Saturday At Smokin Joe's Cafe

Saturday night I went to Smokin Joes. Brought the recorder but I didn't turn it on. Don't know why...

Ended up jamming most of the night. Played guitar with Isaiah and Halley. And Gary... Remember Gary? He was the blues vocalist in my first entry here. Quite a character. He was our band leader Saturday night. I was able to work with him because I came with the attitude I just wanted to play a little and learn what I could.

Gary's an 80 percenter. He's a hundred percent blues but only worries about getting 80 percent of the song right. He taught me a version of whipping post which only marginally resembles the tabs I've seen from Allman Bros. but it was close enough so everyone knew the song. And we could jam on it for a while.

Came out nice.

I was brought up on the idea a song was written and the player, if he was properly prepared and properly trained, would perform the piece as written, exactly with no mistakes (ie no notes not provided by the original arranger/composer). Even my days in the Jazz band in high school made me think improvisational music was still composed music. (Mr. Worden, may he play duets with Louis Armstrong forever, would no doubt shake his head at me and think I'd let him down.)

Gary recognizes a song as a moment of expression. If he doesn't happen to have all the tools in his tool box the original artist had, well that's OK, he's got his own set, and he's got the blues.