Exploring the English jazz scene...

One of my goals for studying abroad is/was to explore the local music scenes of the places I visit. It has taken ages for my guitar and amp to arrive from home, but tomorrow I'll be heading to my cousin's house to pick it up. While there, her and I will explore London for a couple of days. A big entry with lots of pictures will surely be found come Monday night upon my return...

If only my guitar could have arrived a few days sooner, though, I'd have had the opportunity to jam with some of the best musicians that I have ever seen. Last night, I was hanging out with my friends when a new kid arrived, Rob. Rob is Flower's friend and he was here to sit in at a jazz show at a pub about a mile away. The rest of us had nothing to do, so we decided to go and watch. The pub was exactly how I pictured it would be, old and run down. There's nothing that screams jazz gig like 1960's decor, stale beer, and chipped paint. We all piled upstairs into the gig room, which was about fifteen wooden chairs and a small stage in the corner. A surprisingly large crowd had gathered (about 40 people), so I knew these guys were going to be good.
After waiting a few minutes, the band took the stage. I forget their names and what the band was called, but as soon as they had tuned, the audience was treated to two hours of non-stop jazzy awesomeness. The entire set was original, in styles ranged from standard-like ballads to avant-garde free jamming. All of the musicians were professionally competent and expressed some really interesting and original ideas. I was fully captivated for the entire show...
I was able to take a short video of the band performing one of their funkier jam tracks. This was most of one of the keyboard solos. Each song ran an average of about twelve minutes, so I was unable to film any songs in their entirety. Still, this shows the vibe given off by the band...

When the set was over, there was a short break before the stage was open to guest musicians. Rob performed on piano with another guy comping on a fretless bass. The two jammed with a new drummer for a while before the saxophonist joined in and everybody flowed into a standard that they all knew. It was brilliant to watch. A while later, we were all back at the dorms. The experience made me realize just how much I miss my guitar. When I return on Monday, I'm going to seek out venues in Newcastle so that I can start playing open mic nights and, after a few weeks, I'll be back at where I was jazzwise and I'll be able to play shows like the one I witnessed last night. Look forward to a lot of entries about Newcastle music venues in coming weeks..:-)

-Matt