If anything, at 58, I have become more comfortable with myself.

I still have the same enthusiasm if not more, and I'm up everyday at 6:00 AM practising and working on styles and arrangements.

I quit smoking, drugs, and booze at 29 and I'm positive this has helped me stay fit.

Hopefully I will age gracefully, both physically and musically.

Ian

Chas, no disagreement about Lady Day. i was talking about her voice, which you agree was gone. and i agree she had other qualities--her last(i think) album Lady in Satin was superb-a masterpiece of emotion with her voice cracking all over the place. but as pure jazz singing, to me there was nothing to match her voice in the early 1940's. As far as the time thing, I have already done that test many times, and i think everyone should do that--it's very humbling. I use a lot of breaks in my renditions, and i have to be very cognizant of keeping the rhythm going in my foot or body movements, because if i don't, even on a 1-bar break I'll be off. Now that i've got the E60 with the v-link button updated to a control, i keep it set to arranger hold. since i rarely use the full backing, i use that for half my breaks now.. the bass or bass+guitar strum drops out but the drums continue-- it's more subtle than a full break and still effective--and of course i don't have to remember to keep body time. I have found over the years that i had to avoid working with piano players who did a lot of solo cocktail gigs, because every one of them developed major time problems. The ones that habitually foot-tapped suffered it to much lesser degree. The thing that has been the greatest boon to my sax playing, singing, and kb playing has been practicing with the arranger rhythm section. it has improved my time enormously..my time is so spectacularly better now that it amazes me (and embarrasses me that i must have sounded lousy a lot of the time years back when i tended to rush my phrasing)

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Miami Mo

Chas,

Yep! It was me. I'll be 67 in a couple weeks, still performing 4 to 7 jobs a week, mostly one to two hour performances instead of four hours in a smoke-filled bar room. My timing is still holding up, and my voice quality seems to be OK too. There have been times, especially after a double, or the dreaded triple, when my butt really begins to drag. This has the tendency to effect pretty much everything--not just my musical skills. I frequently find that when I'm really worn down that my organizational skills suffer dramatically. A classic example occurred yesterday at the end of a double when I couldn't remember the location of a particular third-party style file in the keyboard, one that I use almost daily. I finally found it, and I didn't have any dead time between songs while searching the User Style area of the keyboard, but it did bother me that I couldn't just press a button and immediately go to that style.

Physical limiations are also a problem. I'm convinced that my equipment has somehow mysteriously taken on weight. That Bose base unit seems to double in weight by the end of the day, yet the scales says it only weighs 32 pounds. Now 32 pounds was nothing when I was in my early 50s and I never considered any speaker weighing less than 75 pounds worth having. Today, however, a 75-pound speaker would rip my guts out, especially if it had to go up on poles.

One day in the not too distant future I'm going to have to retire. At that point I had over all my jobs to the younger locals such as Songman55 (Joe). The irony of this is, though, there are at least a dozen guys around this part of the world in their early 70s that still keep up a schedule of 15 to 20 jobs a month, so I guess I have a few years left.

Thanks again,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Ian, too bad you had to make all those sacrifices at the young age of 29 , but I guess all's well that ends well.

Mo, good stuff. And boy, does it ring some bells. It does make you admire and respect those great (and rare) drummers that are able to stay rock solid throughout a tune without external clues.

I think you may be right about playing with arrangers (or drum machines) helping your timing in general. I guess it makes you get used to playing in perfect time all the time. BTW, I don't think this detracts from or hurts your "rhythmic soul". Probably just forces a good habit on you.

Also, since you mentioned it, I'm always amazed at those players that DON'T tap or show any type of rhythmic body movement. How do they do that? My body just automatically responds to a good strong rhythm. Does make you look cool in a jazz club, though (playing without tapping) .

chas

Gary, guess we cross posted. Yes, I thought it was you. Just a passing comment on your part but made a lot of us take a new (if unconfortable) look at the effects of aging on all aspects of the business.

In fact, Mo introduced a couple of new aspects to it; that is, how and where and who you can market yourself to. AND, if you choose to work in a band, the possible difficulty of getting young guys to work with you (or their seeking YOU out). AND the age of the club crowd (relating). No suprise, also, that many of you mentioned the fatigue factor (stamina) and except for Diki , the weight of the gear. I know that it cured my blood lust for a real B3 w/Leslies. Except for Dave and Capt. Russ (who apparently has some strange hold over his sons), can you imagine carrying around one of those (lovely) monsters. Nah, got to leave that to the guys that can afford roadies.

chas

I think sitting next to the drummer for 30 years and getting older have had an effect on my hearing. I don't hear highs like I used to and my wife says I have things like the tv louder than she needs them.

She also says I don't hear her like I should but that is a different story.


Tom

Tom,

Count your blessings! When my loving spouse of 45 years (yesterday) says "don't you remember me telling you to do that?" My usual response is "Hmmm. Guess I must not have heard you." Works for me.

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Happy Anniversary Gary & Carol

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Dnj..
"Member 10,000 Post Club"

First and most important -- Happy Anniversary Gary & Carol

Second I will always appreciate Gary’s posts, they range from factual statements to baring himself in humility – he tells it the why it is.

Topic -- How has age affected your playing
I wish to view this topic with a talented driving musician in mind. You know when he plays you have to move.

Archie Bunker in the TV show “All in the family” looked at Edith and said, “Edith, you’re not getting more wrinkles, and besides as I get older my eyes don’t see as well as they did, so you always look the same to me”.

A musician does slow down with age, everything else does why not his music performance.
1-His response is a bit slower.
2-The way he managers his performance is not the same.
3-And the very important part of this topic – he no longer has the same drive of a 27 or 38 year old man.

But like Archie Bunker’s eyes, he sees Edith as being pretty much the same, he sees very little change.

Having said that, and I speak for myself, My feel for harmonies and structure has improved. There is so much more of me in the music although I have slowed down. I have traded speed and coordination for more feeling and taste. Are we still good at age 58, ya dam right we are. Are we still good at 68, a little slower but STILL real good. Am I still good at 76, Yes! I really am, I think – well it seems so?? Ya know I don’t really know. Aaaaaagh.

But who really cares, let’s keep playing our hearts out, give all we've got.

A bit of advice from an older guy – If you want it to happen before time keep worrying about it.

IMHO, John C.

Chas, this really strikes a chord. I've heard so many musicians complain about playing with a drum machine that's it's not "human time" and they can't or won't have anything to do with it. These musicians all turn out to have serious time problems, and they cannot keep to the rhythm. they are so used to playing with rhythm sections that adjust to each others' time so much that their time is all over the place. Whenever i'm working a solo or with my bongo/handpercussion man Madafo, and i invite someone to sit in, if they are well-established musicians they often decline or ask me to please turn off the bass/drums. If a singer comes up, i start to comp for her, then as we hit a groove I use the tap tempo to bring in a basic bass/drum swing or just drum w/lh bass. Most of the time i see them have a look of fear and dread come over their faces, like oh no!!!! But i have found one great young singer out of UM who loves to ride on the perfect time, and Madafo is not an established percussionist yet, so he embraces the steady backgrounds and finds he has creative freedom he never had before because I'm relieving him of time-keeping. If you can't play with a drum machine you have serious time problems, friends--and the only way you will fix it is by playing with a drum machine, and/or learning to make in-time body motions when there is no machine. how do those great drummers do it? i don't know, but i can tell you this..only the top rank can, most drummers cannot keep it that solid. there's a lot more to good drumming than any machine can provide--that's true--but at least the machine provides the most important element..and does it better than any drummer.

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Miami Mo