Travelling with jazz

It's in the essence of jazzers that they can play together easily. The training is essentially rich in theory to support improvisation and there's a widely shared language in how to interpret and what to play, not least the Real Book. Jazz is also a great way to travel. There are jazz venues in any decent city and they are announced on the web; it's open and welcoming and the musical language is common even if the verbal language isn't. Tilt had a great night the other night playing. It was to be outside in winter. It was advertised as Hot soup cool jazz, but the rain brought us inside and fireside and there was a healthy crowd, a few dancers and one couple who were perusing the drum kit. Bruce and Monika were visiting from Melbourne. Cut a long story short, and Bruce is Leading Seaman (drummer) Bruce McIntyre form the RAN band and I shared a professional background with Monika. Bruce sat in for a few tunes: a latin, a swing, a calypso. Nice also that you can call styles like that even if a tune in lesser known. Bruce got in several solos and played with ease and panache, swapping 8s and 4s and 1s for good measure. All good fun with a worthy musical edge. Thanks for dropping in, Bruce and Monika. It was not just B&M, though. Our dancers were more on the swing side, but they'd just returned from a jazz tour of the US, so more chatter there, too. Always nice to have some visiting swing dancers. So, a very entertaining evening, unexpectedly warmer and with a nice groove.

Tilt are James Woodman (piano), Dave McDade (drums) and Eric Pozza (bass). Bruce McIntyre (drums) sat in.