Networking pays off

Heidi's always said that I'm a great schmoozer, and my propensity for networking with other musicians has begun to pay off more and more lately. A couple months ago, the mandolin player (Greg) in the Varnish Cooks suggested I drop into Beale St. Cafe one week that the band wasn't practicing. On Thursdays there's an acoustic blues jam session there hosted by a prominent musician, Gordon Munding. He's been in the old-time/Delta blues scene for years, and pays honest tribute to Son House and other early blues players. I started sitting in with my upright every couple weeks or so, getting to know some of the great musicians who come to this jam. It's almost exclusively acoustic players, and everyone has a fondness, if not reverence, for the tradition of the early blues. As per usual, at least a couple bands have been born of this collaboration.

I'm one of only about three bassists who show up there with any regularity (a treat I'll thoroughly enjoy for now!) and one of those bassists plays electric, although it's a 70's Precision Bass, so we won't hold it against him! Once I take the stage with whichever arrangement of players is up there, I'm usually up there for the duration, being invited by subsequent players to hang out & add that big doghouse sound to their tunes. The most surprising result of this has been that the jam's two top musicians have begun to take me on for separate performances, which is a huge honor for me. Gordon Munding's one of them, and the other is harmonica player Curtis Waterman. Curtis is an award-winning blues harpist from Syracuse who's played in numerous bands around central NY and now lives in Rochester. I've been invited to play with them (and a washboard player!) at the Hot Blues For The Homeless at Water Street Music Hall on June 8th. We're opening up for some local & national blues luminaries and it'll be a great show, and only the second time I've played the big side of Water Street (there will actually be people there this time!). Also, Gordon, Curtis & I just booked a private party up at Kirk's family's land on the lake, during the July 4th weekend. That'll be a real pleasure to play, a lot of fun, and we'll actually make some pretty damn good money on it too. Curtis was looking at some other Rochester-area joints for the three of us to play too, so long as the places in question are actually willing to pony up some bread for us. One benefit (aside from the musical benefits) of playing with people of Gordon & Curtis' caliber is that they won't do ordinary bar gigs for free, or for "exposure."

So perhaps the concept of playing bass as an actual part-time job is becoming a reality? And the idea of doing this on upright was something that I didn't think would happen a couple years ago, but apparently I just had to make some connections in the right niche, which is the acoustic blues, folk & bluegrass genres. There are already a lot of classical and jazz bassists around town, so I'm just jumping into the styles that aren't flooded with bassists. One of the smarter moves I've made in my musical pursuits, it would seem.