[Dixielandjazz] What is a Band Leader?

[Steve barbone]

Let me clear the air about my apology to Jim about Democracy in the band. I
did not apologize for what I wrote, but for the fact that I wrote it after a
post by Kash about a question of his. Knowing Jim from afar, and having CDs
of his band (Canal Street) I should have known that his question did not
reflect the problem which I posted about in my answer.

On the other hand, as Mike Vax correctly pointed out, a band leader is
charged with the responsibility of "band performance". And in his or my
situation, as well as in Kash's, we take that responsibility very seriously.
In any professional band, the group survival is at stake. How else can I
expect professional musicians to play "my" gigs unless I provide a livable
remuneration as well as a nurturing environment? They would take the other
gigs that they are offered if Barbone Street does not do more for them. That
is the way it is in the music business.

My own leader philosophy comes directly from my day gig experience as the
CEO of a multi million dollar corporate division. My personal hero was Jack
Welch, Chairman of GE. He took GE out of the doldrums and was directly
responsible for its survival in a very competitive corporate environment.
Both the stock price and corporate net worth rose to incredible multiples
under his leadership. His philosophy in a nutshell was "Get rid of the
bottom peforming 10% of your work force every year and replace them with
people who will do more for the company."

How can one be so cold? Well, let me tell you that the worst job a leader
has in any organization is firing someone. None of us like it, even when for
good cause. However, I think we find that when we do fire for cause, the one
regret we all seem to have is that we didn't do it sooner.

Perhaps I would not go that far in a band situation, but I have turned over
the band personal a time or two, except for the drummer, by choice, in the
15 years since I started it. For various musical reasons. However, for the
past 5 years, we have had the same personal. And as Kash pointed out and
Mike knows, it sure as hell is not easy keeping a professional "working"
band together for that length of time, given jazz's economic limitations and
the artistic temperament of jazz musicians.

So I do stand by my original post as to its content. But regret that there
might have been any negative inference towards Kash.

Bottom line? If the band sucks it's my fault. But if it is good, then too,
some of that has to be my doing if for no other reason that organizational.
So yeah, I do lead Barbone Street, for better or for worse.

Both Mike Vax and John Petters will agree (I think), that band set-up is
what ever it takes to get a good, swinging sound. Most of the time, in our
case that is close together, drums in the middle so that no one is more than
3 or 4 feet from him. As I posted before, the drummer is IMO, the baton,
except that his baton is sound, so we'd better be close by.

My "small band" experience seems to be that if you are further away than 10
feet from the drummer, the time gets a little squishy and hampers the band's
ability to swing. And if we don't swing,(rare these days) I am not shy about
talking to the rhythm section about it. Heck, they know it too.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone