Hiring A Jazz Band

Hiring a jazz band for a wedding or corporate event can be a difficult decision for someone who hasn't done it before. Will the band sound the same live as they do on their mp3s/sound clips on their site? Will they be professional? Will they be too loud for the guests to keep talking?

One of the important things to look for is a band that regularly plays these kinds of events - they have the experience to play well and knows how to play at a reasonable volume. And is is likely that they know most of the songs you'd want to hear, or at least, similar songs.

When first making contact with the band, you should be as upfront with as many of the details as you can. Sometime the band has heard these 1000 times before, but you should be comfortable going into this too. Sometimes all the details aren't firm (exact location, time of the event, etc), but giving the band as much of that information up front will allow them to check if they are already booked that date, or able to travel to that location. For instance, on our Request Form, we ask for the Location - while we generally play in the Southern Ontario area, we've had requests come in from Hull, Quebec and Tennessee - having that information up front, we were able to immediately inform the requester that it was too far for us, and she was able to move on.

Also, please ask questions you have - even if you aren't sure if the band offers what you're after, they may be able to, or pass you along to someone who can. For instance, while we usually work as a trio, we've had people ask for additional musicians, for example, a vocalist. We regularly work with other musicians, so that was no problem, and we were able to communicate that to the the clients, and put them at ease that we could provide what they wanted.

This is the first installment on some articles I plan to write to help people with planning music for a wedding ceremony or special event.