Stuck in another difficult situation

[etcetra]

So a singer asked me to do a gig a month ago.. she said there is a bass player coming to town and she wants to sing some Brazillian music with a trio. I assumed that we were doing some easy Bossa Novas , so I agreed. Fast forward few weeks, I asked for set list, she told me not to worry... I finally get the setlist&music few days ago and Turns out that we really aren't doing much bossa nova and most of the songs in the set list are various styles of Brazillian music, which I am not familiar with. On top of that there are whole bunch of instrumental pieces that are pretty difficult. I totally did not expect this coming and there was no mention of instrumentals whatsoever until now. This is not something I'd be comfortable performing in front of crowd within 2 weeks and I've already got my hands full with material from 2 other projects which is also quite demanding.

 

I immediately messaged the vocalist and told her that I don't feel like I will be able to do a good job,and asked her to find someone who is more suited for the gig, but she insisted on me playing. After talking to her It became apparent that she was kind of clueless. She assumed I knew something about traditional Brazillian music based on the fact that I played in a Latin bands. She's worked with the bassist before and the musicians she hired last time expressed how difficult the music was, but it didn't register to her that maybe she should have given the music earlier.

 

Anyways, I don't know what to do at this point. I can just do the gig and do what I can but I really don't like to be in a situation where I am obviously holding other people back and seeing other people frustrated, but if I insist on leaving the gig that will strain my relationship with the singer. I am guessing most of you are going to say stick with it, but this time I have doubts about my ability to do a decent job on it. With the Latin pop band, I had a full band and horn section to help me out, but with a trio, I have much bigger role in carrying the whole band.

[senorblues]

Maybe this sounds arrogant, but I wish I had worn a T-shirt yesterday during a business discussion that said "You don't know what you're talking about". The meeting lasted well over two hours and in retrospect, I should have figured out sooner that nothing would come of it.

 

The day before, I could have also have posted a picture of that same shirt instead of engaging a band leader in a lengthy private Facebook discussion about the prospects of subbing on keys in his blues band.

 

In both cases, it was a matter of lack of experience - paying your dues.

 

As in your case, people make a lot of assumptions. I'd drop out of this project ASAP.

[Pat'sStrat]

Knowing what I know now after 45 years of doing this, I'd pass on the gig. If you aren't trying to further your musical career and be something more than a part time player, life is just too short for that much stomach acid over something that is supposed to be fun and a sanctuary from the grind or every day life. YMMV. In the grand scheme of things, it is doubtful you wil be on your death bed one day saying "if only I'd have stuck it out with the Brazilian music trio."

[etcetra]

Thanks for the feedback. I really don't know how I'd be able to walk out of this other than just saying I am not going to do it and leave. I already told her that I am not sure if I can do this job well enough and she is not keen on the idea of getting a sub, because any competent sub I can find now is someone she hasn't work with before. The promotion material is already out with my name on it. I forgot to mention this, but I am also kind of not happy about her picking the drummer without letting me know, because he was very difficult to work with.

 

I am actually getting enough work to be doing music as a full time thing, but I am having a lot of doubts as to what capacity I really want to do it in. If you've seen my other posts, you'd see that most of the "professional" situation I get into basically means you get thrown into very difficult situation and you just have to make it happen. I don't think it has anything to do with level of work, because I know people who play in big arenas for pop concerts, and some of the stuff that get thrown at them are even more insane. It's rare to be in a situation where you are in the hands of good bandleader and you get music at a reasonable time with reasonable expectations(which IMO is what a professional situation should actually look like). I am not saying I want every gig to be easy, but if working means dealing with situations like this piling up to you all the time, I don't know if it's something I'd be able to handle. Maybe this is just something you have to go through and it gets easier the more you do it, but it feels somewhat overwhelming at this point.

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[GtrGeorge!]

Wow..its been sometime since your original post...who did it work out????

[etcetra]

Wow..its been sometime since your original post...who did it work out????

 

 

I actually manged to find a replacement after telling the singer that I was having problems with my hands(tendonitis) which is making it hard for me to spend time practicing the music. I heard that the performance was ok and they got through it, but everything leading up to that point was a mess. They ended up using a different drummer then the one they were originally planning to use(the drummer was changed like 3 times), and he was on a very short notice to learn the music and the style. The bassist came the day before, had a recording session in the afternoon. He had barely any time to rehearse and he was so tired couldn't even make it for the sound check. What's even more confusing is that after they replaced me and drummer, they added even more instrumentals, and the vocalist(who was in charge) barely sang for the whole night.

 

So bottom line is, everything was thrown together at the last minute, they've managed to wing it well enough to get through the night. I've talked to the drummer and it seems like there was a lot of confusion mainly due to the vocalist. When we were asked to do the show, it was supposed to be her show with the bassist as special guest, but the gig ended up being mostly bassist's material...I've worked with the vocalist before me and drummer agreed that she is kind of clueless in terms of musicianship, and we underestimated how much of that affected her ability to organize a show like this.

[GtrGeorge!]

Thank you for the report on how it went. My only comment is "Oy Vey!".