[Dixielandjazz] BIAB Gigs

[Larry Walton Entertainment]

I started using BIAB about 15 years ago and I started using it on gigs about 1-2 years later.  What happened is a woman wanted a band that could play French music.  She was having a Bastille day party which was also her birthday.  There wasn't much money for a band so......... here I am.  I put together as many French and pseudo French tunes I could find.  I called the band Midnight in Paris with suitable music stand, berets and vests.  The party was a great success.  That started me doing all sorts of theme parties.  I do a lot of singles now.  I prefer doing the gigs as a duo but even that's getting hard to do.

My gigs are mostly for the senior homes.  My mailing list is about 125 and there are about 5 new ones added each year.  The only disappointing thing is that they all tend to want to hire me on the same days.

Sometimes on the most popular days I play several especially NYEve.  I have 3 complete set ups.  I go out and set up ahead of time on the jobs.  When I'm done playing I fold up the computer and my horn and off to the next gig.  I have changed jobs in as little as 30 minutes but I like an hour depending how far apart they are.  Then I go back and pick up everything.  

Another problem is they all want the same time slot.  In that case I try to shift them to a different day.  Sometimes I'm successful sometimes not.  A couple of years ago I did 11 veteran's day gigs by shifting most to other days.

I started calling my gigs shows rather than just music or whatever.  That's when I started DJing myself and singing.  We talk to the people and tell them about the tunes or artists - when recorded etc, tell some jokes -  We switched to entertainment.

For those out there who want to do their own arrangements you can use BIAB to write that Clarinet part a third above the melody line in a flash with BIAB.  It adds a few notes that aren't useful but that's easy to work around.  I also use it to write a trombone part straight out of Sousa and I have an arrangement.  I have three such arrangements on my website.  www.thelarryshow.com they are Music, Music, Music; Carolina in the Morning and Alexander's. (this one I will pull soon)  I re-copy the tune transfer the melody to the harmony second staff then write the trombone part as if it were a Bb part then put it into concert Key and drop it an octave.

Some of these things are a little complicated and short of writing a primer on BIAB I'll help you out if you have questions.

Two things.  First I'm not up on making styles - I've played with them but that's not easy and second I'm not up on the latest changes but I will say that the program keeps getting better and better.  The weakest part of BIAB are it's endings.

Where it says Razzamatazz Front line - those are all BIAB accompaniment as well as Danny Boy.
Larry
St.Louis