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JAZZ MUSICIANS' PROTOCOL
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By Ken Watters (Trumpeter / Summit Recording Artist / Yamaha Artist)
LEADERS:
1) Whenever possible, pay the band BEFORE you socialize or break down the equipment. This allows them to leave at their own liberty when the gig is over.
2) Always try to pay the band AT the gig. If this isn't possible and the musicians must be paid later, let them know in advance. Being told (at the gig) that "the check will be mailed" can be an unpleasant surprise.
3) Don't start a gig before the designated start time, and unless you're being paid significantly more for overtime, end at the designated time. It's always better to leave the audience wanting more than less.
4) Don't call a tune that more than one person in the band is uncomfortable with.
5) If you are performing for a "listening" audience (clubs, concerts, etc.), introduce the players at least once every set.
6) Under normal circumstances, never make your musicians play for more than one hour before taking a break -- also remember that the audience needs breaks as well as the musicians.
7) Decide which tune is next WELL BEFORE the last one ends, so you don't spend 15 minutes between tunes. Or simply make out set lists.
8) Try to be as fair as you can with regard to how much you pay your musicians. If a gig pays very little, it makes more sense to simply divide the money evenly among the whole band (including yourself), rather than to take a chunk off the top and have your musicians make even less. You want to keep everyone happy if you can.
9) When forming a band, always try to consult with the drummer OR the bass player about which drummer OR bass player they would enjoy working with. This tends to insure that the band will groove.
10) If a member of your group misses a rehearsal without an excuse, talk with the person immediately. If a member misses a GIG without an excuse or a sub, fire that person. Remember,
NO ONE is indispensable.
11) If a singer asks (more like DEMANDS) to sit in, be prepared to play "God Bless the Child," "Summertime," or "My Funny Valentine" in any key. 90% (more like 100%) of the time, that's what they'll call.
12) Try not to ever develop contempt for the audience during a gig, even if they are totally unresponsive or downright rude. If you find yourself performing for an unappreciative crowd, simply focus your energies on your music.
13) NEVER adjust the knobs (volume, etc.) on another musician's instrument. If you'd like that person to make adjustments in their sound, simply ask THEM to make the necessary changes.
14) Being the leader of a band, small or large, can be very hard. A band is very similar to a marriage - only between several people (rather than two). If the ATTITUDE of the band takes a nosedive for any reason, pinpoint the exact problem and try & fix it. If it cannot be fixed, sometimes a personnel change must be made. We are in music because we love what we do - not because of the steady paychecks & healthcare benefits. Do anything and everything you can to stay happy in your job.
15) Don't undercut the other professional bands in town (fee wise) just to insure that your band will work. This practice can anger your peers as well as hurt the overall scene for everyone.
16) Preserve your dignity. If a clubowner cancels you or your band more than once within a few days of the gig, STOP PLAYING THERE.
__________________________________________
Always remember that you & your band deserve to be treated well.
To do what we do WELL takes as much (or more) training, preparation, and study as it takes to be a doctor.
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SIDEMEN / SIDEWOMEN:
1) Don't complain during a gig. If you don't enjoy a particular gig, simply say that you're busy the next time you're called for it. One bad attitude can make everyone on the bandstand miserable.
2) If you don't know a tune, READ IT. It's FAR more acceptable to play it correctly than to "look cool" by not reading and then screw a tune up because you don't really know it.
3) If you're not qualified for the gig, don't take it (for example, if a gig calls for a "lead" trumpet and you're a jazz player only, don't take that gig).
4) ALWAYS be ready to play on time for downbeat.
5) Never ask the leader how much money he/she is making for the gig. As a sideperson, your business is only what YOU are making.
6) Listen to the other band members' solos. Don't go and socialize during them.
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IN GENERAL:
1) When you attend someone else's gig, don't pull out your instrument until you're ASKED to sit in -- do not sit there noodling on your instrument. Warm up on your instrument BEFORE you get to the venue.
2) If you call a tune while sitting in at a jam session, make sure that you know it VERY well.
3) At a jam session, sit down after one tune unless you're ASKED to stay and play more.
4) After you play at a jam session, stay around for a while. It is rude to leave the venue the minute you're finished playing.
5) Stay sober enough to play well throughout the gig. The musician community is small, and word travels VERY fast.
