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Well, continuing to live up to the genre defying name we are building for ourselves, this blog riffles through the Jazz, Folk and Blues scene in a most improper manner! 

Another of the lovely people i met at the Jazz workshop mentioned in the previous blog was a rather splendid bassist Marianne Windham  http://mariannewindham.wordpress.com/ . Totally addicted to bass I am and the big beasty boom of the double bass, when in competent hands, is a joy to the aural nerves. Marianne (who incidentally has the best smile I have ever seen on anyone) and a previously acquainted pianist Mike Osborne had kindly agreed to learn one of my ditties to perform at the evening soiree to close the workshop weekend. It was 'Scott Free' a song I wrote some time ago and have not really done anything with yet. We set to it, with my makeshift, drawn up at the last minute charts and it turned, partly due to interference from the rhythm section, into a tango! Most unexpected, but rather cool in the event. Sadly I didn't manage to make it to the evening performance, come tea time I was totally pooped and with the prospect of a gig the next day at Hampton Court decided to cut my losses and head home early so gave my apologies. Sad I was but sometimes something has to give. As it is I never made it to Hampton Court (most unlike me to miss a gig) because my eldest daughter had fallen off her bike and landed on her face in the road and we spent the best part of the next two days in hospital. Very scary but she's recovering quickly thank goodness!

On Saturday we had a gig at a local folk club in Titchfield. It was an intimate do with a quality audience. There was some lovely floor spots from a few of the audience members. My main trouble was yet another virus and I have an impressive cough. It didn't interfere with the singing much but I could barely speak afterwards and all day Sunday and even today I am still sounding frog like. Twas a lovely gig though, we managed 'Pointless' with the notes in the right order this time and favourite song of the night was probably 'Shadowed Land' which is shaping up really well. 

Then into Sunday and the regular monthly blues jam at the Auckland Arms in Southsea. I was the only pianist there for the first hour or so and because I had no intention of singing due to amphibian vocal chords I sat down and played myself silly. If you've been following the blog for a while you will know that the psychological barrier I have towards improvising has been very difficult to budge. Well I think it may have been a mixture of realising how much I do (and don't) know at the Jazz weekend and having had a far more scary experience with said offspring the previous Sunday, but I was suddenly unafraid and with the exception of the first song, I improvised on all of them soloing my way into a respectable frenzy! After a couple of open mic slots, during which Mike (aforementioned pianist from Jazz weekend) arrived so I let him take my place until the last song when I was anxious to capitalise on my bravery and fearing that it was a temporary improvement asked Mike to let me do the last song. Being a gentleman he allowed me to usurp him and i found I was still able to solo, it was still there! Maybe that's the beginning of the not being able to shut me up that Andy has said will happen one day