Well its been a year now that I have been hosting the thursday nite blues jam for the Blues Society of Central Pa. (plug)
In that time I have seen many Gus' come and go. They are/were either Gus' on harp, violin, percussion instruments ,and yes , flute and trumpet. Last nite 3 Gus' showed up to play one way or another.
Recently a new guy started to come to the jam. An enormous man (in his early 50's) in stature, with a biker appearance but with a teddy bear personality , that goes by the name of Buck, Gus #1. The first nite Buck came out was around the first time Daine Paul (you need a short nickname bro:)) Russell started to come to the jam.
The guy heard both daine and myself that nite and was real eager to get some pointers on the harp since he is still at that bob dylan stage of chording a lot of notes hoping it fits into the chord progression.
Well last week Buck got to sit in on a few songs and just closed his eyes from start to finish and played thru every vocal, solo, and break in the songs. (After seeing the topic come up again about gussing I decided the first thing I should do for these performance challenged newbies that want mentoring is to show them proper audience and stage ettiquette, not tricks on the harp.)
Knowing that Buck is real eager to learn and respects my opinion helped in getting my point across. I explained to him when he goes up to 1) keep his eyes open and watch for cues from the singer/set leader for solos and breaks. 2) keep his eye on me also to cue him when not to play i.e. vamping thru the guitarist solo. (luckily I man the pa when I'm not up playing so I can turn the volume down or off on Gus' on stage.)
By following my recommdation he not only got audience applause but gathered some respect from the seasoned players he was performing with. 1 Gus down 2 to go.
Next we come to Mark, Gus #2. Mark is a casual buddy of mine in his early 70's that never quite matured . He and his 4 ft tall, 82 year old "artist" girlfriend showed up late into the evening. His is a big Larry Adler fan and usually brings around a "sack" of chroms and his trumpet, clarinet or flute. They parked themselves in the back of the room. (Back to him later)
Around that time I had two of the areas best blues guitarists on stage (one played with Ray Charles for 7 years) and Daine. Well another weekly Gus, #3 ,a flute player who won't take ettiquette advice from anyone, tryed to go up and play but I blocked his move and told him they were going to play some hard core blues and his flute wasnt welcome. This is a guy you have to be blunt and to the point with. (he goes to all the jams in the area ,works his way to the stage then closes his eyes and circular breathes his way thru the whole song and then moves onto the next club jamming that nite.)
After I took care of Gus #2 and was feeling proud I settled in to hear daine blow some killer harp when all of a sudden I hear what sounded like a trumpet call come from the back of the room. It was Mark joining in with the band entertaining his own audience from back there. He has tryed this on several occasions and I have told him about it before that jamming along in hopes of being called to the stage only happens in movies and that it is poor musicianship to do so.
Well Mark has all the enthusiasm of a teenager and listens about as much, but luckily he stopped playing before I had to go back and ring his neck.
After Daine and the boys got done playing I brought Mark up to play a song. He brought both a chrom and his trumpet. I told him to set the trumpet aside. I usually let him go on solo as the last act since he doesnt know what key he is playing in on any instrument even though he is a very good chrom player.
I introduced him and said he was going to play some oldtime prewar blues. This time the band stayed on stage to back him and he called out the song in C. (this crew never saw him play before so they didnt know what they were in for) After the first few bars of him playing the intro solo and the 5 other guys looking confused I walked up to him and said, "Mark, these guys can't play Rhapsody in Blue. try playing St. Louis Blues." After about 24 bars the band got a feel for the chord changes and his timing and they did a pretty good job of backing him. That is the first time I really heard him cut loose on a solo since all the rythmn was going on in his head instead of on stage.
Unfortunately I didnt get to talk to him afterwards to tell him to cool it with the offstage performances, but now that he has finally got what he dreamt of, and that is to perform with a full band I think I can convince him to stop Gussing or else I'll dock it from his stage time:)
Next week I will have posted in the club "What is a Gus, and how not to be one". We have a guideline that seasoned players follow at the jam but no real guide for Gus types. Hopefully any new person that shows up to sign in I can get them to read what not to do at a jam.
MIke E. ps. disclaimer (no daine didnt sell me a bogus direct box. I was just busting his chops for not returning my email:))
