Post 516: HOW TO MANAGE A JAZZ BAND

It's tough being a band manager. That's why I think it's the duty of all members of a band to support their manager in every way they can and to appreciate his efforts on their behalf.

What do you think is the most important skill a band manager needs? Playing an instrument outstandingly well? Wrong. If you want to run a band that attracts plenty of worthwhile gigs, your business skills are likely to be more important than your musical skills.

In my view, here's what a band manager needs.

1. Man management

Recruit the right musicians and keep all members of your band content and well-behaved - and happy to be part of the team.

2. Customer-relation skills

Courteous and meticulous attention to customers' comments and correspondence.

3. Common sense

For example, don't waste time quoting a fee the client obviously can't afford. Don't play music inappropriate to the occasion.

4. Musical expertise

Obviously essential, but less important than business skills.

5. Optimism

Don't be disheartened by knocks and setbacks. Always smile and look cheerful on stage.

6. Policy

Costume, style, repertoire, etc. Read my blog post about this by clicking here.

7. Willingness to devolve

Let other members of the band be the Musical Director and the Announcer if they are better qualified for these duties.

8. Business and marketing skills

Publicise your band in the most effective ways. And always have business cards available. 

9. A sense of humour

An obvious help - especially in the jazz world.

Here's another bit of advice. Communicate with your audience!

I remember a classical music concert at the Wigmore Hall in London. At the start, amidst applause, the musicians walked on to the stage, and without a word took their seats, played their two pieces, bowed and went off. After the Interval, exactly the same procedure occurred.

The musicians were some of the best in the world. Their playing was sublime. But throughout the two hours of the concert, nobody spoke one word to the audience. This is a convention with some classical music performers, but I think it is a pity. 

I have attended some classical concerts where the musicians have told the audience something about the music and have given a few other bits of information about themselves and where else they will be playing. On one occasion The Wihan String Quartet pleased the audience with a question-and-answer session.

In traditional jazz, too, when you have been booked to give a formal concert and your audience is politely seated, listening attentively to all you play, I think it is important for the band leader - or someone acting as spokesperson/announcer - to have a few words with the audience between tunes.

Speaking to the Audience:
Kenny Ball was a jazz musician who
set a good example.

This is good for achieving a rapport and is also helpful in letting the audience know something about the tunes, the history of our music and about the band.

It is inexcusable to take no notice of the audience between the end of one tune and the start of another, as I have occasionally seen bands do. Why do some bands not even tell the audience the titles of tunes with which they may be unfamiliar?

Remarks to audiences don't have to be profound or scholarly. They can be relatively trivial. For example, you could say which towns the musicians come from. You could say where you have been performing recently. You could tell them it's the banjo player's birthday. Little scraps like this help to establish a good relationship.

And don't feel compelled to tell jokes. There's no need to do so unless your timing and delivery are good and the jokes are of a kind that will not give offence.

Speaking to an audience is not easy. So regard this as another skill you need to develop. It may even be worth practising things you will say.

Something else to avoid is the poor discipline we often witness. Between tunes, members of the band on stage talk among themselves and guffaw at each other's comments - while the audience is left with no idea what is going on.

And there's no excuse for the band members to argue among themselves about what to play next, while the audience sits waiting. From the audience's point of view, this kind of behaviour is irritating. But some bands are guilty. Cut it out!

Post 453: AMPLIFICATION

I have written before about the amplification of music by electronic methods. My opinion has always been that - whenever and wherever possible - musicians should play without artificial amplification. Nothing is better than hearing the tones of all the instruments (and of the 'conversations' between them) in their natural glory. It's the same with chamber music: who would want to hear the sweet notes of a string quartet distorted through an amplification system?

In the street, and in smaller indoor venues, it is usually possible for traditional jazz bands to play very effectively without a microphone or P.A. system in sight.

However, I accept there are occasions when the use of some amplification is unavoidable. Maybe the singer needs to use a microphone in order to be clearly heard. Maybe, in large venues, most of the instruments have to be amplified over a P.A. system, with several microphones in use.

I mention the subject again because a recent conversation gave me further food for thought. A clarinet-player friend of mine, who has been playing traditional jazz for decades, told me the following story about a concert he attended many years ago.

He said Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen were giving a performance and for some reason (maybe a technical problem) they had to play the entire first set without any amplification. My friend said they sounded like a good but ordinary 'amateur' band. But for the second set the powerful P.A. system was working and suddenly they sounded like a different band - very professional - the Kenny Ball Band people knew and loved.

I wonder why that was. My theory is that the audience was familiar with the tunes as recorded through microphones in the studios (Kenny had a number of 'hits' - think of So Do I, Midnight in Moscow, Samantha, The Green Leaves of Summer) and - over the P.A. system they suddenly sounded more like the records fans had been hearing on the radio and buying in the shops. That is to say, the music was complete with the effects produced when electricity was allowed to process it a little. This would be helped by the fact that in public performances the Band virtually always played exactly the same arrangements as it had used on the records.

But maybe I am wrong.

POST 256: THE KENNY BALL APPROACH TO REPERTOIRE

I owe so much to the late Kenny Ball.

I went to hear his band at the King's Lynn Festival (in 1985, I think) and I recorded the entire performance on a little Tandy machine. He inspired me! I immediately decided I wanted to become a traditional jazz trumpet player.

So I set about learning. And thus began a hobby which has become the greatest passion of my old age.

The following year Kenny Ball's band returned to the King's Lynn Festival. The amazing thing was that they played a programme almost identical to that of the previous year. I knew it so well by heart, having spent twelve months with the recording. The tunes and arrangements were exactly the same, as were even some of the 'improvised' solos (and most of the jokes!).

I think this is why some 'purists' have been inclined to say that Kenny Ball was too 'commercial' and didn't play 'proper' New Orleans jazz.

However, Kenny and his entire band were brilliant musicians - technically of the highest standard. And whatever you thought of his programme, there can be no denying that he was one of the few trad jazz musicians to be commercially very successful even in the difficult final decades of the Twentieth Century. He played a narrow range of tunes the public quickly grew to like; and he went on playing them in the same way for years because he knew that was what the public wanted. It was a clever formula.

I'm telling you all this because I received an email from Richard, an English jazz trumpeter, recently in which he wrote:

I used to love going to see Kenny Ball in concert. What an inspiration! Great trumpet player, fun band, always a good performance. But I noticed that the band would have a concert repertoire that they would repeat at each gig that year, in much the same order, with pretty much the same solos. Perhaps it was because he had famous recordings that people expected to hear – but some (not me) would argue that perhaps this wasn’t “proper” jazz because it wasn’t on-the-spot improvisation. Then again, once you’ve learnt the tune, is it ever spontaneous again?

Good point. And I suppose many of us play pretty well the same solos over and over again - particularly with tunes with which we are over-familiar.

But the whole topic raises this question in my mind:

Is it better to play a small number of tunes (concert after concert) really well; or should we be seeking constantly to widen our repertoire?

My trumpet-playing correspondent wrote:

In my bands there are two schools of thought: one is that it is better to have a couple of dozen tunes that we can pitch up with and play on auto-pilot – reasonably well; the other is that we should always tailor the playlist to the venue and introduce new tunes as deemed appropriate.

I tend to hold with the former as I would always prefer to turn in a passable performance – after all, we are just part-time players, not professionals.

It is also the case that in my band I will sometimes throw in a new tune at a rehearsal and the guys are quite happy to play along if the melody is clear and the chords follow a reasonably standard pattern. If it seems difficult we drop it quickly but also if it seems just plain boring! Have you found that sometimes you hear a tune on the radio, a CD or YouTube and think it would be great to play – but then when you try it, it just doesn’t seem to work? That is quite common for us. I think in most cases it is because they need a good vocalist. Some tunes just don’t work as instrumental numbers.

We’ve got a repertoire of about 85 numbers but still end up playing the same hard core of a dozen or so.
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Reader Sam Wood has sent me this comment:

Hello Ivan,

Good to see your piece on Kenny Ball.  He was a regular at Buxton Opera House which is where I got to know and love his band and its music over the last twenty years.

I don't take the purist view that this wasn't jazz.  It was a jazz band playing a lot of pop music and show tunes in their own style, but so what?  The musicianship was faultless, and it was entertainment that pulled in an audience.  You could excuse the bad jokes because they were delivered so well, it was all part of the show.

The purists also criticise Chris Barber who plays some superb Blues and Ellington.  Makes me think the "purists" don't know what they are listening to.

I do miss Kenny Ball, I always regard the classic line-up as Kenny, John Bennett, Andy Cooper, Hugh Ledigo, John Benson and Nick Millward.

The band were always immaculately dressed and always stuck around after the show, signing CD's and so happy to talk to the crowd, who of course pay their wages!

I last saw Kenny about five years ago at a "Three B's" night at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.  He was playing Cornet, an easier blow than Trumpet I believe, and had another player alongside him but the show was as good as ever, including the jokes.

Regards,

Sam

PS. Regarding pop and show tunes, a lot of cinema/theatre organists still make a living playing contemporary popular music on their 1930's-style instruments, so why shouldn't we?

Post 86: 'THE GREEN LEAVES OF SUMMER'

Some of us had a request recently to play The Green Leaves of Summer and we were a little embarrassed because we could not oblige. We were not sure of the chords and would probably have been more than suspect on the dots too. Ralph and I decided we had better do some homework and learn the tune.

In the U.K., The Green Leaves of Summer was made famous in the 1960s by Kenny Ball and his Band. (Sadly, Kenny died on 7 March 2013.) Their version (available on You Tube) has it in F minor; and later (when the trombone takes over the lead) they step up a tone to G minor.

What a great little tune it is! It sounds simple enough, but its special effect is due to its unique progression largely through minor chords.

Internet research reminded me that it was written for the film The Alamo in 1960 by the great American (Russian emigré) film composer Dimitri Tiomkin. What a lot of fine music he had to his credit!

Having spent an hour listening to the tune and tinkering on my keyboard, I came up with a sort of lead sheet for The Green Leaves of Summer, 32 bars in F minor only. Now I must learn it.