Every entertainer will tell you about the times opening night and closing night were the same event. Alas, that was the sole occurrence today of any note. I had to let JJ go. Here was a guy who had twice my experience and made five times my money, but things still did not work out. I’ll provide a little background and philosophy in the hopes this becomes more understandable than it all seems at first. This adds up to another start-up band down the drain. Poof! Gone.
My experience is you are an original band or a cover band, and any nonsense in between does not cut it. If you are playing somebody else’s version of a tune, you should make it a stunning (but faithful) rendition. No Zydeco versions. If you try to sluff through, it comes off as elevator music or lounge music, a pastel of the full color people are expecting. I further believe that each hit song has a certain “flavor”, an extra something that sets it apart as a hit from thousands of other songs with the same beat, same chords, same notes, you know what I mean.
And I further believe a big part of that extra something is making sure you play any distinctive intros, exits, chops, stops and fills that are present. Leaving them out is not an option. They are a big part of what makes a hit song unique. The chording along between them is the easy part. Let’s tie this together with a few other concerns you may not find except in a bass player.
One, I realize non-bassists often choose songs with totally boring bass lines. That places a burden on a good bassist who has to play that boring line to sound authentic. Two, anybody who says I’m just a bass player has not really listened to what I play—which I fully admit is a common situation around here. The fact is, I rarely play just roots and fifths unless they are part of what makes the song unique. Three, no matter how many years or how well you play your instrument, it isn’t worth squat if you don’t put on a respectable show.
Sadly, JJ showed up tonight and did a third rate job on my stage. He forgot every intro, every exit, every last detail we had rehearsed that made my 15 songs sound real. He reverted to complete auto-chord backgrounds and messed up every drum break. I even detected, to my horror, a case of stage fright, which I define as being unprepared. He came across like what he was, an old lounge musician comping everything out of a fake book. This is NOT, repeat NOT, at all what we had agreed upon and certainly not what I just spent over a month driving to his play to rehearse. JJ was out of line on this one.
During a break, I asked him why he was doing this. The reply was one of those objections I’ve learned to expect from countless guitarists. He said he did not have time to learn to play these tunes and it was my duty to chart out the complete piano parts for him. JJ says these charts are what constitute and “act”, and without the charts I have no act. Further, he stated I should have a set of these charts for any and every guitarist, drummer, or other musician passing through town so they could stand in for the gig. Like they did back in the 1940s, I think.
When I pointed out that my ad specified I intended to do local gigs with musicians dedicated to one single band, JJ didn’t believe in musicians “belonging” to a band. Funny he waited until now to say anything. When I said if he wanted these charts, he was welcome to make or purchase them, but that I was a musician, not an author. He insisted it was part of my job, but when I asked him where were his charts for my parts, he foolishly replied that they were not available or needed because I was “only a bass player”. I see.
So, fifty years of experience doesn’t work either. He could not play the parts, messed up every intro, and was not appreciative that I’d learned all of his tunes. He faked his way through every instrumental break, took far too long between songs to flip through his hundreds pages of material that we don’t do, denigrated my abilities, and in the end basically stated he had no intention of learning any of my songs. It was, he said, too much work. I realize now that I’d ignored dozens of warning signals.
It is back to square one. If you can’t put on a decent show at an undemanding venue like Jimbos, no way am I risking anywhere else. True, I do push people on stage as early in the formative days as possible, but that is deliberate to separate the talkers from the doers. JJ was an exception, in that he really did have the experience. But that did not translate into a saleable country sound, and I also conclude that his objection (to no charts) was unreasonable and he knew that, so therefore he never intended to learn anything new or play in a real duo. He has fifty years of one kind of experience and that is all.
Time to take stock. Since 2006, I’ve been through 13 guitar players (five of whom never made it to stage), one vocalist and one keyboard player, all in a few short years. Except for Jag, none of them went any distance and I was teaching Jag his parts. Am I being too demanding? I doubt it, my musical standards have never sunk so low as they are today. I ask a guitar player to show up and play his part without trying to be the hero of the band, or put another way, my band.
And make no mistake about it, I have a band that can play gigs by itself. It is a going concern for six years now; there is far more to my show than explained by just playing bass. I have the PA, the cables, the chords, the contacts, the lyrics, the music, everything right down to a place we can rehearse live and potentially get paid. I need a country band because by my solo performance is not strong enough. A band is a business proposition, not a rodeo and I learned that lesson by the time I was 14. One would think I offer an ideal situation for anyone serious about playing.
Yet, this system isn’t working. Applying Occam’s Razor, that is, I select the explanation that makes the fewest assumptions. The bottom line is most of the others did not or could not learn the music we agreed upon, the important clause being “agreed upon”. I have an approach whereby we exchange initial song lists and pick 15 new tunes from the other guy’s material. Thus, each person contributes 15 examples of his tunes, and picks from the other list the things he would like to play. Naturally, if he is wise, he will choose items he already familiar with.
I immediately get to work and learn the other guy’s 15 tunes. Search, download, trim, normalize, equalize, convert, burn and file. Find the lyrics, find the chord charts or memorize the tune. Spend hours customizing a bass line, especially where the original is weak. Then only to find a month to six weeks later, the other party has not adequately learned even one of the tunes they themselves picked from my list.
It seems to be shortly after the third rehearsal that the problems begin. The other person, for whatever reason, is not learning my material. At first, I’ve been attributing this to the new situation, but now I’m beginning to suspect they can’t do the job and the rest is an elaborate cover-up. When held to task about not playing the tunes right, every one of the candidates was able to come up with some blanket reason why. But now I see the pattern. They are not adaptable and think after I’ve put in enough effort, I won’t back out and they can revert to however they were playing before that didn’t work either.
How to confront or solve this problem? Do I change my premise or do I enact polices that make it difficult for other musicians to get away with things for a month or more before the truth comes out? By then, it has cost me. I do get a secondary problem with the other musicians unable to hear the music from any but their own instrument’s perspective. I know all about this, I myself listen to music differently when I am learning the tune as opposed to being entertained. But I also know the ability can be learned and it is an excuse for any musician not to be able to do it well.
What to do?
