A friend of mine does smooth jazz style pop covers. Great band, but plays very small rooms. To book any gigs of substance, you really have to do vocals.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
All-instrumental groups
- Thread starter matthewbrown
- Start date
A friend of mine does smooth jazz style pop covers. Great band, but plays very small rooms. To book any gigs of substance, you really have to do vocals.
Good question. What I've led so far have been jazz duos and trios, usually playing American standards (Gershwin, Porter, etc) Latin (bossas, sambas, Afro-Cuban) and jazz standards. The format was to use lead sheets and capable jazz players who could read and fake. I rarely hired a drummer, and I have kept the tempos away from ballad territory except at the end of the night. This was always background music, in a larger room with a bar, so as long as we didn't get loud (see: NO DRUMMER) we could improvise quite a bit. So not really Muzak, I hope! The only thing I want to change, really, is to update the repertoire to include recent popular music that has been covered by other jazz artists -- the Bad Plus, Scofield, Brad Mehldau, Herbie Hancock, etc. and move away from playing so many old standards. To do that, I need a book of charts and players who can read and improvise well. If I can add a drummer and book it as a featured act, I will, but I plan to start without a drummer and add one if I can find the gigs for one.
Sounds like an improvement from just playing old standards. I think it will elevate your performances a bit.
Book shows wherever you think your audience is.
Smooth_bass88
vaxx!
- Oct 31, 2006
- 12,122
- 16,795
- Disclosures
- have been on nationally released albums, charting on the Billboard 200
yes, i've done this a bunch. we were the house band for "live band karaoke+open mic night" at a local venue, and part of the gig was that we had to provide music if there weren't that many folks signing up to play with us. We were electric guitar, electric bass (me), and drum kit. Full PA system. We would do a whole bunch of classic rock/pop tunes without vocals. We were able to do this because the guitar player was incredible- he could play the melodies with such feel and conviction. I in turn, would also play more melodically and often play chords outlining the changes. Kind of like how Eric Johnson and Roscoe Beck would approach things. It was really cool, very fun. people loved it. unfortunately we didn't go beyond our weekly gig doing this. But I would imagine it wouldn't be difficult to find work doing this kind of gig.
Ive been in jazz instrumental bands mostly for the last 12 years. We always made sure we had a live mic to use and always talked the audience at least every other song and even during some intros. That’s how we got around the misconceptions of being “too in our heads”.
Last edited:
We did a similar thing weekly. We'd start the set with some kind of instrumental jam, usually a soul, funk or 2nd-line-NO funk thing. Then we'd play a full set of mostly improvisational material.
We'd then play host to bigger name blues, rock, soul guys, many on break from tours.
The key was - and I see this in your clip too - someone would pick up a mic and sing at some point, including me. Sure it can be done without any vocals, but outside of jazz bands, it's become pretty rare around here.
really? pop is all about what's popular with the masses...and the most reliably popular stuff has strong enough melodies that an objective audience can identify what's being played without vocals and lyrics...
IME, if the tunes are picked for their "universality" the audience has no problem dancing/participating because they know the lyrics themselves! our audiences can be seen mouthing the lyrics and singing as they dance and gyrate. if my band played our instrumental version of any pop tune: your date would want to get up and dance. groove is infectious.
our OP has it right:
that's a different model than my band's --- we can be quiet (for some gigs it's expected), but we're a party band in our natural state = keys/guitar/bass/drums + 3 horns. we shake the rafters when that kind of presentation is expected. also, we're not doing tunes that other jazz artists/bands are doing, we pick tunes for their 'popularity' through the modern ages: beatles, madonna, led zepplin, the police, prince, sly stone, joe walsh, james brown, doobies, hall and oates, mary blige, paul simon, whatever, yada yada.
charts? IMO/IME well-written DIY arrangements are the best!
reliable music notation software allows for easy key changes and arrangement modifications when necessary, and makes mashups and medleys a breeze (e.g., copy and paste).it's a given, however, that the musicians have to be able to read (staying 'current', constantly changing setlists, getting a sub, etc.).
good luck with your instrumental music, i hope you can work things out!
