Members etcetra Posted October 11, 2011 Members Share Posted October 11, 2011 So here's the situation.. A friend of mine (bassist) hired me and bunch of guys for this big music festival this year, but he put me in charge for the whole thing because he had to leave the country for family emergency. I also had to replace another member due to medical emergency, but that worked out okay. The problem I am having is with this horn player... Long story short, he decided to take a vacation until the week before the concert, which leaves us very little time to rehearse...I was going to replace him because this is a big festival and I wanted to be well-prepared for the gig..and seeing that he thought it was okay to book a vacation for that long I didn't think he was in the same commitment level as everyone else... but I decided not to, because the bass player booked him knowing all this (even though he was kind of upset about this himself).. So I talked to him and told him that it's imperative he make the one rehearsal and practice gig at a local club before the actual gig... I felt more sympathetic when I found out that he was visiting his family who was very sick. When he got back, he was able to do the rehearsal but all the sudden he got this really high paying gig (twice as much as what we get on this festival) on the night of the practice/runthrough gig and asked me if it was okay for him to not show up for that gig. I emailed him and told him I was very disappointed. I understood that it's a super-high paying gig.. but I told him I was more upset about the the combination of this & the fact he took a 5 week vacation. Everyone is busy around this time, and in some ways he was very inconsiderate and naive to think that we can somehow put everything together a week (a week before the festival). I told him that I've spend 10-15 hrs arranging the music and doing other errands and that the band is basically working to accomodate his schedule. Now I have to figure out whether I should cut some of the tunes (which I spent a lot of time transcribing/arranging) and do something else easier, because I don't want to risk a train wreck. It bothers me that we are going to have to do this gig with so little preparation. I know the other bands are spending at least a month rehearsing their stuff, and we've only done 1 rehearsal so far. In some ways I felt like I should have been more aggressive and demanded that I replace the horn player... but I was worried that I would be in bad terms with the bass player who was in charge and already booked the horn player, and it would make things harder for the people in charge of the festival... and knowing who they are, they will be more upset about the hassle of having to change names in the roster than the quality of music we play (or the lack of). so what's your take on the situation? All I can say at his point is that I did what I could, and I just feel very disappointed about the whole thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Beyer160 Posted October 11, 2011 Members Share Posted October 11, 2011 Is this guy the kind of player who already knows the material and can pull it off? Most pro function bands I know never rehearse at all- you're supposed to do that on your own time. It's pretty common for these kind of bands to sub in players who've never met until the night of the gig, too. If your horn player a pro, or is he a hobbyist? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FitchFY Posted October 11, 2011 Members Share Posted October 11, 2011 Same question - what caliber are you talking about here? Festival can mean a lot of things. That being said, yeah, that's a tough situation to be in, balancing your relationship with the out of town bassist (aka "THE BOSS WHO HIRED YOU") and your need/desire to put on a great show. So what did ya do, mang? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ggm1960 Posted October 11, 2011 Members Share Posted October 11, 2011 He'll need a music stand with a chart! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rangefinder Posted October 11, 2011 Members Share Posted October 11, 2011 What's the question again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted October 12, 2011 Members Share Posted October 12, 2011 In my world (typical cover band rhythm section of bass, drums, keys and guitar) - hired gun horn players are expected to blow solos and "comp" appropriately. When I bring in a "hired gun" at the horn position - I do so knowing tune things: first, I'll never see the guy at a rehearsal and second, any horn player I bring will have improvizational skills that are far better than anybody else on stage. If they can't blow circles around the rest of the guys on the bandstand - I don't hire 'em. If I were looking for somebody to be part of a true "horn section" with specific part arrangements and such - perhaps my requirements would be a little different - but in my case, I'm just looking for a guy I nod at and know he's gonna tear up a solo "on demand". The horn guys I bring on are of the caliber that I don't care if they don't do rehearsals with the band. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members etcetra Posted October 12, 2011 Author Members Share Posted October 12, 2011 Thanks for all the replies I think I should give more background with the whole thing. The festival is one of the biggest jazz festival in the country, and they hire the best local talents and invite some big acts to the gig every year to do this thing. As far as I know, most local bands do prepare extensively for this gig... I talked to my friends who's done this in the past, and they've told me that it's a rare opportunity to do the kind of challenging music we would like to do. The bass player who was in charge was initially planning to do some really challenging stuff that would have required at least 1 month of preparation, and everyone except the horn player shared that expectation too. The horn player is definitely one of the better one in the scene, but then again there is a limited amount of good jazz musicians here. I probably would have needed rehearsals no matter who'd I'd got, because some of the music are highly arranged and we're soloing over rather difficult music (i.e Giant Steps in 7)...and there isn't anyone here who