The Jazz Crossing Jam Sessions

Memorizing the melody and chord changes is not required but can be a great help in keeping your place during solos and as a starting point for improvisational ideas.

We'll bring two concert books (flute, strings, trombone...), one Bb book (trumpet, tenor sax...) and one Eb book (alto sax...) with the following list of tunes:

All Blues Alone Together Autumn Leaves Avalon Blue Bossa Blue Moon Blue Trane But Beautiful Cold Duck Time Comin' Home Doxy Exactly Like You Footprints Four Gentle Rain Georgia On My Mind	Green Dolphin Street I Mean You I Should Care Jelly Roll Just Friends Maiden Voyage Memphis Underground Mercy, Mercy, Mercy Mr. P.C. My Foolish Heart Naima Nostalgia in Times Square Ornithology Perdido Prelude To A Kiss Recordame	Satin Doll Serenade to a Cuckoo St. Thomas Stolen Moments Summertime Sweet Lorraine Sweet Sue Take the 'A' Train Tenor Madness The Man I Love There Will Never Be Another You Watermelon Man
		Last Update: April 21, 1998

We have also started an F book (french horn, english horn...) which has some of the tunes in it.

We're trying to incorporate as many players as possible, so we need some tunes in common. You may know all the changes to Girl from Ipanema, but if nobody else does it won't fly. It's OK to call tunes and see if everyone knows them, but if not, we need to do something everyone knows or has music for. There are other formats for jazz improvisation, but almost all jazz players are comfortable in this context. Remember that one of the primary purposes of this event is to provide a forum for those interested in learning jazz improvisation. Staying with this standard format will aid the less experienced in learning the ropes.

If you have tunes you want to play, bring in lead sheets (two concert, one Bb, one Eb and one F) or ask if we have or can get the tune. This is a tune-based session, so, "Lets just play some blues in F," is OK once or twice, but not every tune. In the jazz world you need to learn the tunes, that's how almost everyone learns to play jazz.