Could this work?

OK, I'm in a lull period and am ideating again. I want to form a group composed of a