[Dixielandjazz] Ride cymbals

[Patrick Cooke]

and when you get your pay, tell the leader not
to call you again...

OK Sheik......don't call me.

Pat Cooke

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David W. Littlefield" <dwlit at cpcug.org>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2004 7:07 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Ride cymbals


> At 10:23 AM 9/11/2004 -0500, Patrick Cooke wrote:
> >There is another problem...On the same gig, one guy will want me to
> >crank it up, and another will want me to turn it down.  I don't have an
> >answer for that one!
>
> The answer is that only the band leader has the right to give the orders,
> you take your marching orders from one person only.
>
> >     I guess you have to be a bass player to understand it fully.  I
> >sometimes go on a gig, and before I'm even unpacked, the leader will come
> >over and say "Don't crank up the amp, in fact you really don't need
> >it...it's a small room."  I know I'm in trouble, because I do need it and
> >tell him so.  As a drummer, I'm sure you have been told to keep it soft
> >before you have even set up.  Its in the manual titled "How to be a band
> >leader."  Bass players and drummers are always being told how to play by
> >people who don't play either instrument;  yet I don't remember having
ever
> >told or even suggested how a horn player should play.
> >     Pat Cooke
>
> It's the band leader's *job* to determine the requirements of the gig and
> client preferences, and then to instruct the band as to what these are.
> When a leader tells you to play softly, he's not telling you HOW to play,
> but WHAT to play, and that *is* his prerogative. If he tells you to play
> straight 4/4 or 2-beat, that's telling you what, not how, to play. Same
for
> telling the drummer to play mostly brushes, and percussively rather than
> soup-stirring; or hi-hat rather than riders, and simple straight 4/4 swing
> rather than 50s Count Basie style. It's the leader's job and right to
> determine the sound and feel of the band, which means manipulating the
> individual pieces. You don't like being told what to play, ask the leader
> how he wants it played before you accept the gig. And if you haven't
asked,
> then play it with a smile, and when you get your pay, tell the leader not
> to call you again...
>
> --Sheik
>
>
>
>
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