House of Hooka... oops, I Mean... "Kabob"

I was invited last night to stand in on bass at an open jam session at the newly re-opened House of Kabob. I had been forewarned, and came generally prepared to play two tunes, one an old Miles Davis tune called All Blues, from his "cool" period (see here for an explanation of the "cool" period), and another latin tune called "Song For My Father."

I was nervous about it because although I have spent a fair amount of time performing music in front of people, this was the VERY FIRST TIME I did so on acoustic bass in a venue like this. It took only a few bars for me to drop into the music and enjoy myself. The stress came after, when they started flipping through the "Real Book" looking for more things to play. We settled on "Footprints", another fairly famous Miles Davis tune written by Wayne Shorter. It's simple, but has a very catchy bass line, and is fun to play, because it sends you up the neck of the instrument, which is challenging and fun at the same time.

The Hooka I refer to in the header here has to do with the fact that, about an hour after we had gotten there (I went with ThatOneWife, and her longtime friend, ThatOneLori, from out of town), out came a couple of Hooka Pipes. For those unfamiliar, a hooka pipe is basically a smoking experience where the smoke is drawn through water (sometimes flavored and/or cooled water) . The "tobacco" is a flavored biscuit (apples, berries, spices, etc.) that is burned with the use of a clump of natural charcoal, and as it is drawn through the water on its way to the mouthpiece, it captures a cool, scented flavor and has the texture of flavored dry ice fog, although I wouldn't recommend smoking dry ice to anyone... :)

Anyway, so there you are... it was fun, and I'll probably do that again.