[Dixielandjazz] Band Advertising 101

[Ministry of Jazz]

Shalom Jazz fans,

Thanks to Larry for taking the trouble to share with us the ideas that work
for him, and could also work for us. Making it in the music business is
work, and it's business, not just music. I also learned that the hard way.

I have found a different approach to name recognition. I have to deal with
two names -- in Hebrew and in English -- as well as the bizarre phenomenon
that it's the foreigners who know my Hebrew name and the Israelis who call
me by my English name. It must sound "cooler" to both groups that way. But
we started calling the band "Doctor Jazz", which is fully understandable in
Hebrew as well as English, and in most other languages too. We also have a
signature picture of the band and a color scheme that is on our CD, business
cards, the signs on my car doors and windows, and handbills or press kit
type materials. It is much easier to remember than my name (as I get older,
sometimes even for me!), and I find that people readily associate me with
that name, as well as the band. I get greeted all the time with "Hey, Dr.
Jazz! I saw you perform ..." It works.

One thing I would add to what Larry wrote. Hands down, the best
advertisement by far is giving people the chance to hear you play and see
you perform. No ad in the phone book or newspaper or even bill boards will
have the same effect, because they cannot communicate the energy and delight
of your live performance. I have tried ads in various local publications,
some more focused than others. I advertise on local internet sites, aside
from maintaining my own website. People do find us this way sometimes. But
the lion's share of our bookings come from people who see us playing in town
on the pedestrian mall. In addition to hearing our music and seeing the
colorful outfits, they see how we involve the crowd, even giving kids a
washboard or other light percussion thing, and letting them play along.
Sometimes the kids get it and keep the rhythm. Sometimes they dance. But it
doesn't matter. They're always cute, and a line of kids standing with you
playing rattles and shakers draws a crowd faster than the band does by
itself. To my great surprise, most of our paying customers are not the
people I would target if I advertised. Rather they're the native-born
Israelis, often young ones, and Israelis of middle-eastern origins, not
western. Many don't speak English, and don't know what the instruments or
the music are called. They just like it, so they hire us.

If your band has practice sessions, go find a public place like a park with
a gazebo or other suitable staging point, or a couple of benches on your
pedestrian mall in town, and do your practicing there. Have your business
cards and CDs visible. Put out a hat if you want to. You can make enough
change to pay your gas and parking, and maybe even buy lunch. If you gather
a crowd, shift into your performance mode and work the crowd. Crowds are
fickle. Sometimes they'll just walk by and hear 10 seconds worth, and
sometimes they'll gather and watch a half hour show. Either way they hear
you. And once that happens a few times, they start to remember you. I can't
tell you how many times we've been told that someone saw us on the street,
took a card, and 2 or 3 years later they had a major event so they called to
book us. You can work on new repertoire out there as well as in your living
room. Street performance does not have to be as polished as a paid gig.
Don't bother with sound equipment (you might need a permit for that anyway).
But do bring a small portable amp for vocals and announcements, unless you
have someone with a loud voice. I rarely use amplification, even at gigs,
and almost never on the street.

We do basic balloon sculpturing between songs or during breaks. You can buy
a simple plastic pump for a couple bucks, and a bag of good balloons, and
you can learn how to make hats, swords, flowers, simple dogs, etc., very
easily. Then the kids want to stop even if the parents don't. And the
adults often turn into kids when you break out the balloons. People usually
will ask how much the balloon costs. Just point to your hat and suggest they
leave a tip. Chances are they'll give you more than you would have asked
for.

Larry talked about using what you have. In my case, after over ten years of
performing in public places, including places that get attacked by
terrorists, there has not been such an attack at or near the places I and my
band perform. So I don't do this in print, because it's a bit sensitive, but
when I think I can get away with it, I will say, "There has never been a
terror attack on my watch." And I'll offer the band for hire as a deterrent
to terror attacks. Such dark humor often will cut through the tension and
give people an emotional break from what they have to live with, or what
they've been through.

But on the lighter side, since I am the only tenor banjoist in Israel (or I
was until I trained an Israeli student who has become my partner in running
the band), I bill myself as "the best jazz banjo player in Israel", followed
sheepishly with the explanation that this is because I am the only one. Now
we introduce my partner as "the worst jazz banjo player in Israel". Those of
you who know what I look like will appreciate that I now introduce myself as
"the biggest jazz musician in Israel". This works even better in Hebrew,
because the word can also mean "greatest", so the audience has to process
the double meaning. Since I generally play 2 or 3 instruments as well as
sing in a show, I'll start with one of these introductions, then get myself
into a flustered explanation about how I "take the place" or 2 or 3
musicians, or I have to wear a lot of hats, or I have to carry most of the
load on my shoulders (with a puzzled look and then a good pat on my
stomach), and then I'll throw up my hands and say, "never mind", and start
the next song. Audiences love this kind of thing.

Last week I introduced a show by saying that I was just back from a world
tour. I then named 3 or 4 local towns I performed in recently. When they
started laughing, I explained that I used to live in Los Angeles, so for me
this was a world tour. If I've recently played somewhere in Europe or the US
or wherever, I'll throw in one foreign city. Another approach is to say
"we've recently done a command performance for the President ... [pregnant
pause] ... of the local chess club." Audiences tend to like self deprecating
humor, as well as anything that appears or attempts to make you bigger than
you are. It works.

Larry talked about "creative borrowing". I once heard a band introduce a
tune that the leader said they "stole from" another (known) band. His back
line quickly corrected him, saying they "were heavily influenced by" the
same band.

Anything you can do to endear yourselves personally as well as musically to
the audience will pay dividends.

One of my players is a young Russian conservatory trained player. He has his
own band that plays weekly at a nice restaurant. Sometimes I play with them,
or he asks me to take his place when he has another (i.e. better paying)
gig. He is an outstanding player, much better than I am. And he's had this
high profile weekly gig longer than my band has even been around. Yet he is
working for me more often and at better paying gigs than I work for him. One
reason is, his guys are great players, but they don't know how to relate to
the audience. At the restaurant, they don't talk to the audience between
songs, they don't sing, they often don't even look at the audience. They
have no business cards, and no CDs, and nothing that says the name of the
band, much less any contact info. When a customer requests a song, they tend
not to play it unless a tip accompanies the request. They'll tell the
customer that the piano player doesn't know the song. They are fairly
typical jazz players who play for their own enjoyment more than their
audience. I can't tell you how many evenings I watched customers file by and
thank them for the great music on their way out the door, and they just say
thank you and let them go. I'd have a business card in each of their hands.

Well, I've gotten more long winded than I planned to be. What a surprise! I
hope my ramblings will be helpful.

Happy holidays to all,

Elazar
Doctor Jazz Dixieland Band
Tekiya Brass Ensemble
Jerusalem, Israel
www.israel.net/ministry-of-jazz
+972-2-679-2537