jazz charleston 1-7-2005

i know it's been a bit since i wrote - the holidays and all of that - went down to florida for a week, but there was almost no sunshine, but it was warm - got to walk around outside with no shoes on. but i came back to chicago right before new years, and since then have been very busy with music : playing & recording. last friday i played at the charleston with jason ajemian on bass and frank rosaly on drums. we played monk tunes and standards - i like playing that music, it's a good time & challenging at the same time. we had some folk sit in with us - nick broste played some trombone solos, tim daisy and hatwich subbed out the rhythm section for a few tunes, and this fellow bob came up and played piano. he sounded good, it was one of those situations that i've been on the other side of - new guy in town, want to play with people, but are worried that you'll get vibed by the other people playing. that's one of the main drags about playing standard jazz - the mentality that some people get - they feel that they are so good that if someone shares the stage with them and aren't at that level, or share their ideas of how the music should go, they're not a good musician. i think that it is fine to dis-like the way someone plays, actually i think it's vital to be able to decide when you do or don't like someone's playing. it's not necessarily a personal thing, which is what people usually take it as. what i don't like is when someone doesn't like how you play, and then gives you attitude about it. this has happened to me before at sessions in the past. anyhow - bob sounded good, but he didn't give us his number or anything, so how can we call him now?
the rest of the night was good - shevitz poured the drinks, ajemian did some donuts in the snow that fell on the city a few nights before.