[Fmpro] Rubes

[Jim Chase]

I was certainly one of the rubes that you guys were talking about.

	Around 1983, I was approached by a drummer -- we had had some  
success playing R&B gigs together -- for a jazz band that needed a  
bass player.  These guys were all music teachers and advanced  
students at the U of A, Fairbanks.  They used music stands, and  
charts, which is totally foreign to someone used to playing Rock and  
Roll by ear.  I practiced all the charts -- standards, and some top  
forty stuff -- with three horns, keys, and rhythm section.  I could  
watch their eyes roll when I walked a wrong note, and the band would  
have to stop.
	"Don't play that note there."  The conductor would say, on more than  
one occasion.  "From the top, then..."
	I was clearly slowing them down.

	Evidently, what I lacked in music prowess, I made up for in  
congeniality.  Also, I was the only one in the band who could play  
(bass) and sing at the same time!  (you know HORN players?)  I was  
with that jazz band for almost a year, and never missed a rehearsal  
or a gig, even at forty below in winter.  But those guys were way  
beyond my ability at the time, and I eventually bowed out  
professionally.

	No great loss for them or me, except for the time involved.  They  
had a student lined up that could play all the charts, so I don't  
feel too bad about that.  I had a sure bar gig with my buds in Kodiak  
(The Hershey Squirts) so I had to leave town anyway.  The timing was  
perfect. Everything worked out.
====

Q: How do you get a Rock & Roll guitarist to turn down?
A: Put a music sheet in front of him.

Jim Chase