[Dixielandjazz] Business plan

[Larry Walton Entertainment]

Many bands just don't have a business plan so I will share with you the workings of the band I play with pretty often.

The leader has a book that is 90% reading and it's not a super simple book.  The arrangements are put together by professional arrangers and now when new tunes are needed the guy just orders an arrangement from his source and he gets it in a few days.

The musicians he hires must be able to read and blow choruses with chord symbols and have knowledge of a lot of standard tunes.  The reading isn't the worst that I've seen but comes in a lot of hard keys for the singers and can get difficult.  He is able to sub out a job easily because he has at least three guys for each chair that he can call.  In other words he has depth.

He hires guys that don't require a lot of rehearsal.  Actually he hires guys that need none.  He uses tapes for the singers and personally rehearses them with pre recorded backgrounds of the arrangements so we don't have to suffer with that.

The band smokes because he has built up a group of guys that can play his book.  Having both an active Air force band and an Air National Guard band in the immediate vicinity helps a lot.  These guys are full time musicians for the most part and are killer readers with great chops.

He charges one share for his book. One share for the leader. One share for the PA system.  One share for each musician.  One or two shares for advertising.  so if the band gets $125 each he is getting $725 or more.  He gets about $1700 for the band. (6 musicians - 3 singers)

This method requires that there are a lot of good musicians around and may not work in smaller metro areas but it has some real advantages for a leader.  This guy is also somewhat ruthless in that if another musician can come along that is better then he moves up the list.

In the beginning this was the only way he hired but guys like to commit gigacide for some reason.  There are two guys that can blow me away.  One of them was called the day of the gig and it turned out he was in New Orleans.  He hadn't bothered to call the leader and cancel the gig.  The other made such a fuss about pay and breaks and other things that he just became a liability.  I love it when guys insist on shooting themselves in the foot.  He still uses them but only if I'm not available.  It goes to prove that old age and treachery can overcome youth and skill any day.

I'm sure there are other kinds of business models but this one works here.  Other bands use other models like partnerships, co ops etc.
Larry Walton
St. Louis