Did I ever tell yall about the time I was a "sideman"; I was a "sideman" at a musician's brother's party.
We were at a small party, having a good time drinking fine liquor and enjoying good music, when the host suggested that we all had some kind of musical talent. (I know this story would sound better, if I said I was at a musicians party, but that ain't the way it happened)
I can drink fine (free) liquor and enjoy good music all night long (at least I could at that time, which was a long time ago) but I can still enjoy good music, as long as it's not all night.
Our host had a variety of very basic musical instruments hanging on the wall and laying around: a tambourine, bongos, harmonica, whistle, flute, plus others I don't remember. He gave me the whistle, my lady friend the tambourine, and passed around what was left to guests who wanted to participate, then he put a record with background music on the turntable, and gave us direction on what to play, and when.
The music was a little rough in the beginning, but I got the feel of the rhythm from the drums and tambourine, and tooted my whistle like I imagined "Bird" or "Trane" would toot their horns. Once we got the feel from his direction, and the background music, we continued on after the record quit playing, and it began to sound like music.
I simply felt the music others were playing, and made sounds that corresponded to what I felt, from the music they made; believe it or not, we made credible music.
We had a lot of fun, and he proved his point that everybody has "some" musical talent.
That made me think about "Sidemen"; they can sound ever so good, until they decide to make a record as leader. I had been listening to one of my favorite sidemen for years, and wondered when he was going to make a record as "Leader". Finally he made a record; I couldn't wait to get to the record store, it seemed like the car was going too slow, I wanted to fly. After I got the record back home, there was the anticipation of finally hearing a record where he was the leader.
I hate to use the word "disappointed", but that's the only one I can find at the moment. My expectations were not quite met would be a better way to put it. This has been repeated many times down through the years; so much so, that I've come to the conclusion that there are sidemen, and there are leaders; if I had been a musician, I believe I would have been a sideman, not everybody is cut out to be "leader man".
Enjoy the music.
