First jam session at a serious club. Very disappointed.

So I’ve been playing the drums for about 10 years, but only 2 and a half years ago did I start playing jazz.

Yesterday I went to my first jam session at one of the best clubs in my city, and I bombed.

The level was very high and I was very nervous. I play drums and all other drummers were above my level, even though I felt like in terms of technique I was up to par, but in terms of improvisational momentum and ideas, in guiding the music and complimenting and communicating with other musicians they are miles ahead of me.

I feel like I played it too safe. I wanted to be solid and just accompany, but in doing that I failed to converse with the other musicians, to compliment their solos, to propose new ideas, and so it ended up sounding very plain and boring.

All other drummers played 3 or 4 songs, I played one and then got a tap on the shoulder and was politely asked to hand over the throne to somebody else.

I feel sort of gutted and a little demotivated. I’ve been practicing really really hard. Not just on the drums, for which I practice 3 hours every day, but on top of that I transcribe solos and heads, I do ear training, I do active listening sessions, and I attend live gigs very often. Still, it wasn’t enough.

I talked to the organizer of the jam sessions and he said I’m more than welcome to come back, preferably earlier and he’ll make sure I at least get one song in, but hopefully more. So I’m planning on attending every week now.

What else do you guys think I could do? How do you recommend to deal with this situations and to get better at communicating with the music?

All advice and life stories appreciated.

TLDR: I went to my first serious jam session and sucked. Got asked to hand over the throne after one tune. I feel gutted right now since I’ve been working my ass off for 2 and a half years. Any advice?

EDIT: Wow. I wasn’t expecting to get so much support. Thank you so much, it means a lot to me. I tried answering to as many comments as I could, but I can’t keep up any more. I’ll still try to answer to some of the later ones.

Thanks so much for all the kind words, advice, and life experiences. I will keep working hard and attending jam sessions and hopefully in a year’s time I’ll have an update for you.