6) Know the forms on tunes. Always remember that "Autumn Leaves" is AAB, as is "Song For My Father," and "Jordu" is AABA. These tunes are FREQUENTLY called at jam sessions, and soloists frequently end their solos in the wrong place.
7) Be ECONOMICAL with solo lengths -- ESPECIALLY at jam sessions. When you run dry of ideas,
end your solo after that chorus. Be considerate of the drummer and bassist having to comp for a thousand choruses. Along these same lines, if there is another person onstage with you at a jam session that plays the same instrument, it's indeed polite to resist the urge to try & turn the session into a "pissing contest" (everyone reading this webpage knows exactly what I mean). This GREATLY annoys most rhythm sections that are called upon to "back" a jam session.
Remember, music is NOT a sport.
8) The melody can be played by many intruments IF it is the type of melody that can be played in unison. Often, and particularly in slower tunes (i.e. ballads), it is best to have one instrument play the melody or split it up with another player (meaning someone else will take the bridge). On the slower tunes, everyone tends to have their own interpretation of the melody, and if it's played by more than one player it can sound very bad.
9) Often, the bass and drum solos are last before the restatement of the melody "out."
It's also customary, for the drum solo, to trade either "fours" or "eights" (depending on the tempo of the tune) with the rest of the band, with the first soloist starting his "four" first, and the soloists going in the order that they took their solos between drum breaks.
10) As a rhythm section member, be sensitive to the level of energy that the soloist is putting out. If a soloist wants to build energy, they will generally make it clear by the way they play. It is indeed rude to either NOT react to a soloist, or to try and force the energy level up (or down) without regard to what the soloist is doing. So, basically the rhythm section should ALWAYS be listening and reacting to the soloist.
11) NETWORK! This point cannot be stressed ENOUGH. Go to other people's gigs, support them, get to know them, and eventually sit in with them when they ask you. If you want to work, people have to know who you are, and that won't happen if you stay home. Don't be a "secret."
12) Pianists, guitarists, and bassists should not only know the chord progressions, but the MELODIES to tunes. This can also apply to drummers. ANYONE who is playing the melody on a tune (horns included) needs to know it CORRECTLY before embellishing it.
13) Horns and other "melody" instruments need to know the CHORD PROGRESSIONS to tunes as well as the melodies.
14) NEVER come back and take another complete solo on a tune that you've already HAD a complete solo on.
15) When you're sitting in at a jam session, NEVER count off a tune so fast that ANYONE on the stand feels uncomfortable. This is rude.
16) LISTEN to the other players at jam sessions. You never know what you might learn and from who you might learn it.
17) Try & remember, once you feel that you've "arrived" as a player, then your musical growing days are over. ALWAYS be absorbing new ideas, approaches, and concepts from anywhere you can.
18) Don't be a "jack of all trades, master of none." If you consider yourself to be a multi instrumentalist, there will indeed come a time that you should settle on ONE in order to begin the road to mastering it.
19) Here are some tunes that are commonly called at jazz gigs and jam sessions. The keys listed are usually what they are played in, but it is important to be able to play them in other keys as well:
All The Things You Are (Ab)
All Of Me (C)
There Is No Greater Love (Bb)
Days of Wine And Roses (F)
Recordame (Ami)
There Will Never Be Another You (Eb)
Blue Bossa (Cmi)
Bluesette (Bb)
Ceora (Ab)
A Foggy Day (F)
Mother Of The Dead Man (JUST KIDDING!)
My Romance (Bb)
It Could Happen To You (Eb)
Au Privave (F)
Sonnymoon For Two (F)
Straight No Chaser (F or Bb)
Blue Monk (Bb)
Alone Together (Dmi)
Oleo (or any rhythm change tune -- usually Bb)
Softly As In a Morning Sunrise (Cmi)
Groovin' High (Eb)
Well You Needn't (F)
Moonlight in Vermont (Eb)
Misty (Eb)
Out of Nowhere (G)
Song For My Father (Fmi)
Mr. P.C. (Cmi)
My Funny Valentine (Cmi)
Confirmation (F)
My One and Only Love (C)
What is This Thing Called Love (C)
I Love You (F)
The Girl With EMPHASEMA (F) (Sorry. That's terrible, I know...)
