Garrison

B3-r and Soul Stream,Wow! Thanks for clearing that up! I don't play a lick of organ, but I remember the first time I tried playing bass lines at the same time as I tried to play an improvised right hand part on the piano. Let's just say it was very uninspiring if you had to listen to it! In the end, I ended up playing a few pet patterns with the left hand and it was still hard enough! Now I know, At least, I was on the right track anyway! You guys are my heros!

B3-r How do you build up your skill to develop bass linrs that vary while at the same time improvising a right hand line? Bach on a totally improvisational level. Do you build a certain method for approaching specific changes or really improvise them?

Thanks Ed! Its always great to read your posts.

Free doesn't count, eh? O.k. here is one. Ever do the Borders book store circut? Every once and awhile we would play at a Borders if we didn't have anything else lined up. I got a call over the summer to play at one on the MainLine in Philly. The payment. Gift Certificates for books and music! I but maybe 20% of my stuff from Borders so it wouldn't have been worth it, and I declined. But don't get down about it. Even the greats got screwed with. When I was about 14 or 15, I was at Philly Joe's house for a lesson. This was around 1984. Philly Joe got a phone call. I was in the living room , playing on a drum-pad, like many of the lessons went, so it wasn't very loud and I could hear the conversation. The guy on the other end wanted him to play that night, for get this, $30! I distinctly remember Philly Joe saying, "I can't play for $30. Even I have my pride. I won't play for anything less than $45." The sad thing is I don't think he got it. But what was really confusing to me was the KISS was playing at the Spectrum in Philly that night to a sold out show. I knew that the drummer, not even a shadow of Philly Joe's talent, was going to walk away clearing more than 45 dollars. It was real weird. I remember feeling kind of sad about the whole thing during my ride home with my mom.

Hi Jim, You've got a nice site here. O.k. People have been recomending it to me for the last week or more. You know who you are, guys! Anyway I've been lurking just to see how much of the venom would tranplant itself before making my descision. It looks like some nice topics and real conversations are taking place instead. Kudos for taking the extra burdon on yourself, but this place does seem way more congenial and intelligent than both the last months of the BNBB and sorry to say the last two weeks of AAJ, which didn't seem to like "new blood" or new opinions, which may be the real crux. Good to see more of the old regulars here too. Take care, Gary