They can play, So What?

The other day, I was listening to jazz on the way home from hockey, and I heard a rendition of Miles Davis’ So What. A couple of days later, I couldn’t get the song out of my head, so when I came home from work and finished dinner, I sat down and played it on the piano. Then I picked up the nylon string guitar and had a go at it. It’s tough for me to play any kind of scales on guitar, but I did figure it out. Sort of. Then I asked Aaron to play it for me.

A few minutes later(which is all it took for Aaron to nail it), I called Adam to please come downstairs; I had gone back to the piano and we needed a drummer, badly: it was one of those moments where the music begins to gel. Adam, whether he was listening to us practice or not, immediately picked up the groove,  sensed the changes and the phrasing, and one chorus later, he even put the rim shots exactly where Jimmy Cobb put them in 1959. Meanwhile, when we were done with the head of the song, Aaron said “Now what do I do?”. I said “Take a solo.” So he did.
Wow. If you haven’t heard this song played on a nylon string guitar, you’re missing something.
The boys practice almost every day. They never play jazz unless I ask them. But when they do play jazz, it’s pretty amazing. Several choruses later, I went back to the head of the song, and the boys followed, and we faded out together. The look on their faces said that they liked what just happened. Aaron even said “that was pretty cool!” I was thinking how lucky and blessed I am to be a part of this.
I’ve said it before, but I’ll brag again: we have amazing kids. Maybe this weekend, we’ll record it. But I wasn’t going to stop the playing tonight and interrupt the magic. I love my kids; they can play.