dinner music advice

[jonnylloyd]

hey folks

i've been playin for about 6 years now and i've been gettin together with a school mate who plays bass with the aim of eventually tryin to get a few gigs in local restaurants etc. i was wonderin if you folks could throw a few ideas into the pot for a repetoire. im thinkin fairly soft music that people can ignore or listen to easily or whatever... heres what im thinkin so far...

blue train
unforgettable
desafinado
fly me to the moon
girl from ipaemema (spelling?)
as time goes by... that kinda stuff

anymore thoughts with regard to tunes... or this type of gig in general...

this is my first post on this site although i've been readin the wealth of wisdom here for a few months now and its extremely helpful for a 17 year old like myself, cut off due to age and location to hear from so many hardened hornblowers...

ta

[Stencilman]

Hey Jonny,
Dinner gigs are great. Small group (duo or trio in my case), very little equipment and people that aren't scrutinizing the music. My guitarist friend and I refer to dinner gigs as "practice sessions" because we have 3 or 4 hours to work on our technique and improv skills. We both are working on solo albums (he actually has 10 or more CDs released aready) so we work in our own tunes into each set.

You've got a great list to start from - stuff from the Real Book. Also think about adding some popular smooth jazz songs from the present and past (Kenny G - Songbird (yuck), Chuck Mangione - Feels So Good, Spirogyra - Shaker Song), classics from the Beatles (Yesterday, Elenor Rigby), Stevie Wonder (Isn't She Lovely, My Cherie Amor, You Are the Sunshine of My Life) and the huge amount of Motown stuff.

The challenge with some of those songs that can be a bit cheesy and worn out is to make them sound fresh. A few interesting examples can be found on David Sanborn's recent albums (Time Again and Inside).

BTW, I'm Jon Lloyd and both sides of my father's family came from Northern Ireland a couple of generations back. Hey, we could we be related :-)

Have fun playing.

[John Laughter]

jonny, as Stencilman has suggested, be sure to include tunes that people can sing along to or ones which originally had words that will bring back memories and recent "hits" as well. Even though you are thinking about background selections, songs that people can relate to will get you more gigs.

I have found through the years that duos and trios who play what the people can relate to in a dinner club setting will stay busy. Those that play a lot of obscure or real dated instrumentals tend to fade away.

Check out the age of the patrons. Are they of the age that prefer the 1940s/50s standards or a younger crowd that will relate to more recent selections? Customers, as a general rule, are out to relax, drink and have a good evening. Light upbeat selections that are familiar to them will help set the mood and sell more drinks.

[jonnylloyd]

hey guys

ta for all the advice. u've given me a good idea as of what to start thinkin about. glad to see i'm on the right lines... now all i need to do is get sorted

any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

by the way... whats this 'real book' i keep readin about... is it an american book?

stencilman... very curious about the lloyd connection there... lloyds from my family have ended up all over the world escpecially australia so why not america i suppose. i know how rare it is in america as a last name and its pretty uncommon even here in fact with our spelling. the name is originaly welsh because double 'll' is pronounced 'cl' in welsh. sorry for the wee lesson there... just thought you might be interested. let me know what you think

ta

[dolphyo]

ASK CARLA BLEY?

[triplebsaxman]

There is one song that people LOVE: Mercy Mercy Mercy
If you play the right version of this the croud will love you. Some different versions of this are, Joe Zawinuls and Maceo Parkers (i like this one best).
Also some other songs are: Pass the peas, A night in tunisia, Blue Bossa, ornithology, Bernies tune, Airegin and St. Thomas
but you probably have to arrange these songs instead of playing them straight out of a real book
I'm 16 and i play in a group with two drummers and three saxes and a tuba player and this songs work great for me. maybe you can have some luck with them.

[Joe Linux]

I think it depends on the situation. I was playing diner piano in restaurant in Waikiki and got fired because "too many people were sitting there listening to my music." The manager wanted to turn the tables, so he wanted music that would make the people eat faster, which I wasn't really capable of doing.