Parish Jazz Band

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 09:17:00 -0800

Why I Love Parish Jazz Band

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Mon, 9 May 2011 18:45:00 -0700

The Parish Jazz Band was established in 2004. We are about 10 members now, ranging from relative musical newbies to a few semi-professional musicians. I'm a charter member of the group, playing guitar, and while I've been playing my instrument for a long, long time, I'd say I'm somewhere in the middle in terms of my musical skills.

So, with that quick background, why do I love this group? Here are seven reasons.

(1) We encourage each other's growth. We support each other. PJB is a safe environment in which to play and learn. When someone succeeds in a solo, he or she receives a compliment. When we flub it, the group simply looks ahead and moves on.

(2) Which leads to the second point. We all have the group's permission to try things and fail. In fact, it's better to try and fail than not to try at all.

(3) We have evolved. We've grown. We're constantly expanding our repertoire and taking on new musical challenges. We've also grown in our personnel, being now two-and-a-half times the size we were seven years ago. The important value behind this growth is patience. This is a group of people who are in it for the long haul.

(4) Everyone's committed. We come to rehearsals. We work to get better. We practice pieces on our own between rehearsals.

(5) We have good leadership, in our director, our manager, and in the musical depth at our keyboard. But importantly, everyone has a voice. It's okay for anyone to say, 'That didn't go well, can we try it another way.' And so we'll give that suggestion a try, just to see.

(6) We have bench strength. We have two extra bass players, an extra guitarist, a back-up drummer, an extra trumpeter. And many regulars in the band can pinch hit, for example, at the keyboard, on vocals, or on drums.

(7) We are welcoming. Anyone who can play a little jazz, on any instrument, is welcome to come and try out playing with us. Sometimes there's not a fit. But we're willing to give any sincere musician new to the group a good try and a fair shake.

In short, a really wonderful team. I'm proud to be a part of it.
~Michael Paladini, Stow, MA

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 12:49:00 -0800

Got our Sax-man John MacNeill on video when he led the music of the October 14 FPC Vespers service with some great Coltrane interpretations....

Sunday, October 10, 2010, Setlist

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Wed, 6 Oct 2010 14:40:00 -0700

Here's the musical line-up for this Sunday October 10, 2010.

9 a.m.
Prelude I "Wave," by Antonio Carlos Jobim
Prelude II "Black Coffee," by Paul Franck Webster & Sonny Burke
Offertory "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning," by David Mann &
Bob Hilliard

11 a.m.
Prelude I "Wave," by Antonio Carlos Jobim
Prelude II "Black Coffee," by Paul Franck Webster & Sonny Burke
Introit "Song for My Father," by Horace Silver
Offertory "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning," by David Mann &
Bob Hilliard
Postlude "Fly Me to the Moon," by Bart Howard

This weekend, the Parish Jazz Band is:

Jonathan Daisy, flute
Marvin Drake, bass
John MacNeill, tenor saxophone
Roy Miller, drums
Michael Paladini, guitar
Trish Woods, piano

Church Fair + MaynardFest, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Wed, 6 Oct 2010 03:28:00 -0700

The Parish Jazz Band enjoyed two opportunities to play last weekend. We started at the First Parish Church in Stow (from 9:30 - 10:30 in the morning), and then played MaynardFest from 2:30 - 3:30 in the afternoon. A few of us also played with Maynard Community Band from 11 - 12:30. We were honored to play with Paul (trombone) and Steve (trumpet), and hope to jam with these guys again soon.

We used the same setlist for both performances, although we squeezed in a few more songs in the afternoon.

Caravan
Do Nothin' Til You Hear From Me
I Thought About You
I've got you under my skin
All of Me
When Sunny Gets Blue
Autumn Leaves
My One and Only Love
Black Orpheus
Bewitched
In a Mellow Tone
Fly Me To The Moon
All of You
How High the Moon
Out of Nowhere

We will be performing again this Sunday (Oct 10th) at both the 9:00 and 11:00 services at the First Parish Church of Stow and Acton.