Here's one more - actually there are even more on that album "Blacknuss". Definitely not "background wallpaper music".
Last edited:
There is ONE band in my area that plays smooth jazz without vox on every gig. But it's all background music all the time.
Yep. Really.Who are the top of the pops all-instrumental groups these days? I’m not super up on pop groups. But the ones I know of all have vocalists.
"duh!" 
the OP and i are talking about what is possible if you purposely/purposefully do not use singers to perform melodies.
I guess it depends on how you define "substance".
One of the (so far) all-instrumental bands I recently started playing with has been kicking around the idea of adding a vocalist...and one of the arguments against vocals has been that bands with a singer are comparatively hard to ignore. Right now as an instrumental ensemble we can gig in bars and restaurants, venues that don't have much performer-oriented infrastructure (i.e., a PA system) and aren't about the live music so much as they are about the food or the drink. It's just, oh by the way there's a quiet band in the corner instead of Muzak being piped through the ceiling speakers. We're essentially "background music".
As soon as you add a singer, ^^^that all goes to hell. Patrons can't ignore the band and focus on their booze or conversation quite so easily when the front person is wearing a gold lamé gown belting "Fly Me To The Moon". Having a vocalist would actually limit the venues where we can perform.
otoh there's probably no way this band would ever get hired to do a wedding or bar mitzvah gig without a singer, and those gigs usually pay 10x what we're making at local restaurants. $ubstance indeed.
the OP and i are talking about what is possible if you purposely/purposefully do not use singers to perform melodies.
No need to get insulting. Anything is possible. But if you’re intending to perform music for others as entertainment and not just some vanity effort, then the question becomes a little more complicated then just deciding if what you want to do is possible.
You could do an evening of Gregorian chant on bagpipes if you’re so inclined. It’s definitely ‘possible.’ But how would it be received? Because I got the sense from the OP’s first post that he was asking if an all instrumental pop cover band was viable. And my comment was that from what I’ve seen of pop music, singers and lyrics take priority over instruments for that genre. And that is what pop music fans are listening for - charismatic singers and catchy lyrics.
So his instrumental pop band idea might not be all that marketable unless providing live background music is their goal. Any of the successful bands I’ve known that have gone that route focused primarily on standards, show tunes, and light classical arrangements, and (maybe) the tiniest sprinkling of slow pop tunes from songwriters such as Carol King and Judy Collins
Just my humble opinion and nothing more.
Last edited:
i was trying to be fun(ny), but now you present a value-judgement binary where one 'valence' is "vanity" and the other is your POV. you're conjecturing with an opinion measured by a binary, either/or, zero sum thinking. i'm trying to inform the OP with actual experience. i'm sure you can see the difference.
Last edited:
Interesting concept of playing instrumental pop tunes. Don't think it would fly here in my area. Booking agencies here want cover bands who play familiar music to sing along and dance to. At least that's what they're used to around here. And there are a ton of bands around here so really don't know where they'd fit it. If it were a jazz band that threw some instrumental pop tunes in there, it may work. I always say, know your demographic and choose a target audience. How is the band going to be marketed? How will you go about booking gigs? Tough sell. Just my opinion though..........take it with a grain of salt.
while you may be correct about your "area," i'm pretty sure this ("instrumental pop tunes") is not a new concept. i appreciate most of the 'blowback' on the idea of "instrumental music" (most folks here don't have that experience, i'm pretty sure) but i'm also pretty sure most of you doubters/nay-sayers haven't actually done it, you're conjecturing. i.e., you're offering an opinion a priori to any protracted gigging experience with the concept. correct?
re: "experience" and its obvious limitations on a TB thread = if you haven't done it yourself = it doesn't exist!
