Getting Gigs for Big Band

[saxomophoneguy]

I'm organizing a 15 piece big band now. we're planning to play at dances and parties. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to find gigs for the band and where to practice? sharing some experiences would be great!!!

Thanks

[paulwl]

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to find gigs for the band and where to practice?
Everybody loves big band music...as long as it's free. Very few will pay for it, and practically no one will pay well for it.

Offer to play for community events. Solicit possible sponsors as a community organization. Approach organizations who own large halls. Offer free concert in exchange for free use of the hall to rehearse.

[Chris S]

Try putting up some flyers in flower shops (weddings). Weddings will pay you. I don't know much about your local situation (geographically), but I've found that restaurants are pretty receptive (but only if they have an outdoor patio, otherwise you'll be way too loud). I just got done for the summer with my big band. Maybe also try some art galleries and check out when they have their openings, those are good sometimes. The key I think behind all of it, is make yourself known. I live in a relatively small town (50,000 or so) and there are people that I know pretty well who don't even know that I have a big band. Best of luck, and btw, organizing 15+musicians is a Herculean task.

Chris S

PS Feel free to email me if you have any other questions.

[Transcriber-arranger]

For rehearsal space, try churches, senior citizen communities, and schools.

[brick]

I play in a 17 piece big band so take it from me gigs are hard to come by. Paulwl is right when he says people like the music but few are willing to pay. You are going to have to deal with playing a lot of community and charity gigs but it's worth. There are usually lots of people at those kinds of things and some may be looking to hire a band for another event. Word of mouth can spread from those kinds of gigs. I find that no matter how many fliers we put up the next gig always comes from someone who heard us at another event. Good Luck!

[Vortex]

Wedding gigs are some of the best you'll find - great crowd, everyone's happy, usually a nice dinner-hall, low-stress, and you'll probably get a lot of tips in addition to some handsome pay! Just a monetary suggestion - you're going to be splitting the pay with all 15 of those guys, so don't expect a huge slice of the pie if you maintain that size.

[saxyclarinet]

My band director's group (smaller than yours; last I knew, they were nine-piece, but they've made lineup changes recently) does weddings for most of their gigs. He and the rest of the band lives in a relatively small area (Rhode Island/southeastern Massachusetts), so they don't really have any competition for anything, so the situation's probably different elsewhere. :oops: They opened for Earth, Wind, and Fire once, though. :) This is their website (http://brassattack.com/home.php) if you want to get an idea of how they go about things.

[Riff]

I'm organizing a 15 piece big band now. we're planning to play at dances and parties.

To expect people to dance to big band music means one of two things.
First, you need to play almost nothing but stock arrangements of nostalgia music. ie: Glen Miller, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, etc. etc. I played lead alto in such a band (11 pieces) for nearly two years. The advantage to this is that it's a great lesson in jazz history as it pertains to popular big band music. The down side is that the audience you'll atract will be the 60 year-old and over crowd. Most of the gigs we did were small functions at Elks lodges and the like. Not very much money in this demographic.

Second, your other option is to do mostly rock/funk arrangements written for big band. This style of music won't appeal to the older crown mentioned above. It will mildly interest the yuppie demographic but they won't do much dancing to it since they won't find the tunes very recognizable. Again, not much money will flow from dance venues if the clientel isn't dancing. I've done this type of gig too.

My advice is to forget the party/dance idea and seek a concert format.
I currently play lead tenor in an 18 piece big band and we do quite a few of these type gigs. Some pay well, but most don't. The summer season is the busiest time for this type of gig. Lots of outdoor festivals. We also do government events for the city and county. For example, February is Black History Month and our city sponsors a formal dinner/awards event to honor citizens in the city that work to better life in the black community. Local corporations sponsor similar events not only for the benefit of their companies but as charitible fund raisers too. Don't forget to look into your local convention center and find out who books events there.
The best thing about the concert format is that you can play real jazz that people are willing to listen to, and not have to worry about how many folks are on the dance floor. Pay for the gigs we get runs anywhere from $15/man to $100/man depending on how deep the employer's pockets are, how far we have to travel, and how long we have to play. (Sometimes they feed the band which is a nice perk.)

[paulwl]

There is a third way, but it requires a pre-existing traditional jazz (ie:dixieland) audience. This is the "revival" type big band. Often a "little big band" (9-11 pieces), there are probably dozens of them around the country playing 1920s and '30s music - ie, just out of the living memory of the audience.

On the upside, this means they usually avoid playing the nostalgia favorites unless they're on a private gig. This is good because you get to play something besides the same 16 golden hits all the time. On the downside, dancing to this music is out of favor. The 90s swing revival passed it by because a lot of the up-tunes are too fast to really show off your moves. Ballroom dancing originally was social (lotta boring medium fox trots no one plays now). Today it's more of a hobby, or even a sport. The club or concert venue is ideal for this period of music as long as it's kept interesting. Today, that means jazzy.

Again, you have to build the clientele slowly for this kind of organization, and it's easiest to start with places that accept trad jazz. This in itself is a little bit of a demographic dry hole these days. There also seems to be room for only one revival band in each market, San Francisco and New York excepted.

If you like, check out my 30s orchestra on CD at:
http://www.lindemeyer.com/cds/cds.html

[Frank D]

All the suggestions above apply, it just depends on your objective. If you just want to play and have fun, then seek out public events and play for free.

If you want to make money, try to book a smaller band based on the big band personnel - a quartet or quintet using piano, bass, drums and a couple of horns. Advertise as the quintet with the ability to expand to a larger band as needed. Adjust your price according to the size of the band. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

www.tedknight.com