Fwd: FPC - Music for the Chronicle

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 03:37:00 -0700

Parish Jazz Band

October starts with a rush as the Parish Jazz Band plays during the opening hours of the First Parish Church, Stow, Fall Fair on Saturday October 2nd. That same day we are on the program at Maynardfest from 2 to 3 PM. A few of us will also be playing at noon with the Maynard Band during Maynardfest making that day a tripple header. The next rehearsal of the Band will be on October 11th at 7:30PM in the Vestry of the First Parish Church. Newcomers are welcome as we will be adding new tunes to our song book over the coming months.

August Sunday Service

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 16:38:00 -0700

Today's Sunday Service went great! I think the congregation enjoyed both the music and our reflections on the theme "Music is Everywhere".

After the service, Michael commented to me that we must have 100 songs that we've played over the years. I disagreed, putting the number in the 60-80 range. Neither of us were right, but he was much closer. The band has played (by my records) 95 songs, most of which we would be comfortable picking up and playing again.

Of these 95 songs, how do they break down by type?
35% are ballads, which isn't much of a surprise. Ballad is also the default category I give to a song, as it's a pretty broad term.

27% are slow songs, or blues.

22% are fast songs, including some "bouncy" ballads (like The Lady Is a Tramp), and including latin tunes.

The rest (16%) include Christmas songs, a couple of waltzes, etc.

There are 170 songs total in my spreadsheet (including 75 "want to play" songs we haven't performed in public). We've got plenty of raw material to keep the band going to years.

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 09:09:00 -0700

So, the band has picked out the tunes for next Sunday's annual Jazz Service.

We'll be starting with Basin Street Blues and I've Got You Under My Skin as introductory pieces. Lazy River will be our anthem with God Bless the Child as an offeratory piece. We've chosen 'Till There Was You (which will tie in nicely with the message of the service) as the Meditation piece, and we'll finish with a sing-a-long version of All of Me.

I hope All of You will join us next Sunday, August 22nd.

Music Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Tue, 3 Aug 2010 18:23:00 -0700

Great inspirational website for musicians:

http://musicthoughts.com/

Enjoy!
-jmac

Brandt Beach Jazz 2010 Setlist

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 08:19:00 -0700

The Brandt Beach Jazz Festival was a success! It was probably our best showing yet. Each year has been better than the last, and we didn't get rained out.

We stuck to the set list for the first hour, but wandered around a bit after the break. We had a request to play some Miles Davis, so we threw in All Blues. We could have kept playing for longer, but the weather looked threatening, and the audience started to wander off.

One of the things I need to work on (when creating set lists) is to figure out how we're going to end. We can usually tell when the audience is starting to fade. At this point, I usually try to re-do the setlist in my head, skipping slower songs for upbeat ones. Unfortunately, this takes a little time, draining energy and making the situation worse.

Instead, I should have a 2-3 song "coda" prepared (maybe with one optional encore song), and cue Michael to say, "You've been a great audience, we've really enjoyed playing for you. We've just got a few more songs, starting with ". Then the whole band would be in sync without wasting any time, or having to communicate the new improvised set list.

So, here's what we played at Brandt Beach:
First Half

Caravan
That Old Feeling (featuring Chuck on violin)
Green Dolphin Street
Harlem Nocturne (featuring Frank)

Girl From Ipanema
Don't Get Around Much Anymore
My One and Only Love
Satin Doll

On the Sunny Side of the Street
Tenderly (in 3 - or was it 4?)
The Lady is a Tramp
Buzzard Blues (Frank's theme song)
Sweet Georgia Brown

Second Half (my memory's a bit fuzzy, I may have some of these wrong)
Watermelon Man
Old Black Magic (featuring Frank)

Black Orpheus
Bewitched (featuring a little girl dancing in front of the audience)
All Blues (by request)

Lullaby of Birdland
How High the Moon

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Wed, 7 Jul 2010 12:17:00 -0700

Had a gig on June 5th at the HudsonFest celebration. Beautiful day and alot of fun. They signed us up for the OctoberFest in Maynard this October too.! Here's a couple of numbers we played (minus the flutist behind the camera...)

