many gigs these days?

[jvsax]

Played a great jazz jazz sextet gig last night. All of the players were saying that this is a very lean time for work. Is this just local to my area or do you folks notice the same thing? How are the rock and blues gigs going? Maybe the poor economy has had an impact?

[LBAjazz]

2002 and 2003 were good by my standards.I've never been full time but I made the highest % of my income playing music that I ever had.This year...not so good. Some of it is my fault [quitting a couple of groups]; some of it seems to be the economy.

[Keith Ridenhour]

We are playing as many bar gigs as we normally do but some places are starting to charge a cover charge or cutting our pay by 50 bucks or so. ((300 for a night instead of 350) We have gotten more private partys booked for the next few months than we were getting at the end of last year. Might be luck or maybe the result of gigging in our area on a regular basis for the last 3 years. We average four gigs a month but we seldom take a friday night gigs and try to leave a weekend free if possible. Alot of places are opening up sunday afternoon music starting in April and that will add to our calender. We did have a booking agent from San Francisco tell us he'd get us better gigs this summer if we wanted to work for him. Some of his clients are going from the larger 7 or more piece bands charging a higher price to a small band like ours (5 piece) who would do a gig for under a thousand. K

[jazziz1]

Things have been pretty busy around here (Central Illinois) lately, but there are a couple of places that had regular music that recently shut their doors. Then there are others opening that think music would be great to have, but claim "we can't pay anything."

I can't complain, though. I've got 2 steady gigs each week--one of which has been going on for 7 years--and a decent amount of other stuff lined up. Music in my area is as good as I've seen it right now. I hope it stays that way!

[OnyxSax]

We've been steady in DC with weddings and bar mitzvahs. It looks like the corporate market, which simply vanished after 9/11, is starting to make a comeback. One other hopeful sign is that after a mass shift to use DJs versus bands a bar mitzvahs over the last few years, we're starting to see signs that the trend is reversing itself.

Weddings may be more fun in terms of material, but once you get "word of mouth" reputation for doing a good job in the bar mitzvah market, you will definitely get very steady work.

[Frank D]

This may be stating the obvious, but it seems like certain cities, mostly on the East Coast, have retained the tradition of having live music at family events, meaning non-restaurant/bar gigs. Most other places have gone the way of the DJ, preferring to hear the original recordings on the cheap. Don't know why other than economics, just making an observation.

[jd]

well my wedding band is busy these days. totally booked for like 6 to 8 months, im lucky.(its a gravy train!!)riding it for 12 years now. www.bottomlineband.com (im the grey haired one in front) we have great singers but they are such a pain to deal with. arent all singers??pay is good but every singer wants to be the the next"american idol" have you noticed. but yea business is good and im free lansing at restaurents and clubs a bit too with r/B bands but i really want to do smooth jazz. thats more fun for me than playing mustang sally and my girl :lol: . with the wedding thing it seems everytime we raise our price we get more bookings than ever. people think if your among the highes price you are the best . right? like with us sax players and our 800.00 guardalas and meyer new yorks. better??? probably not!! but people will spend more for the "high end" .after dealing with the singers i get the urge to do a trio jazz gig. 2 minute setups and no egos!!

[Bill Mecca]

This may be stating the obvious, but it seems like certain cities, mostly on the East Coast, have retained the tradition of having live music at family events, meaning non-restaurant/bar gigs. Most other places have gone the way of the DJ, preferring to hear the original recordings on the cheap. Don't know why other than economics, just making an observation.

Frank,

I think I agree.... Here at the Jersey shore there used to be tons of clubs to play, we used to have to decide what band we wanted to hear and what club to go to, there were myriad options. Not so today, fewer clubs and fewer bands... and I have no time to go out anyway! ha!

I think what might have hurt some bands and forced places to go with deejays is this... many bands, (including the one I'm in at the moment) have a few strong willed members who think you should play it "just like the record." If you wanna sound just like the record? become a deejay..(but these same guys have no personality, no stage presence so they would be boring deejays too). a band needs personality, needs to put their own stamp on the music. If your drummer likes the ride cymbal but it's not on the record, so be it... We are supposed to be creative musicians, not two legged reguritators.

Club owners play into this as well. some will probably want you to sound just like the record, and some others think if this band sounds just like the record, I can have someone play the record and keep some green in my pocket. it's a dynamic.

Sorry, I guess I launched into a rant there... been happening a lot lately, maybe it's time for a change. Rehearsal tonight, let's see if we can sound just like the record, right down to the frreakin Springsteen ad libs fromthe live cuts. sheesh!

[Bill Mecca]

oops double post, sorry!

[Bill Mecca]

Weddings may be more fun in terms of material, but once you get "word of mouth" reputation for doing a good job in the bar mitzvah market, you will definitely get very steady work.

Very very true, I have a friend who makes a good living videotaping Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, and never advertises.

[ferrari]

My band is an 8 piece Rn'B / Rock / Blues, with a 3 piece horn section. By the end of this year we will have played at least 30 gigs; mostly weddings, festivals and private parties. We live on an island, and the majority of these gigs are on the Island so getting $50 per guy is ok. When we do gigs off-Island we get $100. We're all just weekend warriors, but we have fun, and amazingly we all like each other.

The Western Washington music scene is very hot and seems to be expanding all the time. We're thinking about playing more gigs in the Seattle area, but with schedule conflicts we actually have been turning down work. We're also putting together a stable of good backup players, so we never have to turn down a good paying gig. Quite honestly, the reason for our recent success is our dedicated horn section, which has over 100 years of combined experience. Jeez, we are old! Audiences love a tight horn section, and since I've become section leader ( my skills in that dept. are minimal, trust me. ), rather than re-invent the wheel, I burn copies of covers we are performing and give them to the guys to learn. I'll usually transcribe the lines longhand with a boombox so I've got a consistant 'roadmap' for the occahsonal fill in guy. Lotta work, but it's a kick when the section is cookin'

[John Laughter]

I am fortunate that I get to play in two Top 40/oldies/wedding bands. Both do the wedding, school reunions and private party circuit. Playing every weekend in middle Georgia from Macon to Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Albany and Auburn. Also some local weeknight parties with a midi trio. Can't complain at all.

Once in a while a few of us will play a bar and I really enjoy the change because that was where it all started for me and the people are down to earth! No tux or formalities. Just good fun on the dance floor.

[DD]

Last week did the regular jazz club quartet gig (SAT), big band fundraiser benefit deal (T), and Bobby Vinton show (T,Cl) with Bruce Johnstone on alto and bari. This week another jazz room and Michael Amante show (T,Cl,F) - busy musical schedule for a lawyerpart-timer located 60 miles from the venues. Hope the rest of the summer is as good.