Originally Posted By: Matt Finley
As a jazz trumpet player, one of the few things in music I have never done is a blues jam.


Here is a guy you could go set in with at one of their open mics in NYC. They play mostly Jazz but they can play blues.

The HARLEM JAZZ SESSION is a weekly concert & jam session hosted by 3x Grammy and Latin Grammy winning saxophonist/composer, Peter Brainin, featuring the hottest and most innovative musicians from around the world and around the corner!
Weekly roster includes all star musicians: Paul Bollenback, Cecilia Coleman, Gary Versace, Mike Karn, Anthony Pinciotti and MORE!

Peter Brainin is a Grammy and Latin Grammy winning saxophonist, composer and educator who has toured internationally with Mongo Santamaría, Valery Ponomorev, Hilton Ruiz, Bebo Valdez, Chico O’Farrill, Bobby Sanabria, Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (with whom he’s featured on 2 Grammy winning CD’s), Joris Teepe, Willie Colon & Legal Alien, Samuel Torres, the Mambo Legends Orchestra and John DiMartino as well as with his own quartet and as a guest artist and clinician. In the U.S. he has performed and/or recorded with Wynton Marsalis, Benny Golson, Randy Weston, Harold Mabern, Idris Muhammad, Jerry Gonzalez, Paquito D’Rivera, Israel “Cachao” López, Sheila E., Eddie Palmieri and many other Jazz and Latin Jazz legends. Peter has appeared on over 200 albums including his own as co-leader with Steve Johns (which also feature contributions by Conrad Herwig, George Cables and Ben Monder) and with the quartet Native Soul. A native of the Bronx, he twice received the BRIO (Bronx Recognizes its Own) award for music composition from Bronx Council on the Arts.

Room 623 - Harlem’s Speakeasy

271 W. 119th St.

(btwn Frederick Douglass & St. Nick)

212. 589. 8979

Full calendar, tix & livestream: Room623.com

I would assume you may know some of these guys.

A video of a real open mic/jam session

https://youtu.be/0X-i0RSrq9s

Billy

EDIT: Bebo Valdez died back some time ago. He was a very famous Jazz and Blues piano player from Cuba. He was well known and liked here in Miami. I never knew him but was introduced to his music through a music teacher here in Miami.

If I lived in NYC, I would make it a point to check out this venue just to watch these people.

Last edited by Planobilly; 07/22/22 12:43 PM.
“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”