....so I come home from playing golf Friday afternoon and Lydia tells me I got a call from this 'agent' type that I've known for a number of years ... he's stuck for a kb player for a party on Saturday nite at a CC about 30 min from my house ...Now this guy can be a little shady, but he's given me some nice gigs in the past so I call and ask if it's a solo ... he says yes, a real easy gig providing background music ... so I accept the gig ... I go to the CC on Saturday and get all set up ... Just about ready to start when this woman comes in, carrying a violin case ... She says "hi, I'm so and so ... I'm the other half of the duo!!!" ... I said "WHAT??? Are you sure?!?!? .. I was told I was playing a solo" ...
Well, it seems like she was hired by one of the people giving the party ... I don't know what happened with the other kb player, but I guess when they couldn't find one they called the agent and he eventually called me ... I still don't know if he knew it was a duo, but I'll check into that tomorrow ... Anyway, I try to convince her that we should alternate on a 1/2 hour schedule ... she could do the 'strolling' thing and I would do my stuff ... well she wasn't having any of it and said she could just play along with whatever I was playing .. Not to cause a problem , I agreed ... She played very well and either knew the tunes or read from one of my books ... good thing they're always with me ... the problem was that she wanted to play ALL THE TIME !!! ... I would let her take the tune all the way through, and then would tell her I was taking it ... I would get through 1/2 the tune and she would start again at the bridge ...

The gig was booked from 6:30 to 9:30 but she was only booked to 8:30 ... We took a break at about 7:45 for the CC to serve dinner ... She then strolled the tables until 8:30 and left ... Fortunately, I was able to make it a 'party' for the last hour ...
sheeeesh !!!
t.

Sounds like you pulled it off OK and were able to keep your cool as well.

Gary

Well, Gary, one thing I've learned in all the years in this business is that 'keeping your cool' is an absolute necessity ... The good thing was that she was a 'player' and the crowd seemed to be enjoying it ...
The drummer from the group playing upstairs had actually stopped in our room for a while and when I saw him later he complimented me on the sound of the violin/kb duo ... he was quite surprised when he heard I had never met the violinist before that night ...
t.

Yeah, well these situations can turn on you too. I'm afraid that I would not have allowed the "guest" to work with me.

I recently was hired to play for a high-end retirement community and was asked if I would mind "if some people got up and performed before I started or in between my sets". I politely told the activities director that I'd rather that they allowed me to do my normal show (all-instrumental, no "guests") to see how they liked my presentation and so I could tell what kind of problems I would have if I allowed "guests" in the future. Good thing - after I set up and before I even started, one guy came up and wanted to play his specially-prepared CD because "he knew what the people wanted to hear". I refused and actually I use an MP3 player for break music and had no CD player anyway. He left... a little while later he came back with a CD player and while I was greeting the people as they came in, he went to the stage and starting uplugging my equipment from the house PA and hooking up his CD player. Security escorted him away (again politely). Meanwhile as I was greeting people I was being told on all sides that I should let this person or that person sing with me "because they were very good". Again, politely I told people that tonight would be all-instrumental (for a change) and there would be no guest singers. After the gig I was told by everyone how nice it was "that I didn't let anyone ruin the show" - apparently the "guest vocalist" routine gets out of hand a lot.

The end of this story is that I was rehired for early next year, with the same request that I allow people to sing with or in-between my sets. When I told the director the problems I had she relented and said she would arrange a "talent show" for the residents instead. I'll be playing solo, and I'll be returning by popular request.

PRO ...This person wasn't a 'guest' ... she was hired by the client to play for 2 hours ... I think the client's thought was 'background' music played by piano and violin ... Had she not been a good player I would have insisted on some other arrangement immediately ...

The good ending was that several people came up for my card, including the 'client' who informed me she owns a printing company that specializes in wedding/party invitations, etc. and often gets inquiries about entertainment ...
t.

Glad it worked out for you and all that, but clearly there was a failure of communication here about the terms of your engagement. It just turns me the wrong way that anyone would impose on you without telling you the deal up front. If it'd been me, there would have been two solo acts that night... but that's me.

There was definitely a lack of communication on someone's part, but as I said this was a last minute, third (or possible fourth) party contact deal ... Had it been the usual 'I deal with the client' it wouldn't have happened, or the outcome would have been different ... I'm just glad it was all transparent to the guests ..
t.