Breaking Into the Bay Area Jazz Scene; Dealing With a Rival (Audios)

On March 3rd I practiced with a group of very professional jazz musicians in San Jose, California.  With any luck I will play with them again.  The sax player was amazing.  Listen to the audios linked below and you will see what I mean.

On Friday evening, I and some other musician friends went to the GVA Cafe in Morgan Hill to listen to our keys man perform with his Jazz fusion band, Fusion Blue.  They were fantastic.

The keys player in Fusion Blue, Rafael Espanol, has taken us under his more experienced wing, and we practiced yesterday at his home in San Jose.  We tried out a female singer, who was quite good.  We're hoping to have her join our fledgling efforts at forming a jazz band.

The Cats Jazz Band, an adult education project of which I am a part, continues to study sheet music of famous jazz songs.  I still struggle with reading music.  I can read it, just not fast enough yet.  Sight reading is still beyond my grasp.  To make matters worse, the Cats has another jazz student who currently plays guitar, but is mostly another bassist, and he has wanted my job for the last two years.  He thinks he is better than I am, and has taken to offering me criticism disguised as advice.  His comments about my playing took a turn for the worse this week, when he became insulting.  I told him his comments were presumptuous, and asked him to stop giving me advice on how to play bass.

I won't complain too much, however.  His negative comments only spur me to practice harder, so I can blow him away, musically speaking.

Here are some songs from the March 3rd practice, which so annoyed my rival:

Autumn Leaves:  http://yourlisten.com/Stogiebass/autumn-leaves-practice-01

On Green Dolphin Street:  http://yourlisten.com/Stogiebass/satin-doll-practice-01

Moondance:  http://yourlisten.com/Stogiebass/moondance-practice01#comment

Blue Bossa:  http://yourlisten.com/Stogiebass/blue-bossa-practice-01

Four on Six:  http://yourlisten.com/Stogiebass/four-on-six