Open Jams for Newer Jazz Drummers
For younger/newer jazz drummers, open jams are an opportunity to improve and sharpen your drumming skills and musicianship against other live players. Creating music on the spot with people you may not know is a unique challenge that can be somewhat intimidating at first. As with everything in life, the more experience one has, the easier the task becomes.
But where to start? There is a lot of time spent in the practice/lesson room working on how to move hands and feet together, but there are other things one needs to know. Repertoire is one of the most overlooked aspects of musical instruction. If one is going to be in a musical environment that calls for a basic knowledge of a wide variety of songs, developing a large repertoire is crucial. The more songs you know, the more likely you are to have a good experience at an open jam.
Five Essentials:
Blues Forms. Examples: Sandu by Clifford Brown and Blue Bossa by Jo Henderson (really a Bossa/Blues) The 12 bar Blues form is essential for not only sessions, but playing Jazz music in general. Jazz is very much rooted in the Blues tradition. It consists of a 12 bar, I-IV-V chord structure. Sandu is a great example of a swinging Blues standard, whereas Blue Bossa is a Bossa Nova style Blues song.
Rhythm Changes. A standard AABA 32 bar form. “Rhythm Changes” refers to the song I Got Rhythm by George Gershwin. Many Jazz musicians loved the chord progression of this song, so they would take the structure/progression and write their own melody over the song. It has been done many times. Examples include: Oleo (Rollins), Rhythm-a-Ning (Monk), Steeplechase (Parker), and many more.
Green Dolphin Street - (the Miles Davis version) A great song book tune with a great rendition done by Miles Davis on the album Kind of Blue. The form of the song is a standard 32 bar ABAC. Takes on this song can vary, but one popular arrangement is to play Bossa over the A sections, and swing over B and C. The most important thing is to do what feels right for the context which you are playing in, and keep open ears for what the rest of band is doing!
All The Things You Are (Jerome Kern). A Great American Song Book tune. This is a slightly odd form, that being, that this song contains an extra four bars at the end, making it a 36 bar form. It is important to note that for every song you play, you need to know the melody, especially in a circumstance like this where the form is odd. We don’t want to think just in measures/sections, we want to think of the music and melody!
Autumn Leaves (Joseph Kosma). Yet another famous 32 bar standard. Perhaps one of the most popular songs for people to begin with, its simple 2-5 chord progression through most of the song is what people love about it. It is a simple melody and form, making it a good song to learn.
-By Dan Ciccone