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This section covers everything regarding the jam sessions for various Visual FoxPro events.

• History of the Jam Sessions
• Background
• Tunes for Jam Sessions
• Where We’re Coming From
• Where We’re At Now
• To Get Involved
• We're going MP3

History of the Jam Sessions

Barry R. Lee

DevCon jam sessions are a time-honored tradition. They were originally started back in 1989, in Ohio, when Fox Software still owned the product. When Microsoft bought Fox from Dr. Dave, they elected to carry on the tradition. And now that Advisor Publications is running the show, with an assist from Microsoft, the tradition continues.

Contrary to what a lot of people think, I don’t really organize the jam sessions. All of the equipment and facility arrangements are made by Shirley Brothers and John Hawkins. They deserve a lot of credit. John was one of the original jammers…as a matter of fact, he might be the only original left. I try to organize the players that are interested in having some tunes to play ahead of time. While it’s a little bit of effort, the results are very gratifying. Both the audience and players have a really good time.

So if you’ve never been - go. If you’ve been in the past - stop by again. Just look for us in the bar or whatever room they have us set up in. You probably won’t even have to look…just listen.

Background

It all started innocently enough. (I always use that line for product and book reviews I write.) I had been to a few DevCons in the past, but had never participated in any of the jam sessions until the one in San Diego in January 1995. Over the years, there have been some truly "magic moments" at these sessions, but I found that as DevCon continued to grow, so had the number of musicians participating in the jams. (Of course, I’ve always had this theory that there is a definite "sub-culture" within the programming/development community composed of artists and musicians.) Consequently, the jams began to take on a less-structured format, with more lulls between tunes as the players had to figure out which tunes they all knew.

So, in San Diego '95 DevCon, I finally ended up taking one of my guitars to the sessions. When I arrived at the first one, everyone in the audience was just sort of drinking and "moping" around (like they were looking for something to do) and the music was very chaotic. When it came time for a "change of shift", in the players, I got up with Andy Griebel (formerly of "Plaid Software", now of "SkyPie") on sax and Ray Love (formerly of Ashton-Tate/Borland) on drums, along with some other fine musicians. We did a quick "huddle" and decided to play some real tunes. Once we decided on the keys we would be playing in, we began.

The entire mood of the room shifted. People started getting up and dancing, clapping, and just plain having a good time.

So for this upcoming DevCon, I ran an ad on the forums, last May, to get peoples’ reactions to an idea I had hatching in my mind:

• "As the attendance at the FoxPro DevCon has increased the number of folks that want to Jam has increased correspondingly. This is great! However, a lot of folks in the audience have been turned off by the lack of any sense of coherency. Those of you that have been there know what we mean. "Cat Scratch Fever", "On the Road Again" and Miles Davis' "All Blues" are NOT meant to be played simultaneously<g>.
• "So we're looking for musicians to form a 'core' band at the San Diego DevCon jam sessions. We're looking for at least a drummer, bass player, second guitar, occasional keyboard. Vocals a plus. We have a tape containing approx. two sets worth of material. (The other two sets each night will be filled by 'walk-up' jammers.)
• "If you're interested, or just want to express your feelings about this approach, contact Barry Lee or via private e-mail.

The response I got was very positive:

• "I'll be going to DevCon. Fire up the tapes!"
• "I'd love be part of the group. I don't want to have to play all night every night, but an hour a night would be cool......I was the front-man and lead singer of my own group from 73 thru 79."
• "You have your drummer. I have played for about 15 years. Anything from Jazz, Blues, and modern/classic rock. The best course of action in my opinion is to get at least two play lists together with a nice mix of music. Sounds like you are on the right track."
• "I think you are 100% on the right track. The Jams, for me, have proven to be less entertaining every year. Your concept sounds like it will preserve the intent, while raising the content value. One idea - post the set lists for those who may want to learn a tune or two in anticipation of joining in."
• "I got the message posted in VFOX about wanting musicians to play in San Diego. I am a bass player and that definitely sounds like something I would be interested in. I have been playing for about 6 years consistently. My chosen style is something like a funk/rock fusion, but I can play anything. I have been in several bands. Please write back with more info about this or anything else you might want to know about me."
• "Please include me in your mailgroup and keep me posted about what's going on. Thanks, and I look forward to the jam sessions. Later!"

Tunes for Jam Sessions

Barry Lee has put together another list of tunes for the DevCon jam sessions. Rather than the blues, these are more pop-oriented. Included are tunes like "All Shook Up" (Elvis Presley), "Heard it Thru the Grapevine" (Marvin Gaye), "Black Magic Woman" (Santana/Peter Green), "Dancin' in the Streets", etc.

Click here to download DEVSNGS2.ZIP

Click here to download DEVSONGS.ZIP

Where We’re Coming From

Please understand this is not intended to be an exclusionary process. Rather, we just want to have a group of folks that have "distance-rehearsed" some tunes. We'll get up for awhile, allow others to sit-in/trade-off, and we _won't_ dominate the entire evenings. Hopefully we won't sound like a trainwreck. <g>

We're doing this in an attempt to raise the quality of the jams as well as provide some legitimate entertainment in the evenings.

What we have in mind is to learn the basic arrangements of the tunes, keep it "loose", and kind of let it flow from there. The brief notes that are with the tape include the song titles, the artist(s) who recorded them, keys, and any additional notes that may come in handy (like unison riffs, etc.). Also, in some cases, like a few SRV tunes, he’ll de-tune his guitar 1/2 step, to make it easier to sing and make the tunes more "pronounced" in the bottom end. (In other words, the key of the recorded version may be "Eb", even though he’s playing "E" on his guitar.)

To Get Involved

We have a complete playlist, as well as all of the "charts" (lyrics and chord changes) in a ZIP’d file for anyone that is interested in participating.

Since some musicians are kind of "sensitive" about other people playing their instruments, it would be a good idea to bring your own. We’re hoping that Microsoft will provide a bass amplifier, sound system, keyboards, and drums as they have in the past.....or that some local developers/players (drummers, keyboardists) attending the conference will be bring their setups and be willing to share.

So.....if you’d like to participate, please contact me via private e-mail or . Ask for the file "DevSongs.ZIP".

It’s gonna be a lot of fun!

We're going MP3

I've been experimenting with "CD ripping" and MP3 generation lately. I'm entertaining the idea of converting most, if not all, of the tunes we have so far (and any new ones) into MP3 files and sending them out like that to people who are interested in jamming with us this year. A lot will depend on the size of the files they can receive thru their ISPs, their modem speed, and what kind of line they have (DSL, T1, etc.). MP3 software for PCs is cheap, if not free, on those websites that offer them.