Calling All Instrumentalists for online jazz experiment!

[Stu Beef]

Essentially, all you need to know is in the title: I had the wild idea to form a jazz combo of sorts; exclusively over the nets with people from all over the globe (or wherever you happen to be, I guess). I want to see if we can somehow capture the spontaneity of jazz, a traditionally live art form, over weeks of recording individual tracks.

Now, currently I don't have much planned out. I don't even know how many instrumentalists we have on here, let alone how many might be interested in this. Depending on the turn-out, we might have a single group of mixed skill levels, or maybe we can kind of tier things based on demand. Really, I just want to know, who's down?


WHO IS ENCOURAGED TO JOIN

Anyone with a significant background in jazz. I'm not much of a jazz player, but I am pretty good at listening to things. For me, I'd much rather feature any talented soloists we have rather than throwing myself at the front of things.

Also, since we're going to be working through recording you MUST have a decent quality mic (if you have to ask...maybe we can work it out) and a bit of recording/production competency.

IF YOU CAN WRITE, go for it. I'm sure we've all got ideas but never had the proper medium through which to convey them; this might be your opportunity!

IN TERMS OF INSTRUMENTS

We need all the classic melody instruments: sax, trumpet, whatever, but any kind of wind/string/pitched percussion should do. Hopefully we have some people who can fill the role of the rhythm section as well (if necessary I can do it myself, but I've never walked a bass in my life and I ain't no jazz drummer).


I'm pretty much just throwing the idea out there at this point. I figure if we just get a little group going we can maybe take a crack at a standard or two (in a straight ahead style) and see how it works out. Please feel free to leave comments, questions, suggestions, insults, death threats, whatever you want.

[Raddons]

I'm down for gee-tar work.

[theNewWorldMan]

Jazz bass? That's all me. 5 years and counting playing in jazz bands.

If only I owned an upright bass (the one I play is owned by the school), then we would have an awesome jazz group. But I can still get a great jazzy sound out of my thunderbird.

[Rainbow_Rage]

Playing Jazz with recordings over the internet. Not sure how it'll turn out but I'll give it a shot.

I have a few years experience playing jazz live on trumpet. A bit new to the recoding game but I think I can do that well. I also could possibly play trombone if we need it but I'm far less competent on that instrument. Here's hoping there's other horn players on here

[DJ TATCM]

I've played piano for 8 years and I'm in the top-level Jazz Band at my high school. Unfortunately though, my microphone be stankin'.

[vladnuke]

You know, you guys should record a jam session over skype and livestream/youtube it. As for me, I'm not a jazz player. But yeah, that would be pretty cool.

[LoreRD]

I guess I could do jazz drums...... but I'm kinda very busy atm

[Stu Beef]

Guitar(s) !?

Bass !?

Piano (decent mics aren't TOO expensive these days; $100 can get you far)

Drums (sometime in the future !??)

I was actually hoping to draw in people to put together a hot rhythm section. Sure, horns are nice, but if the accompanists can't lay it down the group has nothing!

Rainbow_Rage, I'm actually a trumpeter as well (although when it comes to jazz I have more experience on guitar), but chances are you're better than me. If we can get a sax on this that would be great.

Hopefully we get more people in on this, but in the mean time I'll try to figure out something for everyone to play; maybe just a few bars of a melody then some solo time for everyone. I'd just like to hear how this might sound. If anyone else wants to throw something out there, feel free!


e. a jam session over skype? Sounds disastrous!

Although, as long as we say that was our intent, we can call it "art".

[DJ TATCM]

Let's just mess around with a repeating 12-bar B flat blues thing. That might be good for getting a feel for things.

[Stu Beef]

If you'd like to lay something down, be my guest. Currently, I'm working on a lot of things related and unrelated to this project, but I should have SOMETHING within the week.


Also (I'll throw this in the OP too), if anyone wants to write, go for it. Since nobody is really sure how this might turn out, any brainstorming or ideas are encouraged. My song-writing process is incredibly obtuse, so if anyone has anything concrete, feel free to share.


ps If anyone wants to discuss anything you can hit me up on my various channels.

[ChromaticChaosPony]

I have no prior experience in jazz, but I do play some weird prog metal stuff on an 8 string guitar.

If I switch to the clean channel and follow whatever chords the rest of you guys use, then I can do this.

Also, think of the 8 string guitar as some cool combination between a bass and a guitar with a lot of strings.

