Rus Nerwich

Rus, Benny Green and Chris Burbank after the Jam Session

I had decided before I arrived at the Festival, that I was going to play at one of the jam sessions, for those of you who are not hip to the music lingo. A jam session is an opportunity for musicians, who mostly don’t know each other, and ordinarily would not have a chance to play together, to do just that. It is often a highly competitive musical scenario, with musicians trying to cut each other, or show who is the most accomplished, capable and articulate. There are an unspoken set of rules and etiquettes that need to be observed, the most significant being, if you cant handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen.

I arrived at the jam session after watching Chuco Valdez cook up the stage, it was 12.30 n I was feeling the groove, the jam session got under way, n I had that Im gonna play tonight feeling, I was hanging with Chris Burbank, the trumpet student from Julliard who had come to teach for the week, we had agreed that if the moment was right we were gonna have a blow, only problem, I didn’t have a horn, I decided to take a walk home to get it, home was 30 mins away, I took the walk n got back around 2 in the morning. Along the way asking myself several times and out loud not if I was crazy, why I was so crazy. About to step on stage with some of the greatest deepest cats playing the music today, there I was, a pisher from Kaapstad wanting my turn, amen, that’s exactly what I was, so I grabed my horn n made my way back, when I arrived Benny Green was on Piano, cookin it up like no mans business, I was all nerves, the place was packed, bout 200 people sitting round the stage and 2 to 300 more around it standing etc, they were all hungry for music and were taking it very seriously.

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted the horn players from Chucho valdez band, wasn’t really the corner, they were standing next to me with their horns at the bar, I was trying to get my composure, figuring how I was going to let Lewis Nash know I wanted to play n how I was gonna get my self from shaking like I had the heebie jeebies, next thing the Cubans were on stage cooking their way through “Body and Soul” eish, I though these cats can really blow, but so can Nerwich, so I shook a little more, n waited to see what would happened next, “Softly” I was sure I saw the trumpet player say, “Softly” I looked again, Yebo, they were about to play one of my favourites “Softly as in a morning Sunrise” okay, its not one of my favourites, but it’s a great tune to play at a jam session cos its got some changes, a easily navigatable form, and you can get nice n deep on it. This was the moment, I went to the stage n started to unpack my horn, there were at least 4 cats to blow before me, I tried to get my composure, the tune was being played at a harrowing pace, steaming up the room, there was nothing soft about this sunrise! I took some deep breaths n tried to find the zone, no not the one is Rosebank Mall!

THE ZONE, where you get played by the music flying through technicoloured clouds of sound, kinda of like a phoenix rising with an ipod, next got up one of the Cubans, he took about 25 choruses and started to upset Lewis Nash, the next thing I saw Lewis Nash calling me, “Come on man” waving his hands, he wanted me to let cigar boy know that his time was up, eish, did lewis nash know that I was shaking like a Alzheimers patient suffering from crack withdrawal? No? I got on stage and made my way to the microphone, behind me benny green was tenderly loving dem ivories, sus chords and substitutions abound, I closed my eyes, n started to blow, amen baby, I was deep in the groove, 3 choruses later I had said what I needed to, overcome the fear and self doubt and kicked some serious ass.

I handed the batton over to mr green and he ripped it up. It was one of the most significant moments of my musical life, all the feelings of self doubt disappearing the moment I stepped up to the plate, one of the greatest things about it was that it reinforced a sense of inner trust, a trust I can have for myself, knowing that when I need to step up I can. I left the jam session and walked home, feeling as though I had passed through one of “Knowers Arks” those pillars that stand between you and the next levels of self understanding and awareness. In order to pass through the “Arks” we must take a test, we must choose the moment to take the test, and once committed, we have to go in with all we have. Like Don Juan said to Castenada, the warrior stalks his moment, choosing his test and acquiring new power, the greatest, a sense of gratitude and humility.