Triste (Bb)
Meditation (C)
Dolphin Dance (Eb -- tough tune)
Up Jumped Spring (Bb)
Joy Spring (F -- If this is called on a jam session, you are more than likely being tested; watch out for the changes in bars 6 & 7 of the bridge)
Body and Soul (Ebmi)
I'll Remember April (G)
Someday My Prince Will Come (Bb)
Jordu (Cmi)
In a Sentimental Mood (Dmi or Bb mi)
In a Mellow Tone (Ab)
Autumn Leaves (Emi or Gmi)
If I Were a Bell (F)
Green Dolphin Street (in C or Eb)
Four (Eb)
So What (Dmi)
How High The Moon (G)
Have You Met Miss Jones (F)
Solar (Cmi)
Tune Up (D, but watch out)
No More Blues (Dmi -- LONG form)
We'll Be Together Again (C)
Blue Trane (Cmi)
Lullaby of Birdland (Fmi)
All Blues (G)
I Could Write a Book (C)
Black Orpheus (Ami)
But Not For Me (Eb or F)
Someone to Watch Over Me (Bb or Eb)
Take The A Train (C)
Just Friends (G)
How Insensitive (Dmi)
But Beautiful (any key)
Soon (Eb)
Easy Living (F)
You Don't Know What Love Is (Fmi)
Autumn In New York (F)
Bye Bye Blackbird (F)
My Foolish Heart (C)
Willow Weep For Me (G)
If I Should Lose You (Gmi)
Everything Happens to Me (Bb)
Moment's Notice (Eb) (This tune is TRICKY. If you don't know it, READ IT.)
The Nearness of You (F)
It Had To Be You (Harry Connick's fault; in G)
Soon (Eb)
Emily (C)
Tangerine (F)
Giant Steps (pretty much Eb - If someone calls this at a JAM SESSION, then they're wanting to show off. This is ridiculous. Let 'em have it.)
This list can go on and on, but you will DEFINITELY play or hear these at jazz sessions all around the world.
_________________________________________________
Please send any comments and/or suggestions to kenwatt@aol.com (Ken Watters).
USEFUL SITES:
Harry Watters / Jazz Trombonist
www.sundialrecords.com
____________________
KEN WATTERS GROUP INFORMATION AT ALL ABOUT JAZZ
(contains bio and performance dates, etc)
http://www.xcent.com/aaj/directory/display-aaj-artist.asp?LastName=Watters&ArtistID=567
____________________
KEN WATTERS GROUP TEMPORARY WEBSITE
(Information on the quartet, members, etc)
http://hometown.aol.com/kenwattersgroup/myhomepage/index.html
____________________
AMAZON.COM / BROTHERS & BROTHERS II (BY KEN & HARRY WATTERS) CD LISTINGS
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004TKER/qid=976590683/sr=1-2/104-8034248-08
09542 ____________________
Michael Furstner's JAZZCLASS
http ;//www.jazclass.aust.com/
Award winning Music Education site with lessions, Email courses and books on Jazz, Blues, Improvisation, Music Theory, Saxophone, and Keyboard.
____________________
K-12 RESOURCES FOR MUSIC EDUCATORS
Valuable information for music educators and performers of all levels
http://www.isd77.k12.mn.us/resources/staffpages/shirk/k12.music.html
____________________
DOLPHIN DON'S MUSIC SCHOOL
www.dolphindon.com
____________________
JAZZ VIEWS CD Reviews
http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/pettruciani/235/Ceedrev.html
____________________
JAZZ ONLINE
http://www.jazzonline.com/freshjazz.cfm
____________________
THE JAZZ REVIEW
http://www.jazzreview.com/
____________________
DOWN BEAT
http://www.downbeatjazz.com/sections/home/text/default.asp
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ALL-JAZZ CLEARINGHOUSE
http://www.all-jazz.com/
____________________
Music Education sites
www.trumpetlessons.net/links/education.html
____________________
Personal Trumpet Pages
www.jazztrumpet.com/links/personal.html
____________________
Great jazz site:
http://www.halcyon.com/mlrecmod/FRIENDS.HTM
____________________
LOOK FOR THE INFORMATION ON THIS PAGE
IN BOOK FORM NEXT WINTER!
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