One last thing: are you guys ok with avante garde type of stuff? It's perfectly fine if you're not, but I enjoy going off the deep end.

[MilesTiden]

Ooh! I would love to get in on this. Right now I have a french horn, which I could use for jazzy stuffs (glorious, glorious rips), but pretty soon I might get an alto sax (which I am much better at, and have a lot of jazz experience with). Technically, I am better at the bari sax, but I can't really get one of those.

[Lavender_Harmony]

Pianist, and producer. I'd love to get involved. I'd suggest starting out with a cover of something, to see how the chemistry is. Starting out ambitiously with writing can be frustrating, and that's putting it nicely.

I'm open to most things, from old rhythm and blues to the more technical contemporary.

[Gray Ham]

I'm the lead trumpet of the senior stage band at my high school, and I suppose I'm pretty decent.
But my mic is kinda crappy, and the next time I can get a somewhat 'good' one will be Christmas. Oh well...

[NewWorldMare]

Interested! I've been playing jazz piano for ten years. I'm a mediocre trombone player as well if that helps. My mic setup is pretty crappy, but I have access to a MIDI piano or can record using better equipment at school.

[Stu Beef]

Sorry I haven't responded to you guys! I've been a bit busy as of late. I've formulated some ideas over the week, and I'm thinking I'll record some simple progressions over the weekend that y'all can loop and play over. I kind of want to get a feel for how people think so that I can refine a process that I think will allow for some amount of freedom with regards to improvisation and approach to the music.


For those talking about styles, I'm personally open to a lot of things. As for what we will start off playing exactly, I was definitely planning on working with some established material; something to get into it.

[DJ TATCM]

Got bored one day and came up with a half-decent chord progression. I like to think of this as a chorus, then it'll, like, resolve or something into a 16-bar c minor/a flat major pattern. I'm not sure if what I'm typing makes sense, but yeah.

[Bey-Heart]

Wait, is this for like, a jam session? Am I understanding this correctly? That's going to be pretty hard to do over the internet. Maybe you should write some of the song, and pass it around and let other people add things to it. Then maybe people could try some solos out, and write those down. Finally, recording. Just an idea.

However it turns out, I'll be looking forward to it!

[Stu Beef]

Wow, super sorry again for not responding in awhile. I don't mean to flake on something I proposed, I've just been a pretty busy with other stuff. Also, to be honest I secretly know almost jack about Jazz Harmony; I mostly do everything by ear anyway. This makes it a little difficult to figure out chords and changes and such, but I'm working with my trumpet instructor on it (I do classical but he's a jazz guy). I have been writing down a bunch of ideas though: little bits of melody and a few chord changes and the like that I'm trying to flesh out a little bit more before I put it out for consideration.

Here's a fairly developed idea that I think would be cool; I'm imagining it to be pretty straight forward without a lot of variation in the background elements:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/c59cay33wkpx6ci/cool.mid

(I'm imagining a guitar solo coming in when the horns change up their line, after that I'm not sure, maybe a meter change where the piano gets more busy).


TATCM, that is pretty cool. We could probably expand on that some and make something killer.

Bey-Heart, that is pretty much what I planned to do.

[DJ TATCM]

We should cover this >:D

[Stu Beef]

Ha, if you play tenor like that, I'd pay you.


Actually, I wouldn't be averse to stepping in a little bop; Salt Peanut has always had a special place in my heart

http://youtu.be/azW4dLYBAhI

[Decmaster IX]

I've been playing Trombone for seven years. Jazz for two. Would love to hop on this!

As for actual stuffs, I have a nice mic with a pop-filter and can use Logic and Audacity for fine-tuning. I also dabble in writing music and have had some interesting ideas in the past.

[Stu Beef]

A trombonist, nice! That really opens up the pallet for me (I'm just so used to working with brass); how are your capabilities as a bass 'bone?


I'm trying to take mental notes of everyone who's responded to this thread and what they play. It's really much easier to write when I know what I'm working with, as I usually think in terms of how the end product will sound.

I'm taking a week to focus on some things, and in that time I should have further realized some of my ideas. I hope everyone who responded is still interested and I'd really love to hear any other ideas you have!

[Acsii]

Another guitarist appears 7 years guitar... Haven't done much jazz but I love the stuff so I'd be happy to join

[Acsii]

Another guitarist appears 7 years guitar... Haven't done much jazz but I love the stuff so I'd be happy to join

GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE I BITE YOUR HEAD OFF

Don't hurt me...
also if you try to bite my head off I'll see your face