Brandt Beach Planning (continued)

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Sat, 3 Jul 2010 14:52:00 -0700

For the next step in determining which pieces to play at Brandt Beach, I'm going to incorporate feedback from the band to winnow the list from 30 to 20. I apologize in advance if I cut one of your favorites.

First to go are the ones that scored lowest overall - Term Break, In a Mellow Tone, and Memories of You. All good pieces, but not in the general spirit of the the gig.

Next are the lowest scorers in each type. I'm Beginning to See the Light, Four, Summertime (which was, as you recall, a repeat from last year), and Solitude. Down to 23, we're more than halfway done.

At this point, it's not too early to try to arrange the remaining contenders into sets. At HudsonFest, we played 12 songs, 3 sets of 4 each, for almost exactly an hour. At Brandt Beach, we're going to play for somewhere between 1 and 2 hours, so I'd like to have 5 sets of 4 each - that's 20 songs. With a short break between sets 3 and 4, that's probably about 2 hours of music. Within each set of 4, I like all the pieces to either be in the Real Book, or loose-leaf.

So, we've got 9 songs left that are in the Real Book. Let me try arranging them into sets, and see if one falls out. They fall into sets pretty easily (alternating slower songs with bouncy energetic ones), and the lowest scoring of the 9 is Sometime Ago, so it's an easy one to cut.

Ok, now to work the other 14 songs into three sets of 4 songs each (and see which two get cut). There are three ballads (with the same combined score) competing for the last slot. Ain't Misbehavin' is one we've played recently (and the others are new), so it's out for now. It Ain't Necessarily So is a great piece, but I think it deserves more rehearsal, as it has some tricky tempo changes. That leaves "Nice Work if you can get it" as the last of the 14 songs.

So, that's the tentative songlist we'll bring to the next rehearsal, during which the list will be tweaked, prodded, and set into shape.

I hope to see you at Brandt Beach in Mattapoisett, MA on July 24th!

Brandt Beach Jazz Festival 2010 Planning

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:31:00 -0700

Time to pick out songs for the Brandt Beach Jazz Festival! While it's still a month away, it'll be here before you know it.

First step is updating the songs we've played recently (at HudsonFest). I usually include any notes about how we start off the piece, how we end, and anything else (such as if the song lends itself to trading with the drums). I also keep track of how many months it's been since we last played it. This helps to pick out tunes for a new gig (as you'll see).

Ok, now I create three lists - Recent, Classics, and New. Recent includes songs we've done over the last three months or so. These can either be pieces we're not sick of yet, or tunes that we want to work on a bit. Classics are songs that we haven't done in the last 6 months. And new songs, clearly enough, are songs that we may have played at rehearsal once or twice, but haven't performed yet.

I also make a quick check to make sure I'm not missing any songs that really fit in with the theme of the event.

Once I have these lists, I'll make some obvious cuts (we won't be playingchristmas songs in July), and group them by type. At this point, I've got 25 classics, 17 new, and 22 recent songs (64 in all). These are good proportions, but far too many. Last year we did 18 songs.

Actually, that's a good point. I'd like to avoid repeating songs we did last year, so I'll cull those out of the list as well. Except for "Summertime", as it fits the venue so well.

Now to cull the list a bit by type. As usual, we've got a ton of ballads (22), some latin and fast songs (11) some slow blues songs (11), and an assortment of (10) others.

New ballads and slow songs that don't offer anything different are easy to cut. That leaves me with 42 songs left to review. Cutting out some songs that need more work, or are similar to other songs on the list, and I'm down to 30. Time to send the list out to the band for voting!

I notice that I'm cutting out a few songs that are weather-related. As we have been rained out before, I think it may be fun to come up with an "In case of rain" list to go along with our actual planned set list. That list would include:

Here's that Rainy Day
Stormy Weather
When Sunny Gets Blue
Over the Rainbow
I should care
Misty
Comes Love
They Party's Over
Pennies From Heaven

Come and see us at Brandt Beach in Mattapoisett, MA on July 24th!

