Auditions in Hell

[Lozz196]

Virtually impossible 

[Gasman]

So I answered a JMB ad last week for a bass player - seemed interesting with an emphasis on funk n soul, with a female vocalist, so I was thinking Jocelyn Brown, Dawn Penn, Colette Kelly maybe, yum! I responded also mentioning that I played sax. The guy replied that he already had a bass player (a friend, who’d’a guessed, so why advertise?) but would like a sax player as well. So he sent me charts for ten tunes that they were rehearsing, mainly by male not female singers, very little solo sax, a few with brass section stuff, alarm bells already ringing but I  invited him to my place one evening for a chat and a guitar plus sax tryout. It soon became clear that a) he was a very reasonable guitarist but b) he had very fixed ideas about what and how much sax he wanted in each number, eg one 8 bar solo in Moondance in a five minute number, and a few chorus punches in the Graham Parker version of Hold back the night where the original had a three piece brass section riffing all through, you get the idea. I played him some video of what I’ve been doing in other bands, where the sax was used more, but got nowhere so I stopped the session and told him that I didn’t think they needed a saxist, I couldn’t justify 50 mile round trips for rehearsals playing just a few notes with no gigs in the book, and BTW why did he advertise for a bassist if he already had one? Answer came there none… thing is, I took up bass two years after the sax because I’d learned that while bass is pretty essential in a band, sax is a optional extra that needs a careful curation of setlists to get maximum value…grr! Was I being unreasonable?

[Sean]

4 minutes ago, Gasman said:

So I answered a JMB ad last week for a bass player - seemed interesting with an emphasis on funk n soul, with a female vocalist, so I was thinking Jocelyn Brown, Dawn Penn, Colette Kelly maybe, yum! I responded also mentioning that I played sax. The guy replied that he already had a bass player (a friend, who’d’a guessed, so why advertise?) but would like a sax player as well. So he sent me charts for ten tunes that they were rehearsing, mainly by male not female singers, very little solo sax, a few with brass section stuff, alarm bells already ringing but I  invited him to my place one evening for a chat and a guitar plus sax tryout. It soon became clear that a) he was a very reasonable guitarist but b) he had very fixed ideas about what and how much sax he wanted in each number, eg one 8 bar solo in Moondance in a five minute number, and a few chorus punches in the Graham Parker version of Hold back the night where the original had a three piece brass section riffing all through, you get the idea. I played him some video of what I’ve been doing in other bands, where the sax was used more, but got nowhere so I stopped the session and told him that I didn’t think they needed a saxist, I couldn’t justify 50 mile round trips for rehearsals playing just a few notes with no gigs in the book, and BTW why did he advertise for a bassist if he already had one? Answer came there none… thing is, I took up bass two years after the sax because I’d learned that while bass is pretty essential in a band, sax is a optional extra that needs a careful curation of setlists to get maximum value…grr! Was I being unreasonable?

I think you handled that very well indeed. You were 100% straight and got all the expectations out.

 

I agree with the thoughts about how sax should be handled as far as set lists go too.

 

[tauzero]

3 hours ago, Gasman said:

I took up bass two years after the sax because I’d learned that while bass is pretty essential in a band, sax is a optional extra that needs a careful curation of setlists to get maximum value…grr! Was I being unreasonable?

 

Sax is one of those instruments that if you find a band that really wants it, they properly need it, but very few bands do. Bass is one of those things that lots of bands need, so be assured that just because that band has filled the slot doesn't mean that a) the band in the next rehearsal room along doesn't want one and b) that slot will stay filled.

[Bluewine]

5 hours ago, Gasman said:

So I answered a JMB ad last week for a bass player - seemed interesting with an emphasis on funk n soul, with a female vocalist, so I was thinking Jocelyn Brown, Dawn Penn, Colette Kelly maybe, yum! I responded also mentioning that I played sax. The guy replied that he already had a bass player (a friend, who’d’a guessed, so why advertise?) but would like a sax player as well. So he sent me charts for ten tunes that they were rehearsing, mainly by male not female singers, very little solo sax, a few with brass section stuff, alarm bells already ringing but I  invited him to my place one evening for a chat and a guitar plus sax tryout. It soon became clear that a) he was a very reasonable guitarist but b) he had very fixed ideas about what and how much sax he wanted in each number, eg one 8 bar solo in Moondance in a five minute number, and a few chorus punches in the Graham Parker version of Hold back the night where the original had a three piece brass section riffing all through, you get the idea. I played him some video of what I’ve been doing in other bands, where the sax was used more, but got nowhere so I stopped the session and told him that I didn’t think they needed a saxist, I couldn’t justify 50 mile round trips for rehearsals playing just a few notes with no gigs in the book, and BTW why did he advertise for a bassist if he already had one? Answer came there none… thing is, I took up bass two years after the sax because I’d learned that while bass is pretty essential in a band, sax is a optional extra that needs a careful curation of setlists to get maximum value…grr! Was I being unreasonable?

 

I don't think so. As long as you knew what you personally were looking for in a band. 

 

For me the 50 mile round trip would have been an issue.  The deal breaker for me would have been the no gigs on the books. My question use to be how many gigs has the band played in the last 6 months and how many new gigs are booked. It sounds like it was a start up band.

 

Daryl

 

[TimR]

20 hours ago, Gasman said:

so why advertise?

 

My BandMix profile is still live. There's no reminder emails sent to you asking if your profile is up to date. I don't think people actively update adverts when they've found someone. 

Edited 3 hours ago by TimR

[Woodinblack]

22 hours ago, Gasman said:

Answer came there none… thing is, I took up bass two years after the sax because I’d learned that while bass is pretty essential in a band, sax is a optional extra that needs a careful curation of setlists to get maximum value…grr! Was I being unreasonable?

 

Careful curation? hah - not in our band, the sax gets everywhere!