can just play through these things without having to do any rehearsals. Also some of the music are quite tricky with the form so I felt that we needed to rehearse couple of times to avoid possible train wreck. I could have found someone else who was a better fit for the stuff we are doing and who would have been more available to rehearse..if it wasn't fore the reasons I described above. I guess what's difficult right now for me is that I tired to create a set that would not be too difficult to learn but somewhat different and interesting at the same time.. and I've spent good amount of time arranging/transcribing music for this.. my expectation was to do 2 rehearsals (which I made it very clear to the horn player before he left for vacation). Now that he is not able to do one of the rehearsal, I may have to cut a lot of that and replace that with easy standards. I really don't want to do that, considering the quality of music other local bands are doing. As far as this guy being pro or not... I lived here long enough to learn that you can't expect the kind of professionalism you'd expect in places like LA or NY. He is obviously "pro" enough to get these high paying gig, but I do remember the bass player having to lecture him about his attitude after a gig. I'd even go far as to say that 95% of pro musicians here aren't really "Pro" in that respect. For example I've learned that you want to be at rehearsals at least 15-30min before we start and be ready to play on the clock.. but I've never had a single rehearsal here that actually started on time. I've talked to a lot of foreign musicians, and they told me that things like that used to drive them nuts when they first moved here, but they eventually learned to just accept the way people do things here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MartinC Posted October 12, 2011 Members Share Posted October 12, 2011 Can't you get together one on one with the horn guy? Make a recording for him? Get him the charts, then have him over to show you he can play the stuff. If he can't, bye bye. Giant Steps in 7? No rehearsal? You might be screwed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rhino55 Posted October 12, 2011 Members Share Posted October 12, 2011 In my world (typical cover band rhythm section of bass, drums, keys and guitar) - hired gun horn players are expected to blow solos and "comp" appropriately. When I bring in a "hired gun" at the horn position - I do so knowing tune things: first, I'll never see the guy at a rehearsal and second, any horn player I bring will have improvizational skills that are far better than anybody else on stage. If they can't blow circles around the rest of the guys on the bandstand - I don't hire 'em. If I were looking for somebody to be part of a true "horn section" with specific part arrangements and such - perhaps my requirements would be a little different - but in my case, I'm just looking for a guy I nod at and know he's gonna tear up a solo "on demand". The horn guys I bring on are of the caliber that I don't care if they don't do rehearsals with the band. this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pickinatit Posted October 12, 2011 Members Share Posted October 12, 2011 Thanks for all the replies I think I should give more background with the whole thing. The festival is one of the biggest jazz festival in the country, and they hire the best local talents and invite some big acts to the gig every year to do this thing. As far as I know, most local bands do prepare extensively for this gig... I talked to my friends who's done this in the past, and they've told me that it's a rare opportunity to do the kind of challenging music we would like to do. The bass player who was in charge was initially planning to do some really challenging stuff that would have required at least 1 month of preparation, and everyone except the horn player shared that expectation too. The horn player is definitely one of the better one in the scene, but then again there is a limited amount of good jazz musicians here. I probably would have needed rehearsals no matter who'd I'd got, because some of the music are highly arranged and we're soloing over rather difficult music (i.e Giant Steps in 7)...and there isn't anyone here who can just play through these things without having to do any rehearsals. Also some of the music are quite tricky with the form so I felt that we needed to rehearse couple of times to avoid possible train wreck. I could have found someone else who was a better fit for the stuff we are doing and who would have been more available to rehearse..if it wasn't fore the reasons I described above. I guess what's difficult right now for me is that I tired to create a set that would not be too difficult to learn but somewhat different and interesting at the same time.. and I've spent good amount of time arranging/transcribing music for this.. my expectation was to do 2 rehearsals (which I made it very clear to the horn player before he left for vacation). Now that he is not able to do one of the rehearsal, I may have to cut a lot of that and replace that with easy standards. I really don't want to do that, considering the quality of music other local bands are doing. As far as this guy being pro or not... I lived here long enough to learn that you can't expect the kind of professionalism you'd expect in places like LA or NY. He is obviously "pro" enough to get these high paying gig, but I do remember the bass player having to lecture him about his attitude after a gig. I'd even go far as to say that 95% of pro musicians here aren't really "Pro" in that respect. For example I've learned that you want to be at rehearsals at least 15-30min before we start and be ready to play on the clock.. but I've never had a single rehearsal here that actually started on time. I've talked to a lot of foreign musicians, and they told me that things like that used to drive them nuts when they first moved here, but they eventually learned to just accept the way people do things here. This would be more interesting and meaningful if I knew where HERE is Did I miss that somewhere? ( Guys...please, please put your location in your Bio ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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