Hiring A Band, Part 2

I recently posted a bLog entry on tips for hiring a jazz band. I thought I'd extend that into hiring a band, generally, and things to look for.

Starting Points

When considering hiring a band, when you visit their website, look for these things:

• Sound clips
  
• Song list / List of influences
  
• Testimonials or Press
  

Listening to a band's sound clips will give you an impression of the band's sound. If you don't like the style of music, the singer's voice, or something else, then you can immediately discard the band. Also, if they have any clips of live performances, it will give you a better impression of what the band will sound like playing for you (rather than in a studio).

I always include live sound clips, so people know there's no "studio tricks" to make us sound better than we should.

Scanning a band's song list, or viewing a list of their influences, will give you an idea of whether they'll play the music you're looking for. If they don't have a song list available, ask them for one.

Most professionally-minded bands are open to reasonable requests. When I get requests for quotes for The Diplomats, I ask the customer to let us know of any tunes they had in mind, so they hear some of the music they want. Why not ask? You are paying for it after all!

When I get requests, I can virtually always fulfill them. Occasionally, when asked for some obscure songs, I am upfront with the customer and let them know we can't find a copy of the song, but always try to work with them for alternate choices. Usually, customers will give me a list of 5-10 songs, and I can always provide them with the majority of those requests.

Lastly, scan through the band's testimonials and press. Generally, bands will only post positive things about themselves. However, its there, so why not get an idea of how enthusiastic the testimonials are. If there aren't testimonials, why not? It could be the band didn't think to provide them, it could be the band is too new to have any. If they don't have any though, you may want to consider them not having the experience to provide you with what you are after.

Keep the above in mind next time you're in the market to hire a band.

Ron Carter on YouTube.com

A few days ago, I posted some clips of the great Bill Evans from YouTube.com. This morning, I'm listening to Ron Carter, so felt like sharing some of what I'm listening to here.

Ron Carter Quartet at Blue Note - part 1



There's so much great music available on YouTube. I can't say that enough!

Ron Carter Quartet at Blue Note - part 2



Its very inspiring and motivational to listen to a great musician like Ron Carter. As a fellow bass player, its great to see other bassists leading bands, and being able to learn from their leadershp style, whether they are exceptional soloists or not.

Ron Carter with Herbie Hancock and Bill Cobham



Listening to this first thing in the morning is a good way for me to get motivated to get something done. Usually practising, of course, but also inspires me to do as much as I can with my day as I can. These guys didn't get this good by accident, so seeing the fruits of their labour come to something so great is inspiring to work hard and enjoy what comes to me from it.

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.

Bill Evans and YouTube

A friend of mine sent me a link yesterday to this clip of The Bill Evans Trio from 1966. Incredible playing.



One of the true beauties of YouTube is the amount of great old music thats available on there now. So much of these videos would cost you a near fortune in eBay bids, tape swapping, and tracking down foreign imports of VHS tapes or DVDs. And it can remind you how great these guys were once again.

After I listened to the first clip, I started clicking through all the related Bill Evans clips. It can be so motivating first thing in the morning to hear all this great music - puts you in a good mood and gets your brain working (whether you've had a caffeine fix yet or not).





If you dig Bill Evans, or unfamiliar with him, check out some of the clips above. If you're liking it, check out some more of his stuff on YouTube.

New Tracks

I recently added some new tracks to The Diplomats samples page - a couple of classic Miles Davis tunes, All Blues and Freddie Freeloader. As you may know, both tunes were recorded on the legendary Kind of Blue album.

I was listening to a 5-part documentary on Miles a while back on Jazz 91.1 FM. It was very interesting to hear about his transition from era to era, including the build towards Kind of Blue. I also was really interested to hear about his depression and break from music, and his attitude during his funk-jazz transition.

It was sad to hear how he gave up so many beautiful jazz tunes during that period, mainly due to his funk backing band not knowing how to play the tunes.

Anyhow, back to The Diplomats. I'm hoping to add more and more tracks to the site over the next few months.