[Dixielandjazz] Club & Restaurant Jazz Gigs

[Stephen G Barbone]

Dear Marek:

Don't know what happened to her, but do know that all 10 of those  
Restaurant vignettes happened, and continue to happen to us.  
Especially the request for a song we have just played. And the volume  
complaint is another one that often happens.  We even had a customer  
tell me we were too loud when I was with one of my trios, playing  
without amplification, me softly playing my favorite love song,  
Corcovado (Quiet Nights), in the low register with an un-amplified  
double bass and un-amplified guitar.

Some band leaders berate a loud audience in pretty strong terms. In  
restaurants,we just play louder. But in a real "jazz" club, we've  
never had an out of control audience while we were playing. They  
always get quiet enough to allow us, and the patrons, to hear the band  
and the soloists. Perhaps because I talk to our audiences, introduce  
the band members between songs etc., bring pretty girls on stage etc.,  
as part of our program. Thus we control the flow by drawing audience  
attention to what's happening on the bandstand, musically and otherwise.

Some band leaders I know will take a single customer complaint that  
the band is too loud much too seriously. We just acknowledge it, say  
we'll try and accommodate the complainer and keep playing the way we  
think is best for the total audience.

I posted all ten as true events. Did two gigs today and numbers 1, 2,  
3, 6 and 7 applied on either one or the other gig. But both audiences  
were extremely responsive so it was a really great gig day.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband



On Oct 4, 2008, at 5:21 PM, Marek Boym wrote:

> The last time I visited the jazz room of the London Pizza Express, the
> Maitre d'hotel was running around and trying to shsush the louder
> customers.
>
> One time I went to hear the excellent Jane Gwinn at a London Pizza
> parlour (I don't eat pizza).  The crowd was loud, and, as you said,
> "the talent of anyone who wanted to sit in was inversely proportional
> to how insistent the person or the person's friends were about his/her
> sitting in."  They insisted on getting a girl with a teriible voice to
> sing with the band.
>
> And, again as you said, someone requested "St. Louis Blues" just after
> the band finished playing it.  Ms. Gwinn's comment: "We've just played
> it, but this time we'll do it right!"
>
> Still, I was sitting clost to the bandstand, so it was worth it.
>
> By the way, does anybody know whatever happend to her?
>
> Cheers