Here's the scenario. Around here $50 for a nursing home is tops. I have two that pay $35. Once or twice these two gave me $50 for one hour. Don't forget I'm unknown around here in the music-entertaining field. I laid brick in this area since 1977. I really just started play music again in public maybe 5 or 6 years ago and it was slow going and still is.

When I turned her down She changed the whole show at the last minute so that I could play for 1 and a half hours straight instead of playing half an hour tearing down and playing another half hour after another entertainer played thirty minutes. She has maybe 4 or 5 other people doing something. I expect there will be a few folk singers with a guitar and that's all they will have.

She asked how much I would charge to let my PA set up and run it for the other players. A sound company with a PA wanted $700. She's a very nice lady I told her to make me an offer and she said $200. I told her $250. If everything goes OK, I figured if she called next year and wants me to play or run the sound or do both, I’d ask for $500.

It's not as easy here playing what I play to get gigs. DonM wouldn't do as well here as he does in Shreveport but he would do much better than me. Every where you go it’s country country country. I was told this by an older musician in maybe 1960. He said that country music was and always will be the biggest audience in the USA. Well I laughed because Rock and Roll and Dixieland is what was happening in New Orleans at that time.

But after many years of paying attention I have to admit, every town I’ve lived in has a few rock and rock & roll stations. Heck we even have a Hispanic station on the radio here in this small town, but most cities have 8 to 15 country stations. With the exception of Chicago and towns like that you can’t get a jazz station. At least that’s been my experience. One friend got me in his truck to hear the radio he was paying for. He said there’s jazz here. All it was is that acid fusion stuff. Three tunes in a row of that bores me to death. Give me all the old Tenor Sax Giants and a few Alto players too.

I'm pig headed. I'm doing my Jazz Standards for my self. I do a little country, lots of rock and roll from the 50’s. At first I thought I'd make a lot of money. Ha! Ha! I used to play more weddings in New Orleans in a year then they have in this city in 10 years. The DJ thing is big here. I’m not going to do DJ. Those guys don’t know a Bb from a hole in the ground. Ha! Ha! With extremely few exceptions. You ever see a DJ play a sax. I consider myself an above average Sax player. No not Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, David Sanborn etc., Those guys are so far above average it isn’t funny. So I play for my self for the fun mostly for the present. In a couple of years I'll probably get tired of this and put the sax away again.
Boo

Actually Boo is selling himself short. He is an excellent sax player and his keyboard and vocal abilities have improved tremendously. If you were closer, Boo, I'd hire you!
DonM

I hear ya, Boo. It's kind of the same in Lexington. Luckily, there are some upscale restaurants and private events (usually horse farm related) that hire jazz players, not for the talent but the believe that it adds "class" to events where the music is in the background.

I'm pretty well established, but it's longevity, not talent.

Hang in there. We have similar likes and standards, so I admire your convictions and wish you all the best. (7:00 A.M....REALLY?
(Really like Dexter Gordon).

Regards,


Russ

Russ,

Maybe you mis-read my post. If you're asking if I play as good as Dexter, the answer is no. I do try to emulate him and I come close on ballads. However, I can't even tap my foot as fast as the uptempo stuff he plays. Ha! Ha!
If I could play as good as Dexter, I'd hop a freight train to NY and play on the corner with a tin cup. Someone would hear me and make me famous.

[This message has been edited by brickboo (edited 03-30-2007).]

I asked Susan, the honcho (owner of the Beacon News) to see about getting the manager of the Two Rivers Plaza to let me set up Tuesday and she agreed. That way at 5:30 Wednesday instead of running around worrying about setting up, I can start humming and singing around the house to get loosened up.

I’m going to take DonM and Gary's advice and drink as much coffee and boos as I can and eat as many eggs as I can eat at 5:30AM, so as to be able to burp on the 3 or 4 country tunes I intend on starting with. Friends In Low Places, On The road Again and Boot Scooting Boogie

Where would I be without DonM and Gary? Up the creek without a paddle.

Boo, I just think that anyone who knows and appreciates the music of Sonny rollins and Dexter Gordon has his/her act together.

GREAT STUFF!

Russ

Hey Russ do you know Darn That Dream, Foggy Day, There Is No Greater Love, Tangerine and other tunes like that? If you do you need to get to the Shreveport Port Jam when it happens again. We can just set up outside and jam for a while before everyone gets there. Ha! Ha!
Boo