[Dixielandjazz] Problem at wedding gig

[Robert S. Ringwald]

Dear Elazar,

Shi* happens.  After reading through your lengthy description rather 
quickly, it sounds as if you handled the situation very nicely.

I cannot believe that this so-called friend complained about the money after 
what you did to get him and his equipment there.  And then to have his 
equipment be faulty.

If it were me, I would probably never use him again.

The main thing as you say, is to do what you can to make the bride and 
groom's special day, as special as you can.

You certainly have the right attitude there.

However, if it were me, I might stay friends with this musician, but I'd 
never use him on a gig again.

--Bob ringwald


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ministry of Jazz" <jazzmin at actcom.net.il>
To: "Bob Ringwald" <robert at ringwald.com>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Monday, September 03, 2007 3:43 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Problem at wedding gig


> 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
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