 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2005-03-09 17:16
All true enough, but you've got to read between the lines for what's not said in the article.
The mention of the size issue is one thing. I can field a "combo" for about one fifth what I can deliver a full group, and for many people (specifically those not looking at music as the "main" thrust of the event that they are putting together), a combo is good enough. So, for that matter, is a DJ spinning recordings of groups that literally cannot be delivered in person.
The other is the group to which the bands mentioned are being marketed. They are, in effect, being custom targeted at musicians, a group already disposed towards appreciating the music on technical grounds alone. There may be work there, but it's not great work and you'll kill yourself on the road traveling from one engagement to the next.
Put it this way:
If you are looking to be alone with the one that you love, and are seeking some musical accompaniment to make that time more enjoyable, do you select the music with an eye towards skill and difficulty? Or, do you pick music that will set the mood but remain in the background? I'd venture to say that most even of our rarified world would chose what is behind Door B, Montie.
All too many musicians appreciate music for music's sake alone. Nothing wrong with that, as we all (even the lowliest first year clarinet student) have a good idea of just what goes into producing that music. I have to confess that I listen to much of what I hear on recordings with an ear to why a clarinet player did this that or the other.
Not so the majority of "non-musicians". For them, music is part of the trip, but usually not the main destination. People don't generally put on a recording and then sit there in rapt attention, they use it as part of the rest of their lives. They don't generally care if it's Artie Shaw or Acker Bilk, they just want to be entertained.
In the pop world, we see this all of the time. Once the pretty vocalists step up to the microphone and start working their magic in performance (not just singing, but "entertaining"), what the other seventeen of us are doing becomes secondary at best and often less important.
We did a job three months ago that had some of the most botched up music I've ever been responsible for included. Guess what? The audience reaction was overwhelmingly positive, largely due to the presence out front of one of our lovely ladies in a low cut gown. Bad trombone playing may catch our attention, but the general public has its mind on the total entertainment picture.
Articles like the one in the Times have come out in the not too far distant past, and in the 1960's. In both cases, some people assumed that "big bands" were on their way back. I'd submit that they never left, but that they don't take the steps needed to appeal to a wider audience. Reading these "trends" and starting up a "big band" that only plays "big band" music is a sure road to failure.
And, the local circuit of Maynard and the Dorsey and Goodman groups do well. But, the audience is overwhelmingly either music students and their parents or folks from the era when "Dorsey" and "Goodman" meant pop.
Having said this, I still have to say that I really enjoy playing the Les Brown arrangement of Sweet Georgia Brown, and will probably use it as a set closer well into the next decade. But, a little bit of big band goes a long way with most audiences...
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: Steve Epstein
Date: 2005-03-10 01:01
Terry, you raise a good point about "entertainment value".
Have you noticed during the last ten years or so, an increasing number of "cheesecake" photos of young female classical and jazz players and opera singers on CD cases and magazine covers? Like, what are they selling (and to whom)?
What's a balding, overweight, middle-aged male clarinet player like me to do? ![[grin]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie5.gif)
Steve Epstein
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Author: Steve Epstein
Date: 2005-03-10 01:15
I like to go swing dancing now and then.
Big band music has become the rage. A few years ago it was those bands with two guitars, electric bass, a screaming tenor and maybe a bari, plus a maniac drummer, all amped up to ear-splitting volume, but now the scene has changed (yet again). The dancing has gotten smoother; we're all doing "smooth lindy" now (whatever that is. I don't know; I just take a few lessons now and then and fake the rest. Dancing, I mean, not playing. Well, I fake that too ). To go with this dancing you need the more eclectic sounds of groups like Stray Cats. Ok, not big band, but small band, so still, if you are a working musician (I'm just a hobbyist), this bodes well for you. At least until the next scene change...
Steve Epstein
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Author: larryb
Date: 2005-03-10 01:26
speaking of stray cats - wasn't Stanley Drucker's son one of its founding members?
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Author: Ralph G
Date: 2005-03-10 13:06
Yes, Lee Rocker, the bass player.
http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0734232/
________________
Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it.
