Remembering high school and playing Jeff Beck's "Freeway Jam".
My first real sessions with really good players.
I have a million memories about my early years as a practicing bassist at Walden III high school in Racine, Wisconsin. This article is a quick trip down one of those memory lanes, in honor of the late, great Jeff Beck.
I knew nothing about fusion jazz prior to transferring to my second high school. This school was well-known for having a lot of kids who were really good instrumentalists, thanks to the band director, Al Clausen. I was given an opportunity to try the bass guitar for the first time in early 1978, when I tried out for the jazz band. Al handed the bass to me and showed me how to play it. For the next three years, I was "Dave the bass player."
The high school I went to was very laid back. Rules were there for those who felt obligated to follow them. Students and teachers were all on a first name basis with one another. If you felt like going home during a class, you simply got up and walked out. No harm, no foul. This didn't happen that often, but when someone simply didn't feel like being at school that day, they would excuse themselves and take the bus back home and go back to bed. I think I did it twice. My, how much times have changed since those days.
My class schedule was pretty easy. I had lots of time to screw around. Since I was the new guy and merely a sophomore, I was eager to learn as much as I could musically from the juniors and seniors. It was nothing for a make-shift jam session to open up in the band room, between classes, nearly every day. To me, these guys were the best I had ever heard. They would play many of the same jam songs every time. I would sit and wait for my turn to play the bass. They would play one particular song, every single time.
"Freeway Jam" from Jeff Beck was a favorite because it was a song that was long enough for everyone to take a solo. I liked to play it because it was fairly easy for me. Al was quite supportive of us being in that room for 45-minutes. We'd keep the band room door open so the whole school could hear us playing. Students and teachers alike, would flock to the door and hang out and listen to us play. It was such a great chance to get some real experience with good players.
Those late 1970's songs of the jazz fusion era changed my entire perspective on music. I never even knew who Jeff Beck was. "Freeway jam" will always remind me of those amazing afternoons in the high school band room, playing until my fingers bled.
This is my memory of Jeff Beck and his music. Rest in Peace.
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