[Dixielandjazz] Playing for free?

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

I don't see that you played for free.  I belong to the Scottish Rite Brass 
here in St. Louis.  The SRB is made up of Pro musicians and will play for 
the Order or others but we charge the "customer" a fee.  That fee is based 
on several things but it is always at a professional musician rate for the 
same type of job.  The money goes into the SRite coffers for whatever we 
want to spend it on which might be the groups charity.  We ask that a 
musician only donate his services one time a year but they may donate more 
if they wish although it's hardly ever more than two or three times.

We have a loose arrangement here within our own group of 20 or so musicians 
and that is if one of us needs a band for lets say a daughter's wedding and 
a group is willing to play that it is the option of each individual in the 
band to be paid.  When my daughter got married we had an eight piece band 
for the reception and a brass group play for the actual wedding.  Two of the 
musicians opted to get paid and that was fine with me.  I would have paid 
them all if they wanted.  I have played for a few of them too so it works 
out.

I think a better arrangement would be for the charity or whoever cut 
individual checks to the musicians and if they individually wanted to donate 
to that charity then they could sign the check and give it back or just tear 
it up.

Lets say that a band leader wanted to play for a political party that I 
wasn't a member of or for a charity that I didn't agree with.  What do you 
do then?  Play and be mad?  Don't play and PO the leader.  Those are lose, 
lose in my way of thinking.

I guess my point is that the customer isn't getting music for free and I am 
assuming that it was a fair price to pay for the band.  What you do with 
your money is no one's business.
Larry
St.L
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Hildebrandt" <whildebrandt at att.net>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2008 7:52 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Playing for free?


> In order to raise money to help preserve a tract of 425 acres of hilly 
> forest land with miles of hiking trails, and sitting over our town's major 
> aquifer, from being stripped and built up with mc-mansions, we donated 2 
> one hour musical programs to be auctioned off at a fund raising auction. 
> The gigs went for $400 and $500. I suppose this could be construed as 
> "playing for free" or you could look at it as if the highest bidders paid 
> us and we donated the fee to the cause. Whatever, we paid for free.
> BTW, we raised the money, the land is preserved and can never be 
> developed.
> ...Bill Hildebrandt, leader, head* arranger, banjo, vocals, and kazoo
> The New Farmington River Royal Ragtime Ramblers (banjo, washboard, 
> trombone, washboard, kazoo, and clarinet [when we can get one])
> West Simsbury, CT
> * no charts, all head arrangements.
>
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