- Pope John Paul II
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2005-03-10 15:03
The "souped up" classical player portraits on the albums is nothing new. There are now performance DVDs of a group of four string players, each with her electronic instrument and very revealing clothing, that feature various classical performances that are as much about flung hair and cleavage as they are about the music. The performance itself (which appears to be "string-synced", from occasional gaps between the bowing movements on stage and the soundtrack) may be important to some, but I'd wager cash money that the main attractant is the presence of so much hot, young flesh in plain view.
Fry's (the electronics superstore people: "Your best buys are always at Fry's") place a big-screen plasma TV just inside of the entrance door, and this group is featured more often than not. From the slack jawed stares of the Houstonian males who are stopped in their tracks and being kept from acquiring the latest Windows maintenance update by this demo, I might draw the conclusion that classical music is pretty popular. However, I'm aware enough to know that all the flesh shown in the production might have something more to do with it than the precise upbowing displayed by the two violin players.
In the end, it all has to do with commercial viability. There are niches for everything, and the commercial success of a musical group is largely dependent upon identifying those niches and fitting into them. Note that I said "commercial" success. I'm not talking about artistic success, which virtually anyone can aspire to, many can achieve, but ofttimes doesn't pay the bills.
Those young girls with their electronic violins are pitching both their image (and a pretty fetching one it is) and their music (marginal, in my opinion, even if it is "classical"). Some by it for the music (not too many at Fry's, I would imagine; some buy it for (ahem) "something else". I would wager that more buy for "something else", but the point is that it sells, and that's the important thing to them.
Xavier Cugat once said that he would rather play Chiquita Banana and have his swimming pool than play Mozart and starve. Charo's old man put it pretty succinctly, and it's reality, like it or not.
I've got two strains of musicians working for me. Some are musical perfectionists, and work very hard to get every note perfect. I value their contributions a lot, as it helps with the overall group sound and people do notice that, if only subconsciously. The others are "good enough", play the parts well if not 100% perfect, and are willing to show up all of the time. And, both groups like the money that they are paid.
Both groups serve their purpose, and in the old days I would have placed myself in the first bunch. However, all of the non-musical stuff that I have to deal with has moved me towards the second group, slowly but surely. (Computer driven light systems, upgraded sound systems, staging issues, dealing with insecure mothers, power lunches with clients at very expensive restaurants and hotels...it never stops.)
In any event, all of that musical preparation, both super good and good enough, isn't 1/10th as important as the four people that we place out front. Good vocalists (say 30% singing ability, 30% "entertainment" skills (which make the difference between singing and "performing") and 40% appearance (sad but true) are what score with crowds, and what the people in the audience will recall long after the music has faded.
I've done identical jobs (same price class, same sort of client, same general quality of delivery by the group as evidenced on the QC recording that we make) where the presence of the Number 1 girl (with decent vocal skills, excellent entertainment skills, and pretty damn good looking and dressed out) wasn't received as well as was the Number 2 girl (with less decent vocal skills, so so entertainment skills, but a stunning knock out with a dress cut down to there) in the other performance - all as evidence by client comments during and after the gig. (Both of these gals are no longer with the group, by the way...) Pretty strong evidence of reality in my book, and very little to do with music.
Now, with a bunch of "music oriented" customers like the folks that attend the previously mentioned "big band" conclaves, I'd doubt that how the "front people" presented themselves would be nearly as important. More attention would be paid to the musicianship, etc., and I agree that it would be a much fairer evaluation of the "musicality" of a given performance than the comments of a bunch of half-boozed up twenty and thirty somethings in a darkened hotel ballroom.
But, the money that is there to be made with the group of educators just isn't enough to support commercially viable groups, only "preserved in amber" examples like Maynard et Cie. (And, please don't take this as a slam at The Admiral, who I admire a lot.) By focusing on the pure "big band for big band's sake" operation to the exclusion of other genres, you cut off large portions of the potential market.
