Andrea Calderwood plays tonight at Table Ten. Getting people to come out on Tuesday an Wednesday has not been so easy. Perhaps, it's also in finding the right audience, or at the least understanding that there are more than one audience. The first group comes to the bar because the bar is more attractive than home. For these people, it's not the music that brings them in; rather, it's the collective ambience. The music plays a role, but if the music becomes to dominate, the focus shifts from the collective ambience to the entertainment. By 7:00 in the evening though there is a shift in the audience. There are those locals looking for alternatives to television, playstation, and blockbuster rentals. There are those looking to enjoy the interaction and interplay of live entertainment.
Andrea is a Singer. Her vocal chords are an instrument and she plays them as such. Andrea is a story teller. Her shows are as much about the time spent talking to the audience as her shows are about the music she and her band perform. Andrea is also a Teacher. And Student. Andrea has a love of education that becomes quite obvious during her shows. The trick for Andrea is figuring out ways in which to deliver her messages such that the audience doesn't feel like they are in school. Ironically, while most of the people in the bar are escaping the mindless activities of home (television, play station and internet), most are still used to doing mindless activities. And while Andrea understands this, she's also hoping to engage the audience. These gigs at Table Ten are opportunities for her to perform Live, judge audience reaction, and then later adjust. Andrea is at the beginning of what she (and I) hope to be a long and fruitful career in the the music business. Andrea usually plays Table Ten once a month on either the second or the third Tuesday.
On the other Tuesdays of the month we feature a band we created specifically for Bob Wahler. Bob Wahler called it the Generation Gap. Bob Wahler plays the saxophone. And for those who've been around musicians a bit, knowing the instrument one plays really does tell a lot about the personality of the player. The saxophone is a lead instrument. It's usually loud and it's distinctive voice demands to be heard. The saxophone pushes its way to the front of the line. In the hands of the novice, the unskilled or the needy showman seeking limelight, the saxophone can become an instrument of greed and destruction. While one may find the drummer usually at the back of the stage, one will usually find the saxophone up front somewhere, taking the lead.
Wanting the lead.
Needing to Lead. Now this isn't inherently a bad thing. Every band needs a leader and not every player or singer wants to lead. What's important though is understanding that the leader of a band, like the leader of anything, has to balance that need to control with a genuine desire to serve the collective needs of those he or she leads as well as those he or she serves.
Andrea Calderwood understands this. Perhaps, having worked with people on both sides of this fence, she has seen what good leaders can accomplish in terms of building and creating as much as how bad leaders can destroy and diminish. When you watch Andrea perform I believe it becomes quite evident that you are also watching an exercise in leadership, positive re-enforcement and in community building. She understands that her voice is the bridge between the audience and the band and she understands that if people are going to walk that bridge then she needs to make that bridge as attractive and desirable as possible. And I think that she also understands that some people simply don't want to walk across the bridge. She, like Bob, is not playing to an audience that all came out just to see her (or him). Some of these people don't care. And in fact, for some of these people, putting the bridge to close to people's feet, is annoying and really becomes a quick way for the bartender to hear the words, "Check please!"
Such is the danger of the saxophone.
Not that it can't be played quietly or softly or with lilting finesse. The saxophone can be played quietly and softly and with delicate finesse. But to do so requires skill, experience and desire. Young players usually lack all three. Veteran players usually have the skill and the experience to become master and commander of their instrument, but may not be so good at controlling their desire to always be master and commander of the music being created. The saxophone is a powerful instrument.
The saxophone is not a toy.
In the hands of the self-less seeker the saxophone becomes a haunting and mesmerizing voice bridging not just audience to the music, but the unconscious to the conscious. The instrument can become a means of manifesting self-actualization.
Those attempting to play the saxophone should understand this.
Most do not.
Does Bob Wahler?
