[Dixielandjazz] Entertainment

[Bill Gunter]

Hi listmates,

I just received this from a friend of mine and thought I'd pass it along to 
the rest of youse!

-----> start essay

Unless you are in a concert situation, most of the people are not there
to hear you.  Your music is incidental.  People go to restaurants and
bars to eat, to drink, to socialize, do business, or maybe to be alone
in a crowd.  So if you reach some of them and entertain them, you've
done a hell of a job.

In most restaurants, your main objective is to try to entertain without
bothering anybody.

Any volume is too loud for someone.

The talent of anyone who wants to sit in is inversely proportional to
how insistent he or his friends are about his sitting in.  The most
talented musician that you would really like to play with will be
sitting there quietly and will have left his axe in the car.

The crowd would rather hear a terrible rendition of 'Sweet Caroline';
than the tastiest arrangement of one of your originals that they've
never heard before.

The customer who asked for 'Sweet Caroline', his favorite song, won't
realize you're playing it until you actually reach the word 'Sweet'.

Someone in the crowd will have halfway heard you play 'Sweet Caroline'
and it will remind him of the song so he'll request it right after
you've just played it.

Unless you want to marry her and be the one who takes her home every
night, don't hitch your star to a girl singer.

Every black horn player who wants to sit in; used to play with James
Brown or Brother Ray.

..........And the number one fact of life in playing in clubs and
restaurants.......

Your slowest night, with the most obnoxious crowd and the worst
response, is immeasurably better than the best day you ever had at a day
job!!!

-----> end essay

Cheers,

Bill "Been There, Done That" Gunter
jazzboard at hotmail.com

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