[Dixielandjazz] Problem at wedding gig

[Ministry of Jazz]

Shalom list-mates,

I have a question. [Delete now if you don't have the patience for a soap
opera story.] Actually I need some help to feel better about a problem that
happened at a wedding gig this evening. Here's the story:

About 2 months ago, I was hired by the groom to bring my usual Doctor Jazz
Duo to play for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours at the cocktail hour of his wedding.
He had heard us on the street, took a card, and wanted what he heard to be
at his wedding as his guests arrived. Turns out, my partner would be out of
the country the week of the wedding. So I offered the job to an old friend
who plays keyboard. He and I have performed together many times. I expected
he would play piano, and I'd be the rest of the band, bone, trumpet, banjo,
and we'd both do vocals. The money was OK, not a lot, not a little. I ran
the change by the groom and assured him that the musical style would be
quite similar to what he heard, and he consented with no problem.

Now the plot thickens. Mr. Keyboard, who no longer lives full time in
Israel, but is here for a couple months at a time, would be staying in Tel
Aviv and not Jerusalem, and his keyboard and amp and equipment are in
storage in Tel Aviv. He has no car. So I need to drive from Jerusalem to Tel
Aviv (about an hour), get him and his equipment, and drive to the site of
the wedding, about 1/3 of the way back to Jerusalem. And traffic in that
area is horrendous in the hours before the time of the gig. Therefore we
decide to meet earlier, get out of Tel Aviv, and go hang out near the
wedding site for the afternoon, then set up early and relax before the gig.
Of course, he and equipment must get returned to Tel Aviv after the gig, and
then I need to head back to Jerusalem. And gas here is $6 per gallon.

I make a day of it in Tel Aviv, visiting another friend first, then get Mr.
Keyboard and equipment, and we escape from Tel Aviv before the traffic. So
far so good. We arrive to set up for the wedding over an hour early, and
begin setting up outdoors in sweltering heat and humidity. I get out all my
horns, we fight with the staff to get electricity turned on where we are
setting up, he unpacks, and neither the keyboard nor the amp are working.
The keyboard is missing the converter/power supply, and the amp has a faulty
plug. So 45 minutes before the gig, we appear to have no piano, and possibly
no amp, and what was supposed to be a Dixieland duo was now going to be solo
banjo and 2 vocals. Groom and family are not there yet. No wedding planner
to deal with. Only the bride all decked out and ready to go. So do I tell
the bride that the band for her cocktail hour is minus a piano and therefore
also the horns? Wait for the groom? or just go with what we've got and hope
they don't notice? (right! like that'll happen.)

I talk to the bride, now less than half an hour before show time. We're in
the middle of nowhere, no place to run for replacement equipment, and no
time to run anyway. I told her not to worry, that we'll go with the banjo
and vocals. (The amp could be fixed in time so I didn't mention that one to
her.) And I told her we'd offer a reduction in our price because of the
missing piano. She, her parents, and later the groom as well, all seemed OK
with this.

We did the gig, played almost 1 1/2 hours with only one short break for
drinks, and received numerous compliments, including from other musicians.
The amp worked, thankfully. So I was just starting to breathe a bit easier
thinking we got through it alright. Then before the main party began, I get
to deal with the groom's mother. She seems OK, but doesn't comment one way
or the other on our performance. She said she was going to pay us, and asked
what discount I would offer because the piano didn't work. I offered a 1/3
reduction, and she accepted gracefully and paid me. So I think we left the
customer relatively satisfied.

Now for the real problem. I tell Mr. Keyboard that I gave them a reduction
in the price, and he hits the roof. He throws everything in the book at me.
He never works for so little pay, especially at a wedding. He had to work
harder to sing to try to make up for the absence of the piano. He wasn't
planning to sing, but only to play the piano for the money I offered him
originally. The voice is also an instrument, and so he did perform and is
therefore entitled to the promised amount. I didn't consult him before
offering the discount. I didn't give him the opportunity to decline, and to
opt not to perform (leaving the whole thing on me), and to not take any
money, rather than performing for less than the agreed price. Yada, yada,
yada.

So aside from the fact that I was ready to kill him, he is a long term
friend and colleague, and I don't want to ruin our friendship over less than
$50 difference one way or the other. I was actually prepared to take the
bigger loss, and split the reduced amount with him 50/50, rather than the
approximately 60/40 that I had originally planned on to cover my gas and
extra transport time. But I can't believe that he is making such a big deal
out of it either, and I am really irked that he makes me feel like the bad
guy when he showed up with his instrument not in working order.

My first priority is always to leave the customer happy, even if I have to
sacrifice my payment altogether. I also do my best to keep my players happy,
because otherwise it's hard to make happy music. But no way am I going to
take all the loss on this one, pay him the original amount when it was his
instrument that didn't work, leaving the whole burden on me to make a banjo
and vocals sound like a band, and leaving me with just about enough money to
cover my gas for the day. And no way would I stand for him negotiating with
my customer and causing any hard feelings in the process.

Maybe something is wrong with me, but I refuse to get into any argument or
unpleasantness with a customer at their wedding over money or anything else.
I refuse to be the bad memory lingering over someone's once in a lifetime
event. No amount of money is worth having that credit attached to my name.

So Mr. Keyboard/friend is leaving for Asia tomorrow for 4 months, and by the
time he gets back this will be forgotten, hopefully, but I still feel
terrible about not delivering what I promised the customer, and what I was
hired for, even though I don't think the customer was terribly disappointed
with what we gave them, and it was pretty much beyond my control.

If anyone is still reading, any comments on what I could have or should have
done either to prevent the problem from happening at all, or in my handling
of the customer or the side man? This is the only part of the business that
really scares me. I imagine band leaders get sued for this sort of thing. I
doubt if that will happen in this case.  But anything I can learn to avoid
such a thing happening again would be helpful.

Thanks for listening.

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