[no subject]

[Lenny Silver <LEN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 26 Oct 92 18:18:45 EST <mvmurphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> said:
><From a long time listener, first time caller>
>
>        Along the same lines of favorite places to play, how about ideas on
>places to perform? Talking from my own experience, I have attended several
>'blues jams' at local clubs, but have never had the guts to get up and try
>it. Any suggestions from brave souls who have tried it on what to look for
>in a club, how to get signed up, what to expect when it is your turn? (is
>there an informal jam in a back room before you hit the stage ?) Long answers
>to my short questions would be appreciated :)
>
>Mike Murphy
>no.sig.yet

I just came from a blues jam at the Nines in Ithaca, NY.  I'm not a harp
player, I'm one of the keyboard players.  There were 3 harp players there,
each of them played 2-4 tunes, all had been there before.  There are a
few other harp players who come, there was a guy last week who was really
good, but I didn't see any ego-bashing going on, looked pretty comfortable.

The bass player runs the jam here, takes names, does the calling, there's no
informal jam before you hit the stage, most of the jamming tunes are 12-bar
blues, in C, E, G, A, once in a great while in D.  Often new guys are put
on stage right away, a kind of hazing perhaps...

I have no idea how standard this format, Ithaca is a small place.  But the
guys who run it are from Chicago, so they must have got the format from
somewhere.  It's a lot of fun, took me 3 or 4 times up there until I started
getting comfortable, taking risks.

Lenny