Wherever I live or visit I try to find open mics or jam sessions at local clubs, Jazz or Blues if possible. When I moved to Southfield MI I asked around at work and as it turned out the custodian there had a brother who played guitar and frequented a place called Cisco’s. Eventually, one night, a friend took me there. This is the story of my experience at Cisco’s.
Andy was a student worker at the university where I taught physics. I didn’t have a car and he drove me around once in a while. We went to Cisco’s for their weekly open mic and I have to say I was quite nervous. It had been a couple years since I played out. The leader of the house band, their bassist, comes over and sits with us for a couple minutes just to feel us out. We’ll call him, Him, me, Me and Andy, Andy. I remember the conversation pretty well but the quotes are me paraphrasing to the best of my recollection.
We had informal introductions and I told him I was from Chicago.
Him: “So, you guys want to jam tonight, what do you want to play.”
Me: “Anything really but mostly I’d like to play blues or jazz”
Him: “Well tell me, what do you mean “blues”, is there a particular song you want to do?”
Andy: “Well, I know the British blues.”
Me: “I couldn’t name a particular song, I don’t play by the book note for note. To me the blues is a pattern, the same pattern fast or slow, major or minor. I know the 12 and 8 bar blues patterns pretty well so just give me a key and I’ll be fine.”
Him: “Well what style of blues do want to play, Chicago style, Delta blues, …”
Me: “To tell you the truth I’d like to do Jazz, maybe All Blues, Footprints, Freddie the Freeloader, …”
Him: “Oh, I hear you. I’d love to play some of that but just look around at these people. They drive trucks and hunt deer. They don’t want to hear that crap, it’s crap to them, they want to hear stuff off the radio, maybe we’ll play some Zeppelin if we’re lucky.”
Me: “That’s Ok, I just want to play.”
Him: “Well, Ok. We’ll see, maybe just maybe at the end of the night we can squeeze you in for a song. As you can see we got a lot of people lined up with their axes.”
So at this point Andy and I settle in to our booth thinking it’ll be a long night. Mr. Bass gets up to the mic and the house band starts vamping as he addresses the audience.
Him: “Ladies and gentlemen welcome to Cisco’s Tuesday night open jam session. We got a lot of regulars here tonight and were gonna have some fun! But before we start we have a very special treat for you tonight, a blues man all the way from Chicago here as a special guest! At least he says he can play the blues, but you all know what I say about folks from Chicago… (pause)… They’re a bunch of Fucking liars.”
Soooo, now the butterflies in my stomach are condors on steroids. I get my guitar out as soon as I can and walk up.
Him: “Let’s give a big hand for Dave! But wait until we hear if he can play.”
They start a tune, nothing elaborate a two chord vamp like Feeling Alright. I ask the keyboard player for a key and get the cold shoulder, I look at the bassist’s hands and he turns his back to me. So fuck it, I noodle around for a second till I find a common note then my ear kicks in. I don’t have perfect pitch (few do) and I’m self conscious about my relative pitch but right now I figure if I just throw out Van Halen’s Eruption the crowd will go wild. I start jamming and make them eat it. They play that game for two songs, then the bassist turns and says “You all right man, damn you can play.” As much as I like the complement I still want to punch his face into the back of his head.
Then he says, stay for the rest of the set. They call tunes and the keyboard player flashes a few charts my way. We’re cool now. At the end of the set, as I’m about to unplug, the bassist says “encore” and throws out the opening riff to So What by Miles Davis (Fast version). And there you have it, we did So What followed by All Blues to end the set. I picked up two guitar students that night too.
But what a way to get introduced. I swear these things only happen to me.
copyright 2014 David R Bergman