JP's Swing Band

saxmanglen

saxmanglen

I'll be playing tenor tonight with JP's Swing Band at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, CA. 7pm-11pm

http://www.madonnainn.com/


This is a reoccurring gig on the last Saturday of each month. Except on months when there are 5 Saturdays like this month. We then get to play the 4th Saturday too. :-D


Here's a poorly lighted clip of the band playing Frank Foster's Shiny Stockings. I've got a 16 bar solo on tenor after the first chorus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWXL6PfrfLc
 
Last edited:
Fun stuff. I hope to be doing more big band stuff this year.
 
I can't say I've ever played for or even witnessed a lap dance before. Until last night. :???::emoji_rolling_eyes:

About 15 minutes from ending our final set last night we're playing this up beat tune called "720 in the books". This young, slender, fairly attractive twenty something young lady is dancing away rather enthusiastically in front of the bandstand. She's complaining that "she'd like to have a man to dance with". Playing the "woe is me" card. Obviously having had a few too many adult beverages.

Anyway, our leader follows the up tempo tune with a "down and dirty" version of Night Train. This group of well behaved biker looking folks celebrating someone's birthday decide to push someone out (still in their chair) onto the dance floor right in front of the saxes. This little lady dances her rear off for the dude and is sitting in his lap at the end of the tune.

That's the most bizarre thing I recall seeing at the fairly tame gigs I play.
 
The best times I have with a band is when the dancers show up. We were up in Victoria Canada last year and we were doing a gig at the piers. It was threatening to rain with splotches of the wet stuff. The crowd was very small until a group of swing dancers showed up.

They started doing their stuff and I forgot about the rain, wind, and small crowd. The were young, full of energy, and wow did they draw people. We were at the end of our set but in the last two charts with the dancers we easily tripled the crowd numbers.

I made a point of thanking them. :cool:
 
We're lucky at the Madonna Inn. There's always plenty of dancers and many times the swing dance club from the local college shows up with many good young dancers.

I find myself watching the dancers and miss my entrances after longer rests. :???:
 
Living a little far away from Cali, I won't be able to stop in for a show but I am curious, what kind of music will you be playing, and what's your group set up of?
 
That's awesome. So are you picking up published music or is someone from the group arranging a good bunch of it all?
 
Last edited:
So question of the day, if someone asked you to play at a Greek wedding or a Bar Mitzvah , would you guys be able to do it and if so, would it be appropriate to solo over the changes?

I know this question sounds a little facecious but honestly, as one who runs a small combo with some ethic charts, the question becomes, "what has become the standard for mixing Jazz and less traditional traditionals?"
 
acglass said:
So question of the day, if someone asked you to play at a Greek wedding or a Bar Mitzvah , would you guys be able to do it and if so, would it be appropriate to solo over the changes?

I know this question sounds a little facecious but honestly, as one who runs a small combo with some ethic charts, the question becomes, "what has become the standard for mixing Jazz and less traditional traditionals?"
Click to expand...


I'm sure it's up to the person hosting the gathering and it's important to discuss it with them before you commit to the gig.

I remember, in high school, playing with a bigband group in Denver that had a "Bar Mitsvah" book for those type of gigs. Normally the leader would mix in the ethnic songs in rotation with our regular dance type music. Seemed to always work well. Sometimes we'd play the ethnic tunes grouped together at an agreed upon time and then back to our regular book.
 
I guess there was something that was kind of weird last night.

We're setting up for the gig and I notice they have several tables preset with salad and bread already on the tables. Obviously it's for a fairly large group.

Anyway, about 5 min. before downbeat of the first set, this group of about 50-60 people are "shuttled" in through the back door by the stage area and go straight to the tables and start eating. I asked one of the servers "what the occasion was". He said, "it's just a tour group". They're served their preordered food within about an hour or so and get up and leave the same way.

The management had robbed several of the chairs from the tables that normally line the dance floor. This seemed to keep some of the regular folks we see away. It was just a weird night right from the beginning.

The up side was It seemed to be a sharp night for me on reading the charts and I got several positive comments from the band members on my soloing.
 
Hang out in the commercial music world for long enough and you are bound to see everything pass before your eyes. You learn to take it all in stride.

The most unusual event that I ever viewed was at a New Year's Eve gig, where one of the band members was (during the band breaks) solicited, seduced, and (upstairs in the woman's hotel room) consumated with a total and complete stranger, all during the course of a single night. And, if he was to be believed, he never saw her again.

I've been at jobs where the band meal got consumed by someone else, jobs where the number of sets supposed to be played where cut in half (yet full pay was still rendered) and jobs where the leader insisted upon playing music so out of touch that the crowd up and left well before the normal "after the last speaker" point at a charity operation.

Sometimes, it's more practical to just play the notes, accept the payroll and go home. As that noted philosopher Rowdy Yates once said: "Don't try to understand 'em, just rope, throw and brand 'em"
 
Then there was the Christmas corporate gig (good money at least) where the band is placed in front of the only elevator and arrivals have to walk around the band to gain enterance. Very strange these corporate types. (Hey, I am one too.) :emoji_rolling_eyes:
 
Learning the ropes...

I've encountered a number of "set up" problems over the years, but have generally taken the approach of aggressively eliminating them in each future job.

So, we had one job where exact written instructions (and I did everything from giving exact "direction independent" instructions on how to get to the hotel (complete with map square information on the local locater map system) to specifically describing the route into the hotel) were not enough to keep my two older trombone players from getting lost. As a result of that, we now post "SOTSDO signs" that clearly indicate our assigned parking area, the case/change room, how to get into the venue from the designated entrance, and so on.

On another, the power went out to the circuit supplying the stand lights (but not the PA and the "piano" and other instrumental stuff). We never were able to find out where the breaker was for that particular outlet, and anything else into the working one would have overloaded that circuit. So, we ended up playing in semi darkness as a result. The next day, into the contract went a clause that the circuit breakers were to be pre-located during the initial walk-through of the venue.

In large part, the music business is a learn by doing environment. While decent music instruction is easy to come by (if somewhat wedded to the teacher-student method of learning), there is very little in print on how to do all of the stuff surrounding the operation of a musical group.

The AFM has done a little with the contracting side (although my contract is considerably more specific than the standard AFM one), but advice on how to maintain a music library, how to arbitrate disputes between members, how to set up the stage, how to configure and operate the sound system is thin on the ground indeed.

I'm an aggressive reader, and have consumed stuff ranging from 1920's big band orchestration books (thank you Amazon.com) to any number of obtuse and irrelevant books on sound systems. But, I still have not seen a decent book on live band theatrical lighting. (My college course on stagecraft was only marginally helpful.)

I did my bit in this arena by formulating and documenting the method that I follow to produce a band book. I think that a copy of it is found somewhere on this site, although I cannot tell you where; if it is not I would be glad to send it forward for inclusion. (The same can be said of my horn stand stuff; again the location is a mystery to me.)

Occasionally you can glean a little from biographies of band people. I got a couple of helpful hints out of Charlie Barnett's biography. But, by and large, those are long on booze and slease and short on any practical advice. Somebody ought to write a book...which few if any would buy if it was printed.

I've commanded half an armored cavalry platoon in combat in RVN on several occasions, but running the business and personnel side of a musical group, never mind the musical side of it, is far worse as far as bother is concerned. Not as hazardous, though...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom