Jump to content

piano bar/restaurant players- replaced with down-tempo/chill?


Recommended Posts

  • Members

This caught my interest: http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2045208/Downtempo_New_Lounge_Music#Post2045208

 

The Pro and others- what is this scene like where YOU live?

(The Pro would seem well-positioned to capitalize on this trend). I don't know of this taking root in Jackson, MS yet.

 

OTOH- I recently saw an internet job ad stating: WANTED: Piano player for high-energy steakhouse. Must have extensive contemporary repertoire including arrangements of Led Zeppelin, Lenny Kravitz, Coldplay etc.

 

That amused me- but I hope they're on to something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Interesting thread.

 

I am very familiar with downtempo/chill/Ambient music and I had been incorporating that into my performances for many years (which is another reason I enjoy using arrangers with my piano at times). And I used to play at a steakhouse that requested me to do some Coldplay (the mgr loved "Clocks"), Led Zep, etc. instrumentally. The idea was to appeal to diners age 25-35 while keeping the music at conversational volumes and even danceable but not rocking the house. The Sinatra crowd is simply dying away and musos have to adjust to it. I like acid jazz anyway.

 

However, and in case you didn't know, I recently moved to Atlanta and right now with the poor economy I'm having trouble finding any kind of piano gigs at restaurants, which is what I once specialized in. I've filled in the gaps with weddings, DJ work and I am working with a classic rock band too. Restaurants so far have not been interested in working with me, except for the coffee houses that want me to play for tips only. So my restaurant piano gigs have fallen to the wayside until the economy picks back up or I find the right restaurant once again.

 

As an afterthought, maybe restaurant pianists ARE being replaced with downtempo iPod's... but I think that there's still places for the right ambient pianist. Just need to find a restaurant that wants to stand out from the rest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Most of the music linked to in the MP thread didn't do much for me. But I have been listening to Rhapsody's Downtempo/Chill station and found some {censored} I really liked (as well as some that sounds like, well, {censored}). Liked: Tommy Geurerra (sp), Stereolab and a surprising number of acts with DJ in the name:eek:. I'm thinking about hanging out on musician's forums so I can learn more about the technology and methods used to make this kind of stuff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Piano arrangements of pop has been my schtick in piano bars for years. Mainly because I wasn't good enough to play jazz or classical. But when you look at the audience at the steakhouse, not many of these people remember The days of wiine and roses. The table of 60 somethings listening quietly nearby all grew up with the beatles and floyd and zep. And their kids....well.

 

So playing the "rain song" looks like I'm playing the classics. Still need to learn "clocks" though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 


As an afterthought, maybe restaurant pianists ARE being replaced with downtempo iPod's...

 

 

My title should have been "solo restaurant pianists: old farts that better start playing downtempo/chill improv if they want to find work?"

 

Wasn't referring to live vs canned muzak- even though that is undoubtedly the trend in this economy. Sorry that I wasn't more specific.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Downtempo is usefull style though. It has the timbre so important in todays music with melody and hammoic content more akin to yesterdays music. Maybe I could replace the drummer in my organ trio with an MPC. Might work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Downtempo is usefull style though. It has the timbre so important in todays music with melody and hammoic content more akin to yesterdays music.

 

Exactly!

 

This I think is why it has been gaining appeal.

 

Sometimes, listening to the spectrum of music out there now, I wonder if people even remember what a melody is anymore. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'm considering boning up on my early Nashville for playing out. Think Ray Price. It's sorta before my time but people my (middle) age remember it and my elders (the people, around here, who still go out to eat...) grew up with it. And a lot of it works very well on piano.

 

chunka chunka chunka chunka... "Now, blue ain't the wooooooooord for the way that I feel........."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

It is getting tougher to play current covers on piano. I try to stay hip by quoting portions of modern song in the solo portion of older tunes. Slipping "where it's at" by Beck into my solo on Summertime makes the kids smile.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Maybe I could replace the drummer in my organ trio with an MPC. Might work.

 

 

I've actually done this, so i'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

 

actually it's very interesting to see these lounge musicians play catch-up with what the Suit & Tie Guy Band was doing 9 years ago, to keep their jobs, when we were getting fired for it back then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

The point isn't what to play for middle-aged people (like us), that's easy... it's what music and styles we can play for younger generations. And that's getting harder to do instrumentally on a piano.

 

Well throw the piano out and get a DJ in to do a deep tech house set :)

Middle-aged is in the mind anyway.

 

 

(Now I'll just go and hide...;))

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

This caught my interest:
http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2045208/Downtempo_New_Lounge_Music#Post2045208


The Pro and others- what is this scene like where YOU live?

(The Pro would seem well-positioned to capitalize on this trend). I don't know of this taking root in Jackson, MS yet.


OTOH- I recently saw an internet job ad stating: WANTED: Piano player for high-energy steakhouse. Must have extensive contemporary repertoire including arrangements of Led Zeppelin, Lenny Kravitz, Coldplay etc.


That amused me- but I hope they're on to something.

 

Quite honestly that would piss me off someone banging out piano arrangements of non-piano tracks in a restaurante. :eek:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I play the classic rock stuff pretty straight when I gig. Solos and all if possiible. But "rainsong" ,"going to california" and "what was and what shall never be" translate better than "whole lotta love" and "trampled". Jazz and standards on the other hand who knows, especially the modal stuff.

 

Suit and tie guy, I'm definatly taking an MPC to the gig if not for the drums at least for noises to scare the audience or some ominence in the background while I play Stella by starlight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Quite honestly that would piss me off someone banging out piano arrangements of non-piano tracks in a restaurante.
:eek:

 

What Able said. IMO even a "non-piano" track may translate very well to piano. Listen to Tori Amos' "Smells Like Teen Spirit". I think it kills!:thu: Pink Floyd's music generally translates well, too- but "Comfortably Numb" or "The Turning Away" moreso than "Another Brick In the Wall". Recognizing that vocals make a big difference.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

any good _song_ is going to be able to be played on a piano or a guitar.

 

 

i wonder why these people aren't trying to re-imagine their current repertoire with a "chillout" (do they even know the origin of the term?) vibe. i'd personally rather retain the traditional lounge material and approach it in a fresh way.

 

i'm pretty sure that if you set me to it, i could figure out a way to fit authentic downtempo electronic elements into a Jimmy Buffet cover.

 

i wish i had a recording of me playing ambient Rhodes (through a looping delay rig) with my friends Ed & Judy Howard and their band on "What you won't do for love." i remember thinking "{censored}, this sounds really appropriate."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...