At a party or Wedding, What do you think the Audience prefers, a good musician or a good entertainer?

to me it would be

1. Vocalist, i loose interest if the singer is below average on vocals.
2. Entertainer, i love to be entertained.
3. Musician, who really cares if the performer does it all by himself? Or uses tricks (like auto backings) to sound decent to good.

I also do understand things change in a Jazz club or other venue where people come to listen to the music. Yet still think both vocals (if at all) as well as entertainer are very important there to.

I feel the audience wants all three. What they understand most is a singer. Followed by entertainer and musician. Sad to say that being a good musician come last.

I played with Mike Alessi, one of the best tenor sax players on Long Island. There was a young sax plauer who ran onto the dance floor, went to his knees and played his sax; he was terrible -- they liked him better. ???????
John C.

If I'm at a Jazz venue, I want to be 'entertained' by the quality of the music ...

1. Entertainer-the audience wants to be entertained first and foremost.

2. Most people prefer to be entertained by a vocalist rather than an instrumentalist but there are exceptions such as the great Tommy Emmanuel (and many others of course).

3. Musician-a lesser musician can still be a good entertainer.

I think its music selection. At a wedding, you expect certain involvement from the musicians or dj for traditional moments, but constant shtick from either gets old. I've been to weddings where chest thumping music for the generation of the bride and groom only drove the aunts, uncles, friends of parents etc, home early. An average vocalist/musician/entertainer who has something for everybody trumps a better one who can't adapt to all of their audience. Of course you can't overlook that they have been previewed and selected for what they usually offer, then instructed what to play and paid for that. So its not always the performers error if everyone is not pleased.

I want to be entertained by excellent music. I walk out of noisy "in your face" entertainers who can't play or use tracks.


UGH!


R.

I guess it depends. There are sophisticated acts that have all those requirements and get paid accordingly. Then you have gigs that mainly focus on one of those requirements.

My friend has been an entertainer for over 40 years. He's had a full life...sent his son to college and so on and so forth. For his line of work, he never got challenged musically so his keyboard skill is just as bad as it was 40 years ago. He knows how to shift the focus to his vocals and jokes and stuff so well that you wouldn't even pay attention to the accompaniment. It's a win win situation for that particular gig. I've been there a few times, and I absolutely loved it.

Being neither of the above... as a song-writer... I've always been told that a great entertainer can get away with less than great performances if his/her "wow factor and personality... some call it stage presence" is riveting.

Many, many years ago I had a really sweet jazz trio playing the suburbs of DC. Organ, drums, and clarinet. As good as its ever been. I booked it into a club on rt 1 in Bladensburg, 5 night a week. Man we where flying high. On Weds night we had fewer folks than we did on Tues night and on Thusday night we had one table. About 11:00 i went for a ride up the strip to check out what was happening. 3 or 4 other clubs along a one mile strech and all had full parking lots! Went into each & checked out the entertainment. All had singers. some good, some not so good but ALL has vocals. I returned to the club we where at and had the group pack it up. That was the night I decided I had to start singing. It wasn't very good to start but through the years I got better & I have never forgot the lesson I learned that night. The only people who appreciate good music are other musicians
& they are all out working there own gigs. To me, there is no question. If you want to be working you have to entertain.

You said a mouthful! Your story brings back to mind somewhere around 20 years ago. My wife and I were in Greenwich Village in Manhattan we went into The Knickerbocker jazz club. Turns out the late jazz pianist James Williams was playing there. There were only 5 people maybe 6 in the establishment. We couldn't believe how few people were there. I used to follow James when he was playing in Boston so he recognized me. We sat about 8 feet away from the grand piano and watched his every move at the keys. When he took a break he sat with us for about 10 minutes talking about music. I asked him whether he thought it was pure talent that he had or hard work. He said it was about 99% hard work.

Unfortunately, James passed away at 53 years old. As the story goes that year I won tickets from a local jazz station to see him with singer Carole Sloane at the Regatta Bar in Boston for a Valentine's Day performance. My wife and I both thought James was looking very healthy 3 months later cancer took his life.


James Williams Wikipedia Article

Regarding those of us who mostly do assisted living/nursing home gigs....

I have done gigs by myself and with my wife.

The activity directors I know would prefer to have my wife there as she gets out in the crowd. She will sing to residents, dance with them, give them shakers to keep time and generally interact with them.

