[Dixielandjazz] All that glitters..............

[PATRICK LADD]

 And I'll bet that most of the bands doing them were charging well below an
> acceptable rate and thus debasing the music's value.>>

Hi All,

absolutely right. Most of the bands are paid what they are worth. A couple 
of pints of beer and a tenner each (in the back pocket).
Thats how amateurs get their experience. After having dropped out of music 
for 30 years I changed wives and then began to attend jazz clubs again. I 
sat in on drums for a couple of numbers one night, so that the drummer could 
take a vocal, and that became a regular thing. Subsequently I  inherited his 
drum  stool when he moved from the area.
The leader had very fixed ideas and played only very early jazz. Eventually 
I tired of that as I wanted to play more `swing` numbers so I convinced a 
pub landlord that he reely, reely needed a band and fixed a weekly date. 
Then I phoned various musicians I knew, had a blow together, and turned up 
for our first gig. We played weekly for 5 years.
We played for £6 and a pint each. (£6  untaxed was worth £10 to the player)
We didn`t do anyone out of a gig as no gig existed until I started it. The 
publican had to sell an EXTRA amount of beer  to make it worth his 
while.Quite a commitment on his part. Quite a lot actually. 6 men @£6 = £36, 
say £40 all told. Assuming he made 25p profit a pint he had to sell 160 
EXTRA pints to break even. He certainly would not have paid `real` money. 
Over time we built up a regular following and even 20 years after we ended 
people still stop me in the street and say how much they enjoyed the band.
Subsequently I began to play regularly with several bands. The trumpeter 
formed a band of his own. The sax player is part of a Big Band, a classical 
quartette (on flute) and has a trio of his own, the bass player plays with 
someone nearly every night of the week. The guitar player was last heard of 
playing in a bar in Spain. No one broke into the `big time` or had any real 
hopes of doing so but in the meantime we had a lot of fun, brought enjoyment 
to a lot of people, made a few pounds and I don`t believe for a moment that 
any of us did a `professional` musician out of a job or a band out of a gig.
One man only moved on to a higher plane. A youngster who occasionally sat in 
with us on guitar now accompanies one of our leading lady jazz singers on a 
regular basis on stage and radio and when I went to a BBC Big Band concert I 
was astounded to find that he was the piano player on a `special guest` 
basis.
One story about our £6  per man band. One night a girl asked if she could 
sing with the band. With the usual trepidation I asked what she would like. 
She named a good tune, asked for it in a particular key. She swung straight 
in and was great. When she left we looked at each other, nodded in approval, 
and I chased her into the car park and booked her to sing on  a regular 
basis. We paid her by each of the band kicking in £1 from their own money. 
Great days.

Cheers

Pat



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