My band needs a name. We’re the last band in our music school that doesn’t have one.
The old fogies band (aged 60 and above) is called Seasons in the Sun. The youngsters playing Top 40 hits gave themselves funky names like Overdrive and some other sound effects. Another band, playing dancy retro music, is called Equinox. My band’s style is fusion jazz because we like to play a wide range of music and this was the most general way to classify ourselves.
Combining our band members’ initials didn’t help, for want of more vowels (let’s just say it’s nothing like ABBA).
My no-name band is going to play in a concert this June. We have to perform 3 songs. Our teacher wants the first track to be funk/acid jazz, the next to be Latin jazz, and the final one will be one of my own compositions. He’s bringing in a ‘power’ tenor saxophonist so he can carry the melody. That takes a load of pressure off me and the other keyboardist. However, as band leader I have to choose the 2 songs and probably help to score them. Erk.
What should I choose? Something by Jamiroquai or Incognito? Something off Motown Records? A samba that hasn’t yet been played to death? I trawled through my collection of 6000 songs, listening for a melody that could be carried by a sax. I toyed with the idea of Sade’s Smooth Operator for a while, but thought a purely instrumental version might sound cheesy.
Other ideas so far: Flip Fantasia, So What (not sure if we can replace a muted trumpet with a warm sax, it might spoil the chilled-out tone).
In need of inspiration, I picked up 3 new R&B/smooth jazz titles, Ken Navarro’s instrumental album Slow Dance, George Benson’s Irreplaceable, and Brian McKnight’s Gemini. And the new kd lang album, Hymns of the 49th Parallel, which I was planning to get ever since I went to her concert.
[Off-tangent rave: My PowerMac G5 rips CDs at lightning speed. Like, before iTunes can play half of the first ripped track, the CD’s popped out already. Ten songs, each over 4 minutes long, ripped in 2 minutes. Eat my dust. Blah blah blah…]
Comments
how exciting!!! wish i could be back then…
Did the Ken Navarro albums help?
The album was good, but we chose 2 classic jazz pieces instead.