[Dixielandjazz] playing for charity

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

they only hire PROFESSIONAL groups for that event!
_____________________________________
I might add usually from out of town!

If you have ever tried to make a buck from music you have heard every 
possible variation of this line.

I have occasionally passed on the names of groups that do play free such as 
the Shriners but I tell them that my groups are professionals and are 
available at any time and won't let them down once booked and I tell them 
that the free groups usually aren't available when they might want them and 
the quality varies widely.

Sometimes they come back and hire you but in a big city there are no end of 
groups that are just itching to perform for little or nothing.

For a while I played with a community band that played the senior homes on 
Wednesday nights.  I would then contact the recreation person and make my 
pitch.  I booked several that way but once you go in, even with  another 
group, for free or in this case $100 for the group it becomes real tough to 
then try to get any money out of them.

I no longer play with charitable groups or fun/hobby/community groups.  I 
also prefer to not sing with groups that hire me if they aren't playing for 
reasonable money.  Why make that group as good as mine?  When I work for 
someone else I am a sideman not a leader or vocalist.

You have to be able to tell people no.   Playing cheap is like feeding 
alligators with your fingers.  Soon you lose the whole arm.
Larry
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Trumpetom at aol.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 12:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] playing for charity


> Romans Said "....I said sure and
> quoted them my price. I was met with  stunned silence and then "Well,
> aren't you going to play for free? After  all, it's for charity....."
>
> Man, ain't that the truth!  I used to be a sideman in a group  that did 
> the
> same freebe year after year for  a society fundraiser. They treated us 
> like
> crap & wouldn't even  feed us sandwiches (the wait staff and stage crew 
> were fed
> the same baron of  beef as the guests). I kept asking our leader when we 
> were
> going to get one of  their real gigs from them; he couldn't answer me. I 
> had
> nothing to lose, so I  approached the boss of the committee regarding a 
> booking
> us at their annual  black tie gala, he said they only hire PROFESSIONAL
> groups for that event! go  figure Last I heard, the same group was still 
> doing that
> freebe.
>
> Tom Loeb
> California
>
>
>
>
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