I learned this a long time ago when realizing that, although there's nothing wrong with Tommy Dorsey's Boogie Woogie, just not that many people slap their feet to eight to the bar music these days. I used to play with a group that would (very occasionally) stick in Mustang Sally in the midst of a series of hits from the 1930's and 1940's. While the leader never could understand why the dance floor filled up when the dulcet strains of Mustang Sally were being played, and why it immediately emptied after we stopped, I got the message loud and clear.
Sure, we play all of the classics (I do Sweet Georgia Brown at virtually every job) and a lot of the "new classics" as well, from the Rich and Ferguson oeuvre), but we also field all of the new stuff that the folks with money like to hear. It's not as much fun as Chattanooga Choo Choo or Big Schwing Face, but it's want they want to hear, and they do pay the bills.
And, I have to admit that I like looking at a dance floor full of women, all dressing to outdo each other, moving in time to the music. You won't see much of that at a school event...
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: larryb
Date: 2005-03-10 16:22
hey terry, get with the internet age: our attention span is only about a half inch of single spaced text, unless, of course, it's some kind of list (ie: the instruments we own) - throw in some abbreviations and semi colon faces too... (not sure why the elipse is added at the end, but I see you do that too)
oh, I forgot:
[add non-sequitur quotation or slogan here]
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Author: allencole
Date: 2005-03-10 16:24
I would challenge anyone to show me that big band music is "all the rage" anywhere.
I'm involved in a highly succesful group in Richmond, VA (steady nightclub gigs), but 'successful' is a very relative term. Attraction to the music is faddish at best, and our group (only 4 horns w/rhythm) sells primarily on its leader who does a really mean Sinatra, and who has an exceptional book of arrangements.
There is also a lot of straight-ahead jazz, and many of our regulars are other singers from around town who come in expecting to sit in with the band.
While some audience members are clearly attracted to the music itself, the primary attraction for most is an overall "Rat Pack" sound and atmosphere. We've weathered two long-term house gigs, but are the only folks in town making any money doing this.
In other words, we have just enough audience to keep us alive, and that's only because of some very specific factors. A band that's as good or better would not survive without those particular factors--and who's to say that we will?
The nationwide swing fad seems pretty small and fragile to me, it seems to depend on several things:
1 - LARGE population centers where there are actually enough fans to populate a performance.
2 - Bands capable of producing modern, hi-energy sounds. Note that the most successful revival bands are lead by rock guitar players. The Setzer orchestra, for example, is still very rockabilly in its rhythm section--and Setzer has said himself that he demands a lot of specific capabilities from his bass players.
3 - Revival sounds are more of a characature, than anything traditional or modern. The costumes are extreme, and an awful lot of the music sounds just like Sing, Sing, Sing or like some detective show theme that you can't quite put your finger on. Most audiences would bolt for the door at the sound of anything authentic.
Let me share with you a few of the disappointing factors that have brought my band success:
1 - The music functions mostly as a sonic backdrop to make you feel like you're in Vegas in the 50's or 60's. Sinatra's voice invokes his lifestyle, and we are banking on that lifestyle.
2 - Our first house gig was tremendously successful primarily because the club's specialty was $10.00 martini's. (well, WE consider that expensive...) Overpriced drinks attract hot women, who want men to buy them the most expensive drinks possible. They bring in the men, and the men will spend accordingly. (great when the state legislature's in session!) But once the women are established in the room, THEY are the primary attraction--and we are secondary.
3 - Small size is, as Terry stated, a very important factor. Nightclubs are cheap, and an 8-piece band can work for less than $1000--and the temptation to do is great when the cheaper jobs expose you to the potential of much more lucrative private gigs. With a full big-band, it's a non-starter.
Arranging is also a factor where small size helps. Even with software, it takes time to write charts that are going to sound good on repeated listenings. If you're careful, you can make 4 horns sound pretty satisfying, and you can do it much more quickly (and quietly!) than with a full big band. Even in the best of circumstances, our guys don't make much to write. I have taken to trading charts with the bandleader because it's a better deal than can be had financially. Again, this would be a non-starter with a full big band.
