Big Band Charts

I remember playing a rare date with this Big Band in Toronto. It was for a special event. The gig was for a corporation and if my memory serves me correctly it was their annual dance.

Dan (not his real name) was the leader of the band.  He's had bands of various sizes before but this was a rare opportunity for him to be "fronting" a Big Band using a Big Band library.

He must have amassed this music over several years or borrowed it from someone.  It's difficult to say at this point if the book was any good. As it turned out it wasn't suitable for a dance, especially with Danny at the helm.

To further complicate things that evening, it soon became apparent that Dan was a very poor reader and to top it off, he was the drummer. (If there is any hidden meaning in this fact,  it's ....oh well.)  

Now his library must have been used for "rehearsal band" purposes as some of these Jazz charts had a lot of "open" sections for players to ad lib.  Not to put all the blame on Danny, other players in the band were average readers as well.

Well, that evening, sure enough in one of these charts that had these "open sections" either the trombones kept going or the saxes or what ever.  When it came to the end of the chart it didn't really end. It actually just ground to a halt with different sections staggering to the finish line at different times. 

Unfortunately this meant that Dan would be the last guy playing as he didn't know where he was in the music at any time.  Now there must have been about a dozen charts written in this manner. They weren't suitable for a dance unless the leader could "cue"  you when to continue on after these "open sections." That is... to continue on "together".

Needless to say it sounded pretty disorganized and messy. If the band happened to change keys in this area it made it even worse. Well, let's just say it was a long night.

Well, we survived the evening and were putting our instruments in our cases and just sat their in disbelief. A few couples came up to the band stand and to our surprise (and amazement) said how much they enjoyed the music and thought the band was terrific.  Wow.   How bad do you have to be before the audience notices it?

I turned to the trumpet player next to me and asked, "Are you sure we're going to be paid for this debacle?"  He said, "Yep.  It's called a settlement."

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