[Dixielandjazz] Problem at wedding gig

Tue Sep 4 11:36:55 PDT 2007

and by the
time he gets back this will be forgotten, hopefully,
______________________________
I would forget his name too and you know what?  There are certain telephone 
numbers that I just can't seem to find either.  On top of that I tend to 
tell all the other leaders I know too.  Here there is an informal black list 
among the leaders.  There is a piano player who drinks a lot who just about 
can't buy a job anymore.

Bad things happen occasionally in the music business and sometimes you take 
a loss.  I spell that out clearly in my subcontractor's agreement.  I get 
less money - they get less money.  You are wise to not make any waves at the 
wedding.

In this country, to be in business, as a contractor or sub contractor you 
must be liable for potential loss.  Stuff Happens.

Advice to band leaders --- Never, Never but Never let a side man talk to a 
customer about anything pertaining to business matters.  There are guys that 
will slip them a card or give them their tele number or screw up something. 
Also never let a sideman select his own sub.  That's typically bad business 
for you.
Larry
StL
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ministry of Jazz" <jazzmin at actcom.net.il>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Monday, September 03, 2007 5:43 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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