my first baby-steps into my return to playing live, and my burgeoning idea to start a band. I’ll talk about why I’ve come to believe it’s important to play live, why I quit, and why I stayed away for so long.
If you’re interested in the very mundane act of my sitting in at a jam session, great! If you’re interested in my thinking about what purpose live playing serves for musicians, great! Either way…
Hope you enjoy!