I've been going to a lot of jazz clubs lately, to sort of acclimate myself back into the world of gigging. The experience has been humbling, to say the least. It is amazing to me how many SUPER-competent musicians there are, out there. Unless you've got your sh*t together, the Atlanta area is not the place to ply your craft. It's probably like how I envision Nashville for country musicians. These guys are NOT entertainers, they're musicians. What's worse (on the ego), is how young some of them are.

The keyboardist I saw the other night (playing a Motif ES 88key) couldn't have been more than 22-23 yrs old and his technique and mastery of the music was nothing short of astounding. Very humbling, indeed. Plus, he was very nice and modest to the extreme (no self-proclaimed King, here). He must have been one of those guys Scott alluded to that spent his time practicing instead of posting. I'm guessing he never heard of SZ. One interesting thing, he (appeared to) use only one voice all night (some el. piano). He probably could/should have used a digital (stage) piano. The rest of the group consisted of bass, drums, guitar, and female vocalist. Bassist and drummer were older (40's) guys, tasteful and rock solid; the guitarist (mid 20's) was spectacular, with the fastest runs I've ever seen on guitar (and he made it look effortless), the vocalist (30ish) was decent but not up to the level of the musicians (great looking, though). Anyhow......

After going through some mild depression in which I couldn't bear to touch a keyboard, I finally decided it was time to go back to some serious practicing. I also applauded my decision to do the "organ trio" thing, as there aren't many groups doing this format and that maybe I could at least be "king" of the organ players .

I always thought the musicians from my generation were better than todays batch; not anymore. Oh well, back to the basement to practice. Gotta work on some new licks that nobody can possibly duplicate.

chas (the humble)

[This message has been edited by cgiles (edited 09-17-2007).]