Finally about to jam with my old drummer

[grimniggzy]

I'm excited...
Jammed with two punkers on Monday. Trying to teach these two guys to play bass & guitar.

It'll be nice to lay back and play with someone whom I'm always within 1/2 a beat of.

Any of you guys have blood brothers/sisters through music?
Share your tales.

[mortlock]

yep..i still jam with the same dudes ive been jamming with since 1988. none of my marriages ever came close to that shit..haha.

[mutantcolors]

yeah, sadly the one guy is pretty deep in the pits of alcoholism at 25 yrs old, such fucking talent just wasting away

[mortlock]

yeah, sadly the one guy is pretty deep in the pits of alcoholism at 25 yrs old, such fucking talent just wasting away

i just lost a music bro last year to alcoholism..he was only 39.

[cat shepard]

Dude I played with from 1986-1998 just popped back up homeless and destitute and we have been therapeutic jamming away from addiction and trying to pull it back together and get something going. May just jam as a two piece, that's something neither of us have ever done.

[mutantcolors]

Known him since he was 16, drunk every chance. Can't be reasoned with.

Oh well.

[chlorpromazine]

There are a few folks around that are like that for me.

There's a bass player from my hometown that I jammed with from the time I was 13 until I was 19 or 20. A couple years back he came over to my house for an impromptu jam, and even after not playing together for 15+ years the vibe was there. It was like we were able to pick up where we left off.

I've always had a good repoire drumming with M&B on bass or guitar.

The same goes for Kiffin from Rwake, and the guys from Calcabrina that I've been jamming with off and on since '02.

There's something to be said for not burning bridges when bands dissolve.

yeah, sadly the one guy is pretty deep in the pits of alcoholism at 25 yrs old, such fucking talent just wasting away

i just lost a music bro last year to alcoholism..he was only 39.

You know, that's one of the saddest things that I've encountered over the years. There are those folks that you develop a great kinship with via the musical conversation, only for them to fall victim to the pitfalls that plague creative people.

Last month, Lanticus (who happens to be another one of my musical brothers) turned me on to the short story called  Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin. If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor and check it out.

The author describing the first time he witnessed one of his brother's performances, wrote:

"All I know about music is that not many people ever really hear it. And even then, on the rare
occasions when something opens within, and the music enters, what we mainly hear, or
hear corroborated, are personal, private, vanishing evocations. But the man who creates the
music is hearing something else, is dealing with the roar rising from the void and imposing
order on it as it hits the air. What is evoked in him, then, is of another order, more terrible
because it has no words, and triumphant, too, for that same reason. And his triumph, when
he triumphs, is ours."

After witnessing a performance, he is able to understand why his brother used heroin to "keep from shaking apart". 

There is more great stuff in the story, but it is late, and I'm rambling now. I've just been having this same kind of conversation with folks lately, so it seemed timely to post.

[justJon]

Guitar player I used to jam with in high school now owns the local Ford dealership. As far as Ii know, he doesn't play anymore. Shame. As I recall he was shit-hot for a 17-year-old. Bass player I played with at the same time is now deep into the "cowboy" type of country, and wrote the "official" state song. Good on him, but I've no desire to play what he plays now.

[I,Galactus]

Last month, Lanticus (who happens to be another one of my musical brothers) turned me on to the short story called  Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin. If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor and check it out.

Applauded for encouraging me to check this out.  That was a really good read.

[Ranbat]

I still talk to all the guys from my band in the 90s. None of them really seem interested in picking it back up though. It'd be cool just to jam in the basement on the weekends, even if it never went anywhere.