[Dixielandjazz] Hobby Musicians

[Bob Loomis]

Larry wrote:
   "There is another difference between a hobby
band and a pro band.  That is the amount of
praise you get when you play a solo or do well. 
Hobby bands fall all over themselves telling each
other how well they did even when they didn't. 
Pros just don't do it or it's subdued a lot. 
Another way is warming up on stage, practicing
between tunes or on breaks or holding a
conversation between tunes."

   IMHO yet another example of how
professionalism can remove the fun from any
endeavor ... to a greater or lesser degree ... I
know first hand not from music but from
journalism, writing being my primary talent. I
made it my career, which gradually sucked the fun
and creativity out of writing for me. YMMV, of
course. I'm sure the pros do enjoy performing on
some level.
   However, pro musos aren't the only ones who
adopt this strictly business attitude when it
comes to complimenting someone. I've noticed this
at bluegrass festivals where someone will do a
hot solo in a campground jam and everyone just
stands there sucking on their teeth after the
tune is over as if nothing special happened. Not
sure if that's just a case of music macho or
what. Maybe they are all just zen masters ...
   I do know that 99% of the time when business
and only business becomes the driving force of
any art form (and some would say any other
activity), that step sucks some of the creative
juice and joy out of the art form. I'd argue that
worship of the almighty dollar and the bottom
line as the be-all and end-all is sucking the
creativity right out of our culture. When only
pros do something, it leaves out huge chunks of
people. 
   Now mind you the argument that hobby bands are
robbing pro bands of their livelihoods is another
matter entirely ... I would argue that the
coffeehouses where I've played had/have NO budget
for paying musos. They are lucky to survive, and
in fact two of the three places our hobby band
played once a month over the past 5 years went
bust. These were not Starbucks or Peets kind of
chain operations but individual, independent
operations paying high Bay Area rents and hiring
staffs. 

Larry further wrote:
"A more subtle thing is that hobby band guys will

almost fight for a solo and the pros could care 
less most of the time.  The pay is the same.  
There was a guy that would show up early and go 
through my book ( I subbed occasionally for the
lead tenor player) and pull out the tunes that
had 
solos that he wanted to play and swap parts then
put them back later.  The same guy in another
band 
got bent out of shape when he missed the lead
alto 
part on In the Mood and I played it.  Some of 
these guys go to great lengths to protect their
turf or to play solos.  I think it's funny
(strange) when guys do that stuff."

   Well, I've experienced that to some extent,
especially way back when I was playing in rock
bands and the lead guitarist(s) would always keep
turning up the volume ... in our current acoustic
hobby band, that's not a problem ... we work out
who's going to take a solo and who's not on a
given song and stick to those head arrangements
unless the given soloist happens to be absent ...
Our harp player is the shyest harp player I've
ever seen, will sometimes shake his head "No"
when I look at him for a solo at a gig, even on a
song he has done well many times and usually
plays well ... that's as exasperating as the
opposite problem sometimes, but as was said
earlier in this discussion, hobby bands usually
don't fire or replace people, especially if they
are founding members of the band.
   You pros can rest easy though, we will never
take away any of your paying gigs, we just ain't
professional and are too lazy and/or busy to work
that hard ... most of us work full time at day
jobs and can barely spare the time to get to
practice once a week. We aren't even coffeehouse
gigging right now, just getting together to jam
once a week and working up some new tunes just in
case we ever play out again. 
   The highlight of our performing year for 10
straight years was our annual Geezerpalooza
potluck and music gathering. Last year's was our
10th and probably our last under the old format.
This year we plan to invite only our close muso
friends and their families. That should cut
attendance (from about 75 each of the last 4
years) to about 25, and spare us old farts the
work and expense of preparing for a bigger party.
   Many of the musos who formerly performed at
the event have gone on to professional gigs, and
simply aren't available most weekends. That
leaves us old retirees and near-retirees and a
few youngsters who only get to play at the annual
event to our own fun. 
   So we're now we've dropped back from small
coffeehouse status to garage band status and
we're still having fun ...

Bob Loomis
Concord CA
 


 
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