Making a good and lively show

[Gheorghe]

Hello all !

Though I´m not a professional musician, I sometimes play a club date or an opening set into leading a jam session, and I´d like to get some advices concerning stage manners, how to make a set look  more similar to a "show".

I grew  up in the 70´s when stage manners (at least in my home country) were lousy. It seemed  like if everybody wanted to borrow a bit from Miles, and attending a club performance, even if the music was great and usually it was great, the standard stage behaviour was grim faces, casual look, sloppy movements and it seemed to be a question of honour not to pay attention to the audience.

But I also saw live performances with the bop survivors who were still very much in action (Dexter, Diz, Max, J.J. Johnson, etc. ) and they all had their little show routine. Maybe the more radical audiences of that time (who dug electric Miles, free jazz and western avantgarde jazz or ECM-style) might have thought that this is old fashioned , but I´d like to get a bit more of that stage gimmicks into our playing sets.

Anyway we started to do it that way and it sells.

My first and best critic is and was always my wife. After the first time seeing me on stage she said to me "you play great and people love it, but it seems like you got horse blenders ! You are supposed to smile more, look at your audience, make more announcements, make people feel good...."  and so on.

And that´s how it started . We get a gig and begin to  see familiar faces, new faces, people who come to hear us, even if we are not "famous", and even if they are used to other kind of music and hadn´t heard about Monk or Bud or Diz or Bird.....

We started to make little stage announcements, presenting the group, making humoristic remarks, not lecturing the audience but entertaining them...., even if they wouldn´t listen to "Salt Peanuts, Tin Tin Deo, Evidence and stuff like that the other day......

Now I´m looking forward playing much more with a female singer, she will sing some vocals on each set, and it will be even more important to make a good stage show.

How do you musicians handle it on stage ? And do you have some advices for me, maybe how to close a set, how to make announcements along playing a theme song (somehow like Dexter did it, from the last fast tune into the "Theme Song" (Long Tall Dexter) with Dex presenting the musicians....

Thank you !

[JSngry]

Just talk to people, be natural. If you're enthusiastic about what you're playing, bring that. If you're serious, bring that. But just talk to them. You don't want to be like a variety show host, but the Miles thing, that worked because Miles pulled it off as a total persona, and besides, he was a true badass, so that was his way of talking to people, of telling them to pay attention. Most people are not true badasses.

If you have some stories to tell about the songs or the people, tell them, again, don't be all "host-y" about it, just talk to people to let them know that you know they're there, that you like them being there, and you want them to have enjoy their time with your music. Introducing the band is always good, and not just at the end of a set.

Basically, it's like anything else - give your audience what you would like to be given if you were in the audience hearing your type of music. I think that holds true for any music and any audience. What the "that" of that is will vary, but the principle is the same.

[Gheorghe]

Thank you so much for your advices, that´s it ! to give my audience what I would like to feel if I were in the audience. I´ll be aware of that !

And yes, telling them about the songs is a very good idea, and not to exagerate it.

The next gigs will be something like some tribute to Ella and Diz, since we also work with a singer who sings much of stuff Ella sang and I play much of Dizzy´s stuff.

That kind of music really offers some occasions  to tell people something.

About the "Miles thing".....I remember how it was then,  people mostly "musicians" or "want to be musicians"  really tried to imitate that behaviour even if they where not badasses, they tried to be badasses just to be like "Miles". I didn´t think about it much, because I was too young. I thought that´s how you are supposed to act if you want to be cool "smile"......

Anyway it seemed that even Miles´ bandmembers tried to "out- miles" the boss himself. If you look at the Berlin 1969, Chick and Dave Holland don´t even smile when they are announced. they just look angry. Even Miles seemed to be more mellow on that occasion.

[fasstrack]

You really don't have to say much. Sometimes just 'hello' will suffice. Talking to the crowd is not a bad idea, though. I remember the late Clarence 'C'. Sharpe relating a story wherein a club owner told him 'You're in show business! Open your mouth. Say something!' He started talking after that. C. was a talker, though, and that may not be you. I talk a bit on my own gigs if I'm the leader, and fancy myself a jokester.

I think, though, it's the attitude you project more than what you say that will entertain and engage people. Just the basics: dress nicely, no surly looks, give the folks the feeling that you respect them and the $ they spent to come out and hear/support live music. All the while be yourself. People can read phoniness and will be turned off by it.

The main point is that if people like you they may be more apt to like your music. Of course, never change a note of, or dumb down, your music. People will get it.

Hope this helps a little...

[Gheorghe]

thanks fasstrack. Yeah that helps much.

I don´t have the intention to talk and talk and talk, but just want to let people feel I´m glad they came to hear us  and we are glad to play some music for them.

What I really want to do on the next occasions is to have a "theme" song, something you can play at the end of  each set, something that grooves where you can make short announcments , presenting the musicians, sayin thanks for the kind applause and something "we´ll be back after a short intermission". I like that on live records. But it must not be 52´nd street theme that´s too fast to talk over it, though I love to play it but as a tune of it´s own....

 

[fasstrack]

On 16/08/2016 at 9:34 PM, Gheorghe said:

 What I really want to do on the next occasions is to have a "theme" song ...

Not a bad idea at all. I usually play a short version of the same tune to end each set. It gives the evening cohesiveness. I've been playing Wes Montgomery's Missile Blues---just the head---as a break tune at a restaurant I play at in Tribeca...

[JSngry]

If you're going to have a set-closer to talk over, pick something that fits with your natural speech patterns and rhythms. That set closer that Cannonball used over the years, he could say as little or as much as he wanted to because he wasn't at odds with the tempo or the pocket. In a perfect world, speech and music flow together and become continuations of each other. I can't live in that world, I stutter, but those who can definitely should, because swing, that's why!

[Gheorghe]

Thank you Fasstrack and JSngry !

As for a break tune I really thought about  "Don´t stop the Carneval". That´s a catchy thing, and you can go down with the volume while making the announcements. And it can fit to the speech, anyway I think there´s no need to "hurry". You can let some space like first you thank the audience and start to present the musicians, leaving space for the applause for each one and for some bars for a short "showcase", lets say a drum pattern, a bass riff, some piano runs, and a closing announce (we´ll be back after intermission) and than give some heat with that simple tune for some moments and stop....

Or maybe the A section of Night in Tunisia in the manner Diz played it in the later periods from the late 70´s on, I think he did the A section in 6/8 time that gives space for some catchy bass vamps and for the last 2 bars of the A section he switches to a swift 4/4 ....., you can keept that groove while making the announcements.  maybe that, or maybe better "Dont Stop the Carneval".