For the AD's, the music/singing is secondary to interaction with the residents.

Unless the music/singing is bad or boring, I believe to many AD's, it's all the same.

However, interaction with residents is something AD's understand and is a big deal to them.

I have addressed this many times in the past, on this forum and others. Those of us that perform in front of an audience, either as a single, or member of a group, are, first and foremost, entertainers. That's what we are paid to do - ENTERTAIN! It makes no difference where we do this. It can be something as subtle as a small restaurant, assisted living center, nursing home, living room party, Carnage Hall of Dodger's Stadium. Those audiences are there to be entertained.

As for me persanally, I've never been a good musician, and consider myself a hack musician at best. My saving grace in the music industry has always been my vocal ability, plus my ability to communicate with my audiences.

A classic example of this was experienced by one of the best musicians I ever knew, Jerry Burns. Jerry, who passed away just a week ago, teamed up with his wife Elsa, also deceased, creating the Jerry And Elsa Burns Duo. Jerry, who was Peabody trained, once told me that without Elsa holding the mic, and spellbinding the audiences, the best he could hope for was a low-paying job in a piano bar, or as a band member with a big band, making $50 to $75 per performance. Jerry was also the keyboard/piano player for the Zim Zemarel Orchestra for three decades. His wife Elsa was their leading jazz singer. Jerry said "Elsa is an entertainer and the audiences love her. That's why we keep getting hired at the best locations."

Gary

Wow! Gary, I haven't heard that name in years. Jerry was in the 2nd Army Band back in 62-63. He was a monster organist. Was organist for the Orials for a while b4 getting drafted. I remember going to see him at some restaurant in Baltimore and when he recognized me he went into Satin Doll (tune I used for my theme song) at 180. He played full chord melody in right hand, left hand and on one chorus the melody on the pedals all well caring on a conversation with me. I had heard that he was selling organs in So PA. Have often wondered what happened to him. Sad to hear of his passing.

All these comments about jazz clubs, make me wonder how many wedding paties take place in a Jazzclub..

Personally, I never saw a wedding reception, or wedding, take place in a jazz club, but I rarely go to jazz clubs. Gotta keep in mind, though, that jazz music is a very, very small segment of the overall musical entertainment business. The last statistics I read was that jazz audiences ranged from 10 to 13 percent of the total ranging from age 29 to 59. I could be wrong with that statistic, but if I am, I'm sure Tony and Chas will chime in and correct me.

All the best,

Gary

?????

Tony, both you and Chas forgot more about Jazz than I ever knew about the subject.

Gary

Yeah, that about corresponds to that percentage of the population with good taste .

chas

Thanks, but I am not nearly in the same conversation with chas and Russ when it comes to Jazz ...

Gary, Have to tell you I may not know quite as much about jazz as Chas, Russ or Tony but going back to my 20s thru late 40s that’s about all the music I listened to. A good part of my social life was heading to jazz clubs in Boston, locally here in Providence and to a lesser degree NYC. I’ve probably been to more jazz venues than any other type musical performance. I’ve seen McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Michel Camilo, Stanley Turentine, Harry Allen, Greg Abate, Bill Easley, Flip Phillips, Groove Holmes, John PIzzarelli, Mose Allison, Gray Sargeant, Makoto Ozone, Rhode Island native Mike Renzi, Laszlo Gardonay, Alan Broadbent, Bill Charlap, Dave McKenna, Carole Sloane,Dianne Reeves and Jessica Molaskey ( wife of John PIzzarelli). Those are the top ones and there was some excellent locals too who never made it to the top.

My regret is I never got to see Oscar Peterson. About 18 months ago Joey DeFrancesco was playing in nearby Ct. I missed seeing him. Ironically I have never been to the Newport Jazz Festival which is held about a 45 minute ride from where I live because I prefer hearing jazz in a club not in a large field


When it comes to audience size it’s the same reason when I wrote we went to the Knickerbocker in Greenwich Village on a Thursday evening that they were only 6 people listening to pianist James Williams.

Wow!, another jazzer. It sure sounds like you qualify,Steve.

When it comes to Jazz, my Opinion:

Two kinds of jazz. The one that I favor is when the melody is not completely lost. The second is when the melody is played and then they go off onto another journey, which could fit a number of other songs. They use scales and play against the chords.

That is why the musician I was playing asked me what song we were playing. Both songs were in the key F and had similar chord progression.

John C.