The Itch

Sunday, December 30th, 2018. One more day in this strange, strange year. And I gots the itch. The itch. A strong itch. An itch to do something different with my life, most likely artistically (sic). I certainly enjoy the bands I play with now, but I'm pretty much a sideman in those bands and need something more fulfilling. And that itch gets stronger by the week. Trouble is - will anyone want to walk that path with me? I'm a man of odd tastes, at least where the musician friends I have are concerned.

After moving to Austin in early '86, the people I knew were already musically pedigreed, much more than me. I had a band in California in '85 that was a fun but pretty low-key effort. We played a few shows around the Peninsula, and even once made a trip to Sacramento for a big gig! But that was about it. In Austin, things started off slowly. I played for a brief time in a band ultimately called Jet Texas, but when I was on the verge of quitting anyway, I was replaced by Terri Lord. To this day, if I run into her, we have a laugh about Jet Texas. The lead guitarist in that band was named Andy Bullington, and he was pretty badass. I've wondered lately what happened to him.

I then played in a band called Animal Farm, with some ex-Steroids, a transplanted band from the Valley I knew. That led to some shows meeting other people, and before too long, I found myself in the latter-half-of-the-80s Austin indie/punk scene.

But I didn't intend this post to be a history lesson....I think I wanted to use it to type until I find a solution. Or at least talk about an idea I have.

My first love musically was jazz, and I got that largely from my dad. One of the stylistic tropes of bop (maybe the main one) is the notion of using a popular tune of the day and then once the melody is established, everybody gets "a blow." After everybody's exhausted their improvisational resources, the melody is stated again, and the song ends.

So, I've been wondering if that same approach could be used in an instrumental rock combo. And, I wonder if anyone else would like to try that method. My idea at this point is just to have people get together (I have a practice room with a lot of the needed equipment already available), beforehand having decided on a few tunes to know as a beginning framework. And, I mean easy tunes. Nothing that requires much thought to pull off. I even thought it'd be fun to use a Chuck Berry song, for instance.....maybe "School Days." Turning that into a jazz rave-up might cause Berry to rise from the grave, though. Could be fun. And for now, I only want to use this as a lab experiment. I even wanted to (half-jokingly) call it "The Music Lab." And I'd like to forego vocals, unless it's necessary to establish the opening melody of the song. I'd really like this to be an opportunity for people to get together and egg each other on to be better musicians. We could all use that environment, I think. I hope I can convince some others, too.

Am I crazy heah? Guess I'll find out. I've discussed this a bit with a couple of people who seem game. Maybe by next week, I'll have more information and have changed my mind. Maybe do a funk tribute to David Allen Coe. That could be good, too.