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Don Preston


medjuck

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the thing about Zappa's band, particularly the first, was that it was more than his writing, though that of course ultimately made it what it was. But (not unlike the Ellington band) it was the personalities of the band that really gave life to what he was writing - and I will testify from having heard them in person that that first one, supposedly less technically accomplished than some of his later bands, was an amazing group, and technically quite up to what he was doing. Yeah, he wrote the music and owned the franchise, but he could have taken better care of his sidemen. He (and Gail) got very rich. And I'm sure the Zappa family could help out Preston (who was later, I know) if they wanted to.

Edited by AllenLowe
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1 hour ago, medjuck said:

In my experience very few first call people got more than scale (which was pretty high).  One exception was Larry Bunker who always got double scale.   However those who played more than one instrument on a session would get extra. 

Right, that's a doubling fee, you get paid more if you double (or truiple, etc.). Some instruments would get paid cartage too, compensation for having to haul shit around.

As far as getting more than scale, that was probably more common back in the day when work was everywhere. In these days of computerized/digitalized scoring and performance, probably not so much. But I seem to recall hearing more than once that guys like Bud Shank, Barney Kessell, etc. would demand triple scale because there was so much work for everybody that unless it was a labor of love, they needed to get paid. And they got it. This was in the 50s and 60s. Around here, there was demo work and jingle work aplenty through most of the 80s, and guys who played those gigs still made those types of demands. There was a budget, so they got it. They guys with a MIDI setup in their garage started doing it for the cost of one or less players, and that was that.

But that was then, that kind of thing is over today, everywhere, really. I knew a few guys making good bread living in NYC during the late-80s/early 90s doing session work for Japanese karaoke tapes, steady, decent income. All done now.

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On 10/5/2017 at 0:34 PM, JSngry said:

Right, that's a doubling fee, you get paid more if you double (or truiple, etc.). Some instruments would get paid cartage too, compensation for having to haul shit around.

As far as getting more than scale, that was probably more common back in the day when work was everywhere. In these days of computerized/digitalized scoring and performance, probably not so much. But I seem to recall hearing more than once that guys like Bud Shank, Barney Kessell, etc. would demand triple scale because there was so much work for everybody that unless it was a labor of love, they needed to get paid. And they got it. This was in the 50s and 60s. Around here, there was demo work and jingle work aplenty through most of the 80s, and guys who played those gigs still made those types of demands. There was a budget, so they got it. They guys with a MIDI setup in their garage started doing it for the cost of one or less players, and that was that.

But that was then, that kind of thing is over today, everywhere, really. I knew a few guys making good bread living in NYC during the late-80s/early 90s doing session work for Japanese karaoke tapes, steady, decent income. All done now.

Speaking of money over scale, Alfred Lion paid Billy Higgins an extra $50 per session - not a small amount in the '60s (that was my weekly net working for Jazz Record Mart/Delmark in 1966/7).

Edited by Chuck Nessa
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