4 - Circumstances allow us to repeat our best stuff. We're constantly dying for new material but writing it doesn't pay well, and we have to concentrate on making a living. But the nature of the swing audience helps here. About a fourth want to hear the same things over and over (to evoke "Rat Pack" euphoria) and the other three fourths aren't really paying attention anyway. So we actually repeat a fair amount of our best material in a four-hour nightclub gig.
All over town, I see attempts to make swing and big bands work. We have two local big bands which essentially have voluntary gigs one night a week. A player might make as much as $6.00 on a really good night. (And these are good bands, populated by top working players and college music majors)
My band succeeds simply because it promotes a certain fantasy, is made more affordable and servicable by its small size, and can be flexible in simply 'flavoring' a room for a crowd that has its own agenda.
The big band sound is constantly 'discovered' by people who find it novel, but I don't see a lot of permanent fans being developed. The best we can hope for is successive waves of new fans coming in as older ones cool off. If the Sinatra voice were taken away from my group, I don't know if we'd work even once a month.
Allen Cole
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2005-03-10 20:37
The Sinatra hook brought up above is a good one. We've got a decent "Sinatra clone" who does everything from Elvis to Ol' Blue Eyes, and it's one of the things that you are expected to provide when you have the "sound" of a large group.
My lead girl singer is also a multi-talent, and she does everything from Forties to the Millenium, with excellent R & B and disco skills, and cute as a bug to boot. Add to them the other two singers (not as strong as Girl 1 and Boy 1, but still very good), and all of us musicians are not much more than a backdrop.
There is no way on earth I'd not expect to keep a regular commercial gig with only a "big band". (I think that they've even discontinued the program at Disneyland, which for many years was the only constant in the field.) Half of them around here don't even carry a single vocalist (we've got six, counting those who double as musicians, plus a four man unit that turns into the Village People chorus when needed), and fielding all classic hits from any era without vocal color is going to be a non-starter with most non-specialist crowds.
I scale the size of the group some now and then (as low as 4334, with a couple of vocalists doubling horns at times as well), but money down here is a bit more loose than it is up north, people aiming to impress a bit more, and the charity scene is stronger than in any other town that I've ever worked. So, we can get away with the full boat band plus vocalists for many jobs. And, I echo the comments about the style -- we bill our group with very strong emphasis as a "Vegas style" operation, and are very front and center with the settings that we can offer up for charity or corporate clients.
(Some measure of the "looseness" of the local market can be gained from an "attraction" that appeared "with" our group at one recent job. It was the first time that I had ever seen one of these in the flesh, and I have to say that I was both impressed and encouraged.)
(The attraction was a martini bar made of ice, erected just for the event, and obviously a temporary thing. On this "throw away" item, nothing more than cute decor (but very, very pretty to be sure), something that just sat there and melted all night long, the event's organizers spent a hair over $2000. That's a two with three zeros; many local bands of any size would salivate at a $2,000 payday (ours was larger, by the way), and this organization was (in effect) throwing it away in the form of melt water.)
(The way I see it, any organization that can afford that sort of frivolity (although I have to again repeat, it was VERY pretty) can easily afford a live musical group of our size and talents. The trick is to make sure that your group is the one that they want to hire, and THAT THEY KNOW ABOUT IT.)
I've had a few musicians who don't want to work the way that I want them to, and that's fine with me; there are other opportunities out there and God speed. But, I'd say that my current crew is pretty much in tune with the concept that what the customer is looking for comes first and everything else a long way second.
Put another way: if someone wants to hear Dance Little Bird (aka The Chicken Dance) fifteen times, then that's what they get. Usually, the customers will leave most of the musical decisions to me, and I know how to respond accordingly. But, if they are looking for:
• An all show-piece "concert"? I'll have one ready in the time that it takes to confirm the requested date with the chosen vocalist(s).
• All dinner music? Well, we can shift gears and turn into a melodious and unobtrusive circa 1920 hotel orchestra in even less time, with over two hours of tunes from all eras to choose from.
• A group that does R & B? No problem; I've got two full sets ready to go as long as my Girl 1 is available.