Good question. The answer in part explains why we created the Generation Gap. Bob was playing every Thursday with Andrew Marks. Andrew plays piano. And even though the Thursday show is really ANDREW MARKS, over the past 5 years it really has become something more. In fact, we've come to affectionately call the singers and musicians that show up to play with Andrew THE TABLE TEN ORCHESTRA. These people all show up, not to make money, but to support Andrew, make music and have fun. The key word here is 'support'. Over time, that saxophone just became to dominant and began to overshadow Andrew. It was not always clear who was leading.
It was not always clear who was controlling.
It is not the saxophone that controls the person. It is the person that controls the saxophone. But still, the very nature of the instrument can put it at odds with piano and guitar. Piano and Guitar may have greater range, but when it comes to, "look at me, I'm right here", saxophone is King and Warlord.
In a battle between piano and saxophone, saxophone will most likely win. Piano is a tree. Saxophone is a cloud. And while the tree can certainly grow tall and it's canopy overshadow the forest and control all that grows under it, the cloud can transform from wispy and puffy into loud and commanding. A tree is majestic and beholding. A cloud is thunder and lightning.
Bob needed his own night.
A show he could lead. A show whose direction he could control.
"We'll call it the Generation Gap", he said. "We'll get young players in here and have them play with Earl and me. It'll be cool man."
Earl smiles.
Earl plays guitar. "He can play country", says his wife Doris, "but he really loves the JAZZ." Earl is the consummate sideman. He is the Ed to anyone's Johney.
"Yeah", says Bob, "we'll get John Bradley and Mike Selfridge and anyone else that wants to play. I can give them pointers. I can do what their JAZZ teacher's and their record players can't do. I can give them the opportunity to play the old school music with the old school."
Like Andrea's show, there's an element of education involved in the Generation Gap. The show is as much for the musicians that show up to play with Bob and Earl as it is for the audience that listens. But where Andrea is a teacher by nature, and thus has a desire and a passion to share with others what she learns, Bob has a desire to 'give back' to the Jazz Community what it has given to him. Andrea is at the beginning of her career. She likely has a good 50 years ahead of her. Bob doesn't have another 50 years. That knowledge has to affect the dynamic of the performance and the reason one continues to play.
Because in the end, when all is said and done, Bob Wahler is a player.
He doesn't want money.
He wants to feel vital. He wants to be a part of the scene.
The Generation Gap recognizes that.
The older players, from the 50's, 60's and 70's ... they play Jazz different than the kids of today. That's Jazz. Jazz is not some bronze statue that never changes. Jazz is organic. Jazz evolves and changes.
The young adults that play with Bob and Earl love playing with them for a number of reasons ... fun likely being Number One. But here, they have an opportunity to actually make music with the very people they study in class and listen to through headphones as part of assignments in Jazz History. Here, at Table Ten, on most every Tuesday between 730 and 930/10, the young players in town have the opportunity to make contact with the Birth of Jazz, with the Revolution of Jazz. And the old guys, like Bob and Earl, not only do they get to do what in the end they love most of all, which is to play, they have the opportunity to share what they've learned as well as, if they're willing to open themselves to it, learn something new. Jazz keeps them young.
Because Jazz, like most music, is the true FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH.
Does Bob understand all of this? I did ask a question earlier which by now you've perhaps forgotten. And perhaps not. It's that saxophone.
It's that damned Saxophone.
I want to know why Bob chose that instrument.
Because as I said, In the hands of the self-less seeker the saxophone becomes a haunting and mesmerizing voice bridging not just audience to the music, but the unconscious to the conscious. The instrument can become a means of manifesting self-actualization. The instrument is like an alcoholic libation. It, by it's very nature seeks to control the person using it who, by their very nature, think that they are controlling it.
How many drinks does it take before the alcohol is talking. And how many songs does it take before the Saxophone just assumes that it's all about the Saxophone?
In both cases, the number varies.
One cannot win in a contest with alcohol.
Those attempting to play the saxophone should understand this.
Most do not.
Does Bob Wahler?
Well, perhaps that is why he always brings a flute and a clarinet.
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