Pulled a double: Communty band concert and a dance gig

[Al Stevens]

The community band I play in had the final concert of the season last night.

http://www.communitybandofbrevard.org/

(click Concert Schedule.)

This was a particularly rewarding experience because the literature was difficult, and the band, mostly amateur musicians, excelled at playing it.

For some reason, this band always pulls it out at the last minute. We'll have major problems even in the final rehearsal, and then onstage everything seems to come together.

I told the conductor that it must be that wearing tuxes and formal gowns makes people play better.

The concert was the first time we'd ever played most of the selections all the way through without the conductor stopping us.

The next concert in September will be fun. Music from the big band era. Half the concert will be the full concert band, and half will be a big band formed, if possible, of players selected from the concert band membership.

I'm playing tenor sax in the concert band and piano in the big band. I agreed to do that only if they let me audition, select and rehearse the drummer and bass player. It should be quite an experience.

I'm playing piano fulltime in this band now:

http://www.altamontejazzensemble.com/,

We played a dance last night. The sax soloist on the afternoon concert program (George Weremchuk), the conductor, and I all played the dance. We had to hustle to get from the concert, which ended after 5:00 pm, to the dance, which started at 7:00 pm. We needed to get there in time to unload and setup my piano and pull charts. It was close but we made it. I was backstage changing into the band shirt as the leader kicked it off. Just made it in time.

I'm getting too old for this.

 

[Ed]

It's fun to be able to play a lot and to be asked to do so.

 

[tictactux]

For some reason, this band always pulls it out at the last minute. We'll have major problems even in the final rehearsal, and then onstage everything seems to come together.

Could be us. Always at the last minute. Including deliverables like flyers and concert programmes.
Maybe that's how it's supposed to work.

 

[SOTSDO]

We've done two jobs on one day on two occasions. The better of these was a social (three hours) during the afternoon and a wedding (four hours) during the evening. The worst was a wedding (three hours in the afternoon) and benefit (four hours, of which we only played about three) during the evening.

Playing these is bad enough. Five hour New Year's Eve jobs are killers, but two such events of three hours each with perhaps four hours between them is pretty brutal in its own right, particularly for the trumpets. I did a rough calculation of total bars played and was shocked to see that it exceeded a West Side Story pit job.

However, what figuratively killed me (and my lovely wife) was the double set-up/tear-down. That adds physical and mental brutality to the musical brutality.

The move into and out of a venue involves humping somewhere around a ton around for each job, and that's not accounting for distance and obstacle issues (i.e., rolling it all through a hotel kitchen effectively doubles the trouble over a straight in and out venue). Add to this getting it all onto the stage, all the while working around other vendors doing their last minute thing, and trying to do it will acting professional in the bargain is a hard row to hoe indeed.

I've fielded a lot of complaints from those who play, but when I suggest that we pass on one of the jobs, the answer is always, "No, I don't want to do that." Go figure.

One of the musicals that I do each year has a tradition of back to back shows on a Thursday, more or less dress rehearsals with an audience. We do those starting at 8:30 in the morning and ending up at 3:30 in the afternoon, effectively playing the entire time save a forty minute lunch break. You learn all about your lip's limitations working that schedule.

Back when I was a young punk, I played in a pit orchestra at an amusement park. We did a series of fifty minute shows, with the reed folks each playing three or four doubles. I would work my full work day with the government (minus three hours of annual leave or comp time), and then play the afternoon shift at the park until closing time.

I packed a hefty "lunch", bolting it down on the way to the park and between shows, and at the end of the evening was completely trashed. Then, it was drive the half hour home, climb into bed and repeat it all del capo the next day.

The money was very good, though. And, it helped to be young and in good physical condition...