This is going to be an uncharacteristically short post. Part of the reason is because it is Friday night now and I will be rushing around to try to make something of it after a busy day. Another part of the reason is because I had too much fun at the Mazet last night to make much of a post out of it! Why the fun?
Because one of the advantages of an open mic that is very good and cool and fun but not yet really discovered by that many different musicians is that when a musician gets to play, they get to play a LOT. The Mazet has been going for a few months now, but it is still not as popular for musicians as some places around the corner, like The Highlander or the Tennessee bars.
On the other hand, the Mazet IS a very popular bar and it is always full of clients. This may bother some musicians, but personally, I see it as a challenge to try to see if one’s music can be noticed through the talk. More than that, though, I love that I usually get to play a lot of songs. I did EIGHT last night. That must be around 40 minutes or more total on stage….
But the fun advantage to that also is that when there are other musicians you enjoy, you also get to hear a LOT of their stuff. Such was the case last night when I discovered and met Nell and Johnny of Nell and the Band, who are visiting from England and doing a few open mics. Nell has a rich, strong voice and it expresses lots of fresh emotion and melody. Too bad for the sake of my recordings that I was standing in a bad spot as far as the mix of crowd sound and the music goes. But it’s still worth putting up a couple of the songs.
There is a wonderful edge to Nell’s voice that occasionally called to my mind that of Amy Winehouse – although the two are clearly massively different characters….
In the end, it is not as if there are not enough musicians, by the way. There were plenty of them last night. But lots of time to do numerous songs. All in all a fun time.
Oh, and this post did not end up so short as I thought, either, which is typical….