Jamming With The Alleyway Band

As mentioned earlier this week, exiting Yagi Station and hearing the strumming and off key crooning of some street musician is not a rare breed of nightly entertainment. With the warm weather now here nearly every night there has been a guy or a duo with a guitar and some crumpled sheet music strumming it out as people hurry by and school girls huddle around. Sometimes I stop, more often than naught, for a few minutes and I listen to whatever Japanese song it is they are singing. I may ask if they know any English tunes but often I just listen for a few and then move on. Tonight when I walked out of the station I heard music coming out of the alley as I have on other nights but this was not a single guitar, my friends, but what sounded like a full jazz band belting it out into the night. It sounded like trumpet, drums and sax and, yes, there was even a guitar in there. Though I had lessons to plan for the next day I couldn’t pass this up and instead of heading into the tunnel and towards home I made the left turn into the Yagi alley and saw three men and a woman pumping out jazz like a professional quartet. One of the men played guitar and sang, another the sax and the other a trumpet while the woman played an large bongo drum. I didn’t know what they were playing but it was beautiful and the trumpet, man, the trumpet, this guy was Davis at Montreux! Flames could have been coming out of that thing. It was like he was channeling the ghost of Armstrong. He overpowered the others but they otherwise melded seamlessly. Later I would discover they had never met until tonight. I told them that they should form a band and I meant it. This group was hotter then seven Johnny Depps…errr, I mean Jessica Albas.

I watched for a few moments standing with the usually gathered schoolgirls as they improvised through a Japanese song, extending the end into an all out jazz furry. How could these people just be passing these guys by? They were excellent! Better then most small stage acts I’ve seen at Jazz fests. When the singer saw me looking on he started in to some Clapton, Change the World, and urged me to sing along. I admit, my lyric knowledge of this late Clapton hit was a little rusty but I fumbled on as best as I could. He smiled and strummed. When we finished I asked if he knew any more English tunes and started spouting off names like: Springsteen, Dylan, Simon and Garfunkle and Johnny Cash. He didn’t know any of them but did say he knew the Ben E. King standard Stand By Me. That was more then good enough as it is one of my favorite Golden Oldies. I know all the words to that one and I sang loud to try to overcome the power of the trumpet. I barely succeeded. At the end the schoolgirls applauded all of us but I think I started winning over some fans. Sometimes you don’t have to have a guitar, kids! Next the guy said he knew some Mr. Big…ah, To Be With You, a one hit wonder from the early 90s and a shit song that I only know the chorus to so I sort of faked singing along to that one. It was strange to hear sax and trumpet in that tune but it actually made it better. The brass guys were very good at integrating their instrument into the songs in which such things were not played. Next we did Cecilia and We Will Rock You, mainly for the pretty girl on the bongo who slapped a mighty beat. Trying to get them all in synch for We Will Rock You was a little awkward. Sax doesn’t work as well as power chords on Brian May’s Red Special. Finally, I asked if they knew any Beatles tunes and the guy on guitar started in on Yesterday. Everything melded perfectly here, as if it were a written recipe. Everybody knew the song. The trumpet and sax blew a soulful tune and the drum kept a slow, rhythmic beat. The guitarist and I sang melodically, not quite McCartney but not bad…not bad and when it was all over they thanked me for joining in by offering me my own round of applause. I told them to come back here on other nights and I hope they understood me because I’d love another session with the Alleyway Jazz Band.