Jazz moves Ancient Mariner on Sunday nights

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 feels true creative joy only when jamming freeform - with no written 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 Jam 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 Jam 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.

"The variety of artists that come in is totally open," says guitarist Michael 
Reese, who started out as an Acid Jazz Jam regular and is now a part of A New Brain for Arnie.

"We have players who have invented their own instruments, beat poets, rappers, classical musicians, rock musicians, jazz, pretty much any genre of music and any genre of musicians come in and perform."

"We've had people play drum sticks on chairs," Gallagher adds.

On some Acid Jazz Jams, the Ancient Mariner has seen more than 35 musicians show up to play, and according to Stone, "They fit in well and have fun ... Most people do return and play again - in hordes actually."

Reese explains that the Acid Jazz Jam is "almost reminiscent of the beatnik era and its poetry gatherings.

"The audience gets involved, too.

"A lot of times there are hula hoopers who will come and hula hoop in front of the band. We've had break dancers as guests come in and do their thing while we perform our music."

"It's called the Acid Jazz Jam, and obviously it's a metaphor," says Gallagher, referring to the LSD reference. But the event itself appeals to all types, with an audience and performers ranging in age from 15 to over 70.

To A New Brain for Arnie and other freeform lovers, "This is church for us. It's very much a spiritual experience," says Gallagher.

"No show is ever the same. No performance is ever the same ... It's extremely popular."

ACID JAZZ JAM

When: 7:30 p.m. every Sunday through the summer
Where: The Ancient Mariner Tavern, 962 Manitou Ave., Manitou Springs
Admission: Free