I have gotten a little behind in my posting so I thought I’d catch myself up with summary.
May 4th Palm Lounge inside the Hotel Fort Garry
My usual one a month appearance at Winnipeg’s oldest Hotel. A swanky place in the old style you just won’t get anywhere in the city!
Laura Store Grand Re-opening
This was my last gig with Larry Bjornson. Larry is a fantastic bass player who knows a lot of tunes. He was transferred, by the military, here from Nova Scotia 4 years ago. He really made the scene here better, is a great dude and so much fun to play with.
It was a fun gig playing for a more age appropriate crowd in the clientele and the staff. It was unfortunate that getting paid for this gig was so hard. I had to shame the corporation on social media to get a cheque sent a month after the gig despite sending an invoice 2 weeks before the gig.
Playing Jazz on MY Birthday Weekend
Most people don’t want to work on their birthday and certainly not a Friday before but I Love my ‘job’ so playing on the eve of my birthday was perfect for me.
Early June had my re -appearance at the Hotel Fort Garry.
June 13th had me sitting in with the Brian Chipney Trio. Their regular guitarist/harmonist was under the weather so I got the call. Brian is very organized and sent charts and set lists in advance so I was able to check them out in advance (many were tunes I had never played before) and then go all 21st century and loaded them on to my Microsoft Surface and read the charts from that.
Outside gigs with, wind and paper charts, are a drag.
June 15th had me back at McNally Robinson again with our regular Burton’s Jazz Trio.
Canada Day at the Hotel Fort Garry. I don’t mind working long weekends as my life is a long weekend.
July 5th had us at the ANAVETS club. This is our 3rd and last time. The last time the group next door was crazy loud and could be heard over us while we played and the time before that is was the coldest night on record. Having said that, we are not the right kind of music or level of group for this place. Putting in a jazz group (even if we played A LOT of classic rock, pop, blues and soul tunes), was a brave move. The pay could only be made fair from drawing a crowd and having a cover charge.
Better gig for the amateurs.
You know what doesn’t draw a crowd?
Musicians that play 2-5 times a month. I have learned that when your friends know they can see you anytime they may come see you, but not all of them that one night you need them to because a bunch of your pay is coming in the form of a cover charge. To make matters harder, they only charge non-members. So basically your family and friends
What does draw a crowd is Ken and Karen from the office and their one in a blue moon gig. Another draw in having bands, like Ken and Karen’s, with more than 2 people in the group. The base pay barely makes a duo worth it. When some of the amateur bands out there have 5-7 members and they play once in never, they are doing for fun. Ironically though, they can get their friends and family to show up for their once a year gig. With 5-7 of them, that’s a lot of family and friends paying the cover.
The once in while bands, willing to play for $20, and drag friends to it, sound like the once in a while players they are and so, the cycle continues
July 6th McNally Robinson Winnipeg. Our last gig before jetting off to the UK for 3 weeks.
