Collectives

A contagion of basses sounds about right. Whoever arrives at the weekly OCI jam session is a matter of conjecture. This week it was 4 (four!) bassists, along with 2xdrums and one each of guitar, trom, vocals. I got one tune - fair enough given some dithering over a beer. On the other hand, it was particularly interesting to hear so many bassists in one outing. The bass sound was not so big and fat this night: more edgy and toppy, sharing an amp with the piano, but fun nonetheless. I played Recordame, and others did various songs with Rachel Thorne (a great local singer) and Stella and Blue bossa and others. The imports were Sam Dobson, ex-Sydney Con playing with Geoff Bull, Cope Street Parade and others: nicely relaxed, easy-going, on top of the charts. Paddy Fitzgerald, student at Monash, nicely intoned thumb positions and good choppy solos, playing with fellow student guitarist Harry Tinney. And the locals: Alec Coulson with a nice take on Blue bossa and me, on Recordame. Moving Paths had turned up, too (including Max, bassist #5) but too early to jam; they left to play Hippo. The band this night was Ben, Hugh and Steve.

The Old Canberra Inn jam session was hosted this week by Ben O'Loghlin (bass), Hugh Barrett (piano) and Steve Richards (drums). Sit-ins included Sam Bolton, Alec Coulson, Paddy Fitzgerald and Eric Pozza (basses), Harry Tinny (guitar), Mark Levers (drums) and Rachel Thorne (vocals).