Swing Set
01 Apr 1996
Swing Set was the first band I was in with Mike Ross.
It started out as a jazz trio comprised of Mike on Keys, Myself on Bass and Jeff Zaat on Drums...
we were asked to play a UPEI Faculty reception and so we broke out the fake books ( that we barely knew how to read ) and started playing...once we realized that we really had no idea what we were doing or how to really read a fake book chart Mike starts playing an enthusiastic version of "Superstition" and we started jamming on that....
One Problem...
We only knew how to play the verse. and man did we ever play that verse for a long time... and it felt great! We eventually learned how to play fake book charts and we became quite popular at these monthly faculty receptions ( where we were paid pitifully ...however there was free food that we awkwardly ate amidst the professors that we paid to teach us).
Yes we learned many valuable things in this group...
1. How to read a fake book
2. People who hire musicians usually think they can justify paying very little money by giving you....oooo...wait for it....driiiiiiink tickets!
3. As a musician, most of the time "off stage" for the next few years would be spent at the food table where you awkwardly filled your face full of finger foods.
