[Dixielandjazz] The Pick Up Bands

[David Richoux]

Even worse for publicity and photos - when a band has been around for 
many years with just a few personnel changes and we send out an 
entirely new "press packet" which gets totally ignored by the festival 
program book maker (I won't call them a graphic designer ;-) and they 
instead  dig up a 15 year old photo and band bio  to print...

GRRRRR!

Dave Richoux
On Jun 27, 2005, at 3:23 PM, LARRY'S Signs and Large Format Printing 
wrote:

> The civilians just don't get the concept at all.  I travel in a circle 
> of
> about 30 musicians most of whom could be called on to do the job and 
> sound
> polished and tight.  We know most of the same tunes and even if we 
> don't
> they make it sound like they have known the tune all their lives.  
> Many of
> those guys are band leaders in their own right who hire each other.  
> There
> is an unwritten rule and that is, no one ever talks to the other guys
> customer or tries to book the same venue without letting him know.  I 
> work
> for them and they work for me.  We are like a secretarial pool sort of.
> Obviously nobody screws around with this relationship just to pick off 
> a
> job.  We also pass other guys gigs we can't handle.
>
> The only problem that I ran into is photos.  People expect to see the 
> same
> guys as in the publicity photos.  To fix this I only use my photo now. 
>  If
> your band has been together for "years".  (Musician years are kind of 
> like
> dog years in reverse and resemble others minutes.  10 minutes = 10 
> years).
> If your band has been together for "Real" years then Maybe you don't 
> have a
> problem.
>
> Sometimes real pick up bands (reading non jazz) can have real 
> difficulties
> when the arrangements are difficult and most if not all the group have 
> been
> hired at random.  This can lead to real disasters.
>
> Larry -- St. Louis
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Steve barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
> To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Sent: Monday, June 27, 2005 12:11 PM
> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] The Pick Up Bands
>
>
>>
>>
>>
>> Brian Priebe, from Waverly MD, well known to PRJC members and 
>> trombonist
>> with Last Chance Jazz Band, came up to play a couple of gigs with 
>> Barbone
>> Street on June 25 and 26. He was subbing for Glenn Dodson who is on a
>> teaching sabbatical in Sweden.
>>
>> First gig, Saturday evening near Reading PA. Private party at a 
>> completely
>> restored and very beautiful 19th century farmhouse on top of a hill 
>> in the
>> woods above the Schuykill River.
>>
>> Trumpeter was a sub also. Al Harrison, just off the Delta Queen after 
>> a
>> month on the Mississippi. Al is an extraordinary jazz trumpeter well 
>> known
>> here in the Middle Atlantic States and one of the very best in the 
>> USA. He
>> currently works one month on, one off on the Mississippi Paddle boats.
>>
>> Piano was sub Bill Whited. Kind of modern but then, he played with 
>> Jerry
>> Colonna and Ish Kibibble, as well as Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Ray McKinley 
>> et
> al,
>> so he speaks the language also.
>>
>> A great time was had by all, and the ultimate compliment paid to the 
>> band
> by
>> a very knowledgeable jazz fan in Reading was: "What a great sound, you
> guys
>> must have been playing together a long time." Well half the band was 
>> the
>> usual suspects, but the other half were 2 first timers and one who 
>> played
>> with us exactly 3 times prior. Pick up band? Sure, but if the band 
>> players
>> speak "jazz", it makes no difference whether they know each other or 
>> not.
>>
>> Second gig Sunday afternoon at the Lutheran Home (retirement 
>> facility) in
>> Topton, again near Reading. We did a concert, this time with our 
>> regular
>> guitarist and so the only new guys were Brian, and cornetist Vinny
> Borselli,
>> who plays with Peter Nero and Philadelphia Pops when not recording as 
>> a
>> studio musician in NYC., or with Vince Giordano. A good time was had 
>> by
> all
>> and again, a jazz fan (who wants to book us in 
>> Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton
>> area paid us a great compliment. "What a tight, swinging band. You 
>> must
>> rehearse a lot.
>>
>> Just goes to show that unrehearsed bands, if they are made up of good 
>> jazz
>> musicians like Brian, Al, Vinny, Bill and our usual suspects, can 
>> easily
>> produce a phenomenal audience reaction. Heck, I don't even call the 
>> tunes
>> until we're about to play them. Just signal the key via fingers and 
>> then
>> call the tune and count off. What you get is everybody's attention and
> some
>> on the spot jazz improvisation.
>>
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Steve Barbone
>>
>>
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