an amazing gig

I had an amazing gig on Sunday, I played my best ever show. And when I think about it now, there was a spot of magic in the air.
You know when every thing's just right you all click, on the same vibe.
There were not many in the room, just a small place , tucked away in the back of a big old English pub, but the players were something special. A sax player from Australia who has been in the country for 7 months, a beautiful player, a pleasure to work with. Having just joined the jazz scene recently I have still a lot to learn, and recording things makes life a hell of a lot better , being able to listen back to where you went wrong, why, and how you can better yourself to become able to hold your own; and the rest of the group.
Last week I played in a jazz quartet, recorded it on my N95 and from that was able to alter
my technique, for example, when the sax player went into one of his solo's, I was taught at music college to hold the beat down, just keeping things ticking over and quit enough for the soloist to be heard.. Where as on listening back to the tape I noticed that i lacked a certain, umf. it all seemed a little flat, and at a loss of life. So this week, i perked the drums up a bit, still playing quietly, subtly, but changing the groove ever so slightly, adding a few accents here or there made a big difference.
The 'Beautiful Baby' ( ride cymbal by Zildjian) I bought recently is a corker, real washy and over powering , it has rivets giving a great sizzle effect like Elvin Jones used, in the wrong hands can be disastrous. A couple of players have actually laughed at it not quite understanding the technique needed to handle such a monster.