• Elvis? By the time you've got the "-vis" part of the name out of your mouth, we can be starting on the "Bum-bum, BUMP-BUMP" safety intro into Jailhouse Rock; we'll vamp it with me doing some vocal patter until one of our two Elivi can get up to the microphone. Lots of Elvis stuff, from ballads to classic 50's rock. We even do The Promised Land...
• An "all big band music" big band? Well, pick your band and we can do an hour or so of most of them. (I really like Charlie Barnet, thank you)
And on it goes. We generally draw the line at most stuff after 1990, although there are fifteen or twenty tunes that have crept in from a variety of sources there. Much of what's come down the pike in the last fifteen years isn't very "danceable", and I tend to stay with the stuff that is in order to support the wedding mission. I do have a couple of Nora Jones numbers - worse than Bruckner in my eyes...
But, our policy has always been that any customer at full boat rate gets one free arrangement of any tune of their choosing, provided that they come up with the lead sheet and chord structure. So, even there we're a bit more flexible than most.
As for arrangements, we tend to go with "covers" of the classics, since that's what most want to hear. It may be our Jim Chapman that's doing the singing, but he's using the same basic arrangement of Mac The Knife as did the late Bobby ("Call me Bob") Darin. My pianist does occasional novelty arrangements of tunes, so we might sub those in now and then.
But, for the most part, it's what sounds good and what people want to hear. I get them done by my piano player (Al Levy), by Walt Stuart down in FL, and by Dick Spencer up in the northeast. Each has his strong points, and the three of them can cover most anything we need. I pay cash, although Al keeps bringing me free ones. There are also some great charts available from folks like Lush Life over in England.
Our target is a job a week at the full boat rate. It's already pretty hectic with one or two a month at this point, but someday we hope to hit the design target and things look pretty good right now. There are tons of benefits in the local area each year (about 105 in our "niche" last year alone), and the expensive wedding announcements, the column long ones in the paper, are up in numbers as well. As long as God continues to create girls with too much money and matrimony in their mind, the future is rosy.
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: clarispark
Date: 2005-03-11 13:54
In my high school, we are trying to start a "big band", because we have a jazz band that doesn't accept clarinets. Most of the jazz band wants to go with us...just an input. We like big band music here.
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2005-03-11 14:32
Well, you may get 10% of a given group of big band charts (in a set that do not specialize in the music of Goodman, Shaw et al) where you've got a clarinet part, but that would be pushing it. Our custom charts, which are written with both clarinet and bass clarinet in mind, probably don't push much above 15% in this area, and I'd estimate that we're on the high end here rather than the low.
And, if you've got a pile of clarinet players who all want to cover one part, you end up with everyone doing very little clarinet playing, not a good situation in a school setting.
Push comes to shove, clarinet players who want to play "big band music" need to take up saxophone toute suite. Other than the expense, it's not that big of a hurdle, and if you can get a school horn loan and devote a bit of time to the transition in practice, most anyone can pick it up.
Finally, some of the best legit big band tunes are vocals, and all are pitched with the alto and baritone voice in mind. Even the best of intentioned high school vocalists will have range troubles, and my educator friend's experience is that you just can't get high school vocalists to commit to a rehearsal schedule where they are sitting around half of the time.
Still, after having suffered through some God-awful arrangements of "big band classics" done up for contest minded school jazz bands, I would have to agree that the corresponding traditional big band charts are head and shoulders above them.
Our local teaching "big band", Pasadena ISD's "225 Big Band", has the usual complement of these graded arrangements that they have accumulated over twenty years or so. One of the most egregious is their version of American Patrol, a rewritten "every section is a star" mess that totally destroys the original intent of the "piece". I bought them a copy of the Ernie Houghten arrangement of the tune, and it's amazing how much of a difference it makes.
(To be fair, Houghten's arrangement does call for clarinet (the school's is a straight 5444, no doubles) and baritone doubling alto, but they do have a clarinet enabled lead alto and the baritone double can be covered as well on the baritone itself.)
