Black And Blue

There is a quip that asks, "Did you ever feel that it was a "tuxedo" world and you were a pair of brown shoes?".

It would seem that one would have to be sensitive to how he appears in public and more importantly for a job (gig) if you could ask this question.

I come from the era of Big Bands, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Les Brown Stan Kenton and others that considered dances and concerts visual events. There was a certain protocol and dress code in those days. Name bands in that era all wore uniforms. Regular jobbing bands also adhered to a minimum dress code, suits and ties.

Stan Kenton even went so far as having a roll call before a concert and checked out everyone to be sure they were shaven, were wearing the correct attire and even had their shoes shined.   His musical product was a first class presentation and he thought his band should represent this excellence.

Musicians used to refer to their work clothes as a Union Suits; e.g. black suit, dark navy suit, tuxedo, with bow tie or long black (dark tie).

Bandleaders dictated the dress for each dance or event.  There was a time when I just told the sidemen to wear a dark suit and long dark tie.  This gave way to a dark brown suit and some kind of tie with painted palm trees.   Eventually I had to spell out exactly what I wanted.   Dark suit had to be understood to be either tuxedo attire or a black or navy blue suit. (Tie to be determined ...long dark tie or bow tie.)

However, when you have been in the music business a long time (as a leader) you got to be sensitive to what a few musicians would consider appropriate working garb. 

The extreme would not doubt be a musician that would show up with a black suit but (horrors) white socks and perhaps brown shoes.  This would no doubt set the leader off his tracks for the rest of the night.  Compound this faux pas that they were going to be taking photos that day and you can imagine the leader /conductor's tirade that followed.

I remember seeing a group picture of the local Symphony Orchestra. (It dates back to the mid 1940's) and everyone one was in formal attire except one musician in the front row with his no doubt "new" light grey suit.    Every time I looked at that picture I couldn't take my eyes off this violinist. That picture was there for all to see forever. It was wartime and maybe dark suits were hard to acquire.

I can't understand why that musician didn't make an effort to borrow a dark suit or rent a tuxedo.   It also begs the question why the conductor didn't ask the gentleman to sit out the photo shot rather than distort the pleasing visual effect of the picture.

Bandleaders rely on how the band looks to a client and agent.  Appearance is everything.   If the product looks good, it can be assumed it sounds good.  A professional picture used in marketing indicates a professional product.

I remember doing a Jazz Concert at a local High School and the lead trumpet player came with a dark suit but didn't have a white shirt.  His explanation was that all his shirts were at the cleaners and all he had was this Hawaiian shirt. He took a white sheet of music and stuck it on his chest and wore his long tie over top.  After I got past to his flippant attitude I had to admit that from a distance he looked like he was wearing a white shirt under his black jacket.

Another incident was another big band event that required black suits and bow ties. One of the sax players looked great for the most part but if you looked at his feet he was wearing white tennis shoes. Horrors.

The next day he called to thank me for the gig.  He explained gratefully that he was new to the city and was basically out of work and no one was calling him for gigs.

I wonder why?

An appropriate business card would read, "Will play and dress for food." 

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