A Literary Life

While sheet music is all well and good, confining notes and melodies to the staff lines of prewritten music seems like a cage to Kim Stone. Instead, the five-time Grammy-nominated bassist only feels true creative joy when jamming freeform — with no prewritten songs, no wrong notes, no rules and no limitations.

“The only thing you can do wrong at a jam is to play a song, some kind of form. Everything else is perfect,” says Stone, who along with his band, A New Brain for Arnie, organizes the Acid Jazz Night on Sundays at the Ancient Mariner in Manitou Springs. “When you don’t have the form of the song overshadowing you, you find more freedom in your own playing and might discover things you wouldn’t play otherwise.”

From one perspective, Acid Jazz Nights are no-pressure affairs: Anyone with an instrument or a talent and the inclination can sign up to jam, and the concert is open to the public. But on the other hand, the event is all about pressure as every note and riff must be improvised on the spot, on the stage.

“The core band starts out with a set, then people who have signed up after a short break get invited up,” says Tommy Gallagher, one of the band’s three guitarists. “It starts with someone playing a groove and then everyone fills in.”

Often Stone or another band member will do some minor conducting, pointing out musicians for solos or duos, or gesturing to turn the volume up or down. But the jam is all about listening to your fellow musicians and following where the inspiration flows.

CLICK HERE to read the full text of this article, which published in the June 12,2009 GO! section.