I also have to admit that I am very biased against "synthetic" concert band music, which I place in the same class as these rewritten school big band charts. Works like "Flash of Gold" (A Concert March) may float the contest adjudicator's boat (so many bars in this key, so many in that, etc.), but not mine.
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: Erdinet
Date: 2005-03-11 20:15
My feeling about clarinet in in jazz band is let'em play tenor sax parts.
In leading my junior high school jazz band I open it up to all who want to play. My feeling being, if you want to commit to the after school rehearsals, and extra practice time, then come on and play. I let the clarinets double up the tenor sax parts, and if I get flutes I write parts (if they do not already exist) that double lead alto or 1st trumpet parts. Especially at the junior high school age, the important thing is to get them playing. Not to mention the fact, its just so difficult to get kids to start improvising, which to me is the main point of starting a jazz program any way.
Does this create more work? Absolutely. But it has the potential to get amazing results. And THAT is really the point of the whole education game right?
"There is a big difference between kneeling down and bending over."
-Frank Zappa
Post Edited (2005-03-12 01:30)
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Author: ginny
Date: 2005-03-12 14:15
Didn't log on to read the article.
Local to me many kids like swing, my son (16) has a fair collection. He occassionally gets to play with his high school jazz band on clarinet. They taught basic swing dance to all the kids in Jr. High and it was a hugh hit. For about 10-15 years there have been regular swing dance parties in several locations and well as Lindy Hop Sundays up in the SF park. My Lindy teaching friend said swing dance had really dropped in popularity as compared to a decade ago. Maybe it hasn't refadded yet on the West Coast here.
The biggest swing fad seems to have been few years ago however, when Big Bad Daddy Voodoo was very popular as well as Brian Seltzer.
In any case the younger generation I know got interested in swing music about 4 years ago.
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Author: ginny
Date: 2005-03-12 14:19
I might add that swing is played by all of the local high school jazz bands here, which tend to be "big bands" typically with a full section of trombones, trumpets and saxes. Some even have show choirs attached, with some dancing and singing... hardly a fad this has been the case for a long time.
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Author: allencole
Date: 2005-03-14 08:05
The playing of swing by school jazz bands is not really related to its popularity (or lack thereof) with the public. Those are swing bands by nature, and almost anything that they do in other styles is contrived for educational purposes.
And in most cases, show choirs are not an accessory to the school jazz band (which is in reality a STAGE band). Show choirs are a genre unto themselves, usually having a 6-8 piece band of their own--which may have personnel who are also in the school stage band. And swing is only one of many styles that they take on.
Swing dancing, lindy-hopping, etc. still exists in all kinds of areas, but it is only a niche activity and certainly not any sort of major fad. The vast majority of people are doing anything but.
Every once in a while someone gets on this idea that the big bands are coming back, and it's generally a matter of skewed perspective. Clarinetists have a tendency to jump at the idea of a revival, because its one of few genres of popular music associated with the instrument.
We may see a convention of Star Trek fans once a year with high visibility, and the trappings of fanaticism, or even local fan clubs who meet on a regular basis. But that doesn't mean that Star Trek is 'all the rage.' Look at the stats and listings, and you'll find that the Law & Order franchise has far outstripped it on most fronts. But L&O fans are not visible in the same way.
Ditto for the mythical swing craze. In any town where there are people who swing dance, it usually attracts attention because of the fact that it is still unusual, or because of period costumes worn by the dancers. But the vast unremarkable majority of nightclubbers are head-banging, hip-hopping or boot scooting.
And thus the negative reactions by Terry Stibal and myself to this perception of swing revival. As working musicians, we get told quite bluntly just how popular or unpopular various music styles are. Terry has illustrated how nearly impossible it is too sell swing by itself. And I have illustrated how a band that does seem to sell on swing may actually be selling on a group of non-musical factors.
Not trying to rain on the parade. Just pointing out that there isn't really a parade in the first place.
BTW Terry, I enjoyed your comments on contrived school band music. There was a very amusing commentary piece about this in the Richmond Times-Dispatch a few weeks ago. If I can find it online, I'll try to post a link. That might make an interesting topic for discussion.