Weekend Music

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 07:42:00 -0700

This past weekend two members of the Parish Jazz Band, Sara and Chip, attended a music themed party in Beverly Farms, MA. The host did a great job setting up his garage as a stage. Sara (vocals) and Chip (sax) joined in an impromptu band with other guests (drums, keyboard, guitar, bass) and had a good time. Sara used the microphone that was provided for her, which unfortunately only worked sporatically; learning the hard way to always bring her own PA system. Pieces that were played included All of Me, Blue Monk, My Funny Valentine, and Girl from Ipanema. All in all it was a great idea for a party. What a way for guests to meet each other, share their interest in music and entertain themselves all at once! If all the people who had brought tamborines in their purses had been convinced to play them, the party might have caught the ears of the whole neighborhood. (:

Kudos

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 06:36:00 -0700

Note from Suzie Cartreine, Director of Music, First Parish Church of Stow & Acton, 11 June 2010:

Dear Roy,

Thank you for another wonderful year of jazz at FPC. I am so grateful that you continue to help lead the Parish Jazz Band; you all add a whole dimension to the music program that I would not be able to offer. I especially appreciate the extra playing you all did this year to help cover the two services, as well as my maternity leave.

It has been great to watch the band grow and flourish over the year. I wish you all best of luck with your gigs this summer and look forward to hearing you in the fall. Hope to see you all at the music party on Wed. 6/16!

Sincerely,

Suzie Cartreine

Posted by About Time

HudsonFest recap

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 05:57:00 -0700

We played the following pieces at HudsonFest:

* Watermelon Man
* Fly Me to the Moon
* Summertime
* The Lady is a Tramp
* Ain't Misbehavin'
* On the Sunny Side
* Black Orpheus
* Satin Doll
* When Sunny Gets Blue
* Four
* Out of Nowhere
* Lullaby of Birdland

We had some great fans (one of whom took an extended video of the band that
I'd like to see), and we were asked to play Maynard Fest in the fall!

Our next gig is at the Brandt Beach Jazz Festival on Saturday, July 24th.
Save the date!

HudsonFest

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Sat, 29 May 2010 07:21:00 -0700

I'm pleased to announce that the Parish Jazz Band will be performing at HudsonFest 2010!
Saturday June 5th, starting at 10:15 AM.

http://www.assabetvalleychamber.org/hudsonfest.shtm

Hope to see you there!

The Parish Jazz Band Gets Thanked

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:06:00 -0700

Here is the text of a thank-you note the PJB received early this March (2010):

To All the Members of the [Parish] Jazz Band--Thank you so much for making Mardi Gras night such a great success. We believe that it was the promise of your music that drew such a big crowd. Spirits were high, and the music was delightful!

Photos from Jim's Birthday Party 2-19-10

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 12:32:00 -0800

This is a picture of me singing.

Here's Michael and Alex on guitar.

And Jonathan on flute.

Danny on piano.

A group shot of the rest of the rhythm section.

Here's a picture of me tap dancing.

Another shot of the whole band.

Here's Jim, the guest of honor (and Parish Jazz Band's #1 Fan).

Jim's Birthday Bash

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:31:00 -0800

Last night, the Parish Jazz Band played for Jim's 70th birthday party. He picked out a list that combined new pieces and some old favorites. Here's what we played:

First set:

Body and Soul
Ornithology

This is a great Charlie Parker tune.

I Can't Get Started

Four

I was initially skeptical of this piece, but it turned out really well.

My One and Only Love
Blue Monk

Out of Nowhere
My Funny Valentine

This was an nicely appropriate tune, as Jim's birthday falls on Valentine's Day.

Waltz for Debby

We only planned on taking two choruses of this song. When a couple got up and started waltzing, I wished that we had planned for more.

Second Set:

Watermelon Man

This is always a good piece to get the second half started with some energy.

Blue Skies

Sara finished this song with a tap dance routine that she prepared especially for this party.

That Old Feeling

If I Were a Bell
Memories of You
In Walked Bud

Sunday Kind of Love
When Sunny Gets Blue

(I cut "It Don't Mean a Thing" as we were running short on time.)

Hopefully, we'll have pictures and some musical selections to share soon.

New Orleans Setlist

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:07:00 -0800

Now that I've written about the process for determining the setlist for our 2010 New Orleans benefit, I should share the actual setlist with you. We strayed a little bit during the second half of the program, but I can't remember which substitutions we made.

First half

Watermelon Man

Do you know what it means?

It's Only a Paper Moon

Basin Street Blues

This little light of Mine

Bill Bailey

Lazy River

Mood Indigo

Lullaby of Birdland

During the break, we played

When the Saints Go Marching In

Watermelon Man

During the second half, we played

Memories of You

Sweet Georgia Brown

Amazing Grace

My Funny Valentine

How High the Moon

Body and Soul

I Can't Get Started

Out of Nowhere

Paper Doll

And we may have added in some of these:

Blue Monk

Can't Help Lovin' That Man

I Let a Song go out of my Heart

Sunday Kind of Love

When Sunny Gets Blue

It Don't Mean a Thing

We were fortunate enough to get two videos of this performance:

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:17:00 -0800

The Parish Jazz Band has been pretty busy lately. We did the Mardi Gras party on Feb 6th, and the music for both services on Valentine's Day (doing "MY Funny Valentine" for one of the numbers of course) for FPC. A member of the church, Russ Campbell, took these pics.

Videos of the Mardi Gras party are here-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j5gSleOYtw - "Basin Street Blues"

and- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAw_A6L1jU4

The crowd really got into "Watermelon Man"!!

8 Steps to Set list (New Orleans)

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:19:00 -0800

How a setlist is made.
1. I start by reviewing the Master List of about 150 songs. I mark the ones that I think would fit the occasion. In this particular case, I'm looking for New Orleans-sounding pieces. There's about 50, which is plenty to choose from.
2. Looking ahead a bit, I've know which songs we're going to be playing in future gigs, so I give them extra consideration. Of these 35 songs, 16 happen to fit, so I throw them in as well.
3. Conversely, there were two hymns that we played in the last sunday service (This Little Light of Mine and Amazing Grace) that I thought went well. I've included them in the list as well.
4. Ok, so now I've got 58 songs (there was some overlap) to choose from.
5. I sort out the ones we haven't done before. I always like to include some new pieces to expand our song list, but we've only got two rehearsals before this gig, so this is a good place to start culling down the list. I'm down to 45 pieces.
At this point, I'm wondering if I am including the right pieces. I know what I think of as Dixieland standards, but I'd like a second opinion. Let's see what Wikipedia has to say: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dixieland_standards
Ok, that shows I'm on the right track. Added "St. Louis Blues".
6. Now I'll take another look through this list and remove some that don't really fit the theme. Down to 36 (13 new-ish).
7. Let's see how they break out by type (latin, slow, blues, and "ballad" - which is sort of a catch-all category). Half are ballad, which is fine, 6 blues, 7 latin/up-tempo songs, and 5 slow songs. A good mix.
8. As a final step, I'll mark all of the new pieces (in bold) so we can easily pick them out in rehearsal, and put these pieces into 3-song "blocks" (with a variety of tempos within each block). Along the way, some pieces will naturally filter down to the bottom of the list, and I'll remove them. Now we've got 30 songs (10 new), which is more than enough. This will break down into 8 sets that we'll plan on doing, and 2 extra sets if we have time.

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 09:32:00 -0800

During a break at Blue Skies, got some portraits of the Parish Jazz Band musicians in attendance..

noreply@blogger.com (Parish Jazz Band) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 09:21:00 -0800

Here's some candids from our gig at the Blue Skies Studios Open House. Thought we played real loose and took some good chances with the tunes. Fun to do some Xmas songs too. I suspect the wine, food, and being surrounded by art also helped.....