Three weeks ago I started playing with a blues band. I play respectable saxophone. I've played in rock, jazz, fusion, and salsa bands, but never a blues band. Each type of music has its own culture. The rock culture reminds me of high school . They are all caught up in how they look and their equiptment. The salsa culture is, well Latin. They love to dance and they speak Spanish. They miss their countries and are seeking to recreate them here. The jazz culture is cool and intellectual and self absorbed. They aren't concerned with entertaining the audience. The audience must come to them.
I don't have a handle on the blues culture yet. Sometimes I'm just not sure how to take these people. Like the other night, there was a couple in the audience that kept giggling and saying crazy shit
like ,"You guys get paid by the hour or what?" What is that supposed to mean? Stuff that doesn't exactly make sense but you don't want to admit that you don't understand it because maybe it's just that you aren't hip enough to understand it. Maybe I'm just a little paranoid, being the only white guy in the band. I imagine people saying ,"Hey look. A white boy trying to play the blues. He's trying. He's almost got it. But he sounds so ........white". There are moments though when I don't care at all what people may be thinking. Moments when the room and the people dissolve away and all that there is is the music. Sometimes when even the music fades away and all there is is energy. An energy that is probing this way and that like some strange heat seeking bird .
Playing with these guys is great. Its like being in school. Blues school. I'm absorbing everything from guys who have been doing it for years and years. Lamar, Jerry, Rudy, even C.J. Sometimes jazz and blues players play outside of the normal harmonic structure as a way of creating tension. This is called "playing out". C.J. plays some real crazy shit on his saxophone . You're not sure if he's playing out, if he's making mistakes, or if he's just plain crazy. Its sort of like talking to that couple. You don't want to admit that you don't get it because if he's playing out, then maybe you're just not cool enough to dig it.
Actually the same thing happens when you talk to C.J. Usually you can't understand him anyway because he talks so softly and the music is so loud . Even if you can hear him, you often don't understand him because what he says doesn't exactly make sense. You look puzzled . Then he gets a wise look on his face and laughs and for just a second you think he understands everything, more than you could ever imagine and it's ok . Then the look is gone and you think about what he just said, wondering if he is crazy.
C.J. is an old black man. Maybe sixty, maybe eighty. He's a gentle soul. He reaches out to hold your hand when he talks to you. He smiles a lot . However one time I told him not to play at a certain part of the song. He got really mad and said, "Man what do you know?" He said that for the entire next set," MAN WHAT DO YOU KNOW?" But at the end of the night he came over and said ,"Man I like you." reaching out for and holding my hand. He was a part of a world I didn't know much about.
Tonight I told him. I didn't think it was fair. He was talking to me and I really couldn't understand what he was saying. Rudy would just let it go and say ,"Right C.J. Uh Huh C.J. But I didn't feel right about it. So tonight I told him. "C.J. I can't understand what you're saying. In fact, a lot of the time I don't understand what you're saying."
He looked at me for some moments and saw that I was sincere. Then he nodded and grinned, "Don't worry, you will". Then he gave me one of those looks, leaned back , and started playing some wierd and wonderful music. Don't worry you will.
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