Allen Cole
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2005-03-14 20:59
If I had bumper stickers on my cars, one would read "I hate concert bands with a passion". It would probably get them egged very quickly down here, where schools are quite proud of their bands. I just can't abide concert band music, and the old (as in days of my youth) practice of playing transcriptions of orchestral stuff seems to have gone out of vogue.
A data point on the swing trend (or lack of same):
We did a benefit event last night, based upon a charity auction of our group's services at another benefit from last year. The winner gets our services for three hours, we get our "expense" minimum from the proceeds of the auction (plus the meal at the job; in this case German cooking (ugh!)), and we sub it for one of our regular rehearsals. Other than the sweat that the little woman and I go through in setting things up before the job, it's a nice change of pace from rehearsals, and it gives my number 2 vocalist a chance to "perform" something new for the first time without betting the farm on the outcome
(And, such jobs have led to full boat paid jobs in the past as well...it looks as if we might land this church's benefit as a result of our work last night.)
Anyway, the winner of the auction didn't know too much about what sort of event the church was planning. I took a look at the venue (older, established community church), the few details that she could offer up on the parishioners, the fact that the church had a large and active school operation (which indicates (to me) "parents of elementary school age children"), and so forth.
From all of that, I put together a more or less standard, "staggered" set list like I would use at many a wedding. In this case, we did a set of "performance" stuff up front, then more or less put "modern" tunes in the last two sets.
Well, it turns out that the church has an active "social club", and that one of the things that these folks (from the thirties to the sixties in age) like to do is to go dancing. Unlike many groups, this bunch was more than happy to enter the swing dancing mode (with varying degrees of success, to be fair). They were out on the dance floor early on, and with a vengeance.
Flexibility is the key, of course, and I started swapping out tunes in the middle of the first set. Later on, when many of the older members of the audience had left for the evening, we launched into the high energy "modern" stuff, but it's times like that first set that I'm always glad that we haul the whole library along on every job. Sure, it's a chore to move it in and out of the hall (the music boxes weigh in the aggregate about a half ton), but it's nice to field a request and have it up in the next slot but one...happy customers mean nice memories, and that leads to business.
(Oh, and we had to do something that I've not done for a long time. In addition to using In The Mood as an opener, we also got a request to play it a second time. I sure hope the requester enjoyed it, because I know that I didn't...)
The long and short of it is that you never really know what's going to happen. The "recent" swing dancing fad (of the late 1990's) paid for a few pretty decent gigs that I've worked during that time. One of our local universities (Rice) had quarterly swing dance meetings at that time, and they were well attended. (Not "Steel Pier" well attended, but pretty packed houses, to be sure.)
But, I've worked long and hard to ensure that our book carries about 50% "modern" tunes (stuff like songs from recent movies, Hell, It's Raining Men, Celebration, and so forth) because I know (from experience and research) that the people with the money to spend on live music are going to want it ALL, not just stuff from before 1960.
There are four other area groups (either with "big band" styled books or with "jazz" styled books (think lots of Sammy Nestico)) that can't offer any of those tunes...and then there's us, who can. It's not the sort of fine detail that gets noticed prior to booking, but if enough attention is paid to details like that, the message ultimately gets through.
And, the clients (and I) know that, if such music can't be got(ten) from me, they can find a DJ who will. They are our real competition. All flash, and absolutely no function (of their own).
A few words on flash:
As much as I hate to say it, a good lighting system can make up for a lot of mediocre music. Being able to bring up levels on the solo spots, to "wash" the band during group stuff and at other times, and being able to highlight vocalists doing dramatic numbers really "raises" the perceived value of the group, once again all out of proportion to what a "pure musician" would think that it does.
We do a Georgia On My Mind arrangement that involves an opening alto solo, vocal soloist, tenor sax "jazz break" and big closing for the vocalist. Without lighting, it's damned good listening. With lighting, it's almost magic...a great "end of the evening" slow dance to showcase my Girl 1.
(The modern computer dimmers allow you to program it all by push buttons, and the control by the machine ensures that the button pushed on beat 3 of bar 32 will drop the other lights and bring up the can on the tenor player at just the right time and intensity. Talking about it doesn't really convey the value; you have to see it in action to truly appreciate it for what it's worth.)
In fact, I have carried a Trumpet 4 as much for the seat's auxiliary functions (auxiliary percussion. "go-fer" duties, and soon to be lighting computer button pusher) as I do for the musical aspect of the slot. Same with the guitar player; I park a second male vocalist there, get the benefit of both a rhythm and rock guitar when we need it, and have him both as a backup (for sickness) and as an auxiliary male voice (think Modernaires) when needed.
A lot of groups, big band and otherwise, don't pay this sort of thing too much mind. The more that I've done it, though, the more I am convinced that the non-music part is as important (if not more so) to many of the prospective buyers. Thinking about more than the music is what this stuff is all about, and if it means dangling a vocalist in front of a client at a pre-booking planning meeting, then that's what we'll do to land the job.
Oh, and I bought Tommy Dorsey's Original Boogie Woogie when we started, with the express intention of having it always remain in the box, never to be played at a gig. A little reminder of what being out of touch can do to a group...
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: Steve Epstein
Date: 2005-03-15 03:49
http://morasmodern.com/
So here's a group in California that plays for swing dancers. I found the link on a local swing dance newsletter I get in my area (Pennsylvania).
I think they have employment -- until the flighty tastes of swing dancers change and goes to something else, like rockabilly.
I see the problem of catering to a niche audience, especially when the niche audience is small and changeable.
You pro guys (Terry and Allen) must spend a lot of time and a fair amount of money on creating the right ambiance, costuming, etc.
Steve Epstein
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Author: GBK
Date: 2005-03-15 04:53
I have played with the same big band for the past 26 years.
Fortunately, we are in a geographic area where the demand for live music is still fairly strong and the monetary cost is often not a consideration.
We have seen some of our long term clients giving in to the flash and panache of local DJ's. Thus, like Terry and Allen we have had to adjust our music accordingly.
Marketing your group is essential for survival. If you have to play a few gigs for less than your standard fee, it is certainly better than sitting home on Saturday night.
This past year we even played 2 or 3 gigs for only traveling expenses and dinner because the exposure to new clients was so great
It's infinitely important to keep your group visible and in the public eye (even for a smaller fee) than being inflexible when it comes to price negotiation...GBK (alto saxophone/clarinet - The Big Band East)
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Author: ned
Date: 2005-03-15 05:54
Gosh Terry Stibal, you can write a mouthful - interesting though I should say - I'll get back to this thread when I go on annual leave, to read all your stuff............and allencole.............you're catching up with him in the word-for-word stakes.
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Author: allencole
Date: 2005-03-15 06:08
The variety approach is (or has been) an important one and I helped to form one 20 years ago which had big band capability (4 horns, 4 rhythm, & vocals) but that concentrated on R&B of various types and Top-40.
With the exception of the fact that we de-emphasized big band music and confined it strictly to dinner sets, our approach has been much like Terry's except far more emphasis on Top 40, Soul, and a southeastern thing called "Beach Music." Swing was just something to play during cocktails or dinner, but the ability to do it hurt our image as an R&B group. (One major fact or here is that a number of band members had a bad attitude about playing swing, and we probably looked embarassed to be playing it.)
Playing "In The Mood" twice in a gig is not the worst that can happen. The 'Sinatra' band can generate crazed audiences on cue by playing "New York, New York." The entire band hates it, but the crowd goes nuts. Personally I think it was Sinatra's lamest moment since he tried to cover "Leroy Brown." But nonetheless, people DEMAND this song incessantly everywhere we go. Now, we are able to confine it to once per gig for the most part. 20-some years ago, we had to play it every SET. I can still recall one day where we played it nine times in the course of two gigs.
As for the band music thing, I am going to search for that commentary piece. It was written by a guy from the DC area, and you could recognize a number of pieces by Robert W. Smith in his tirade.
Allen Cole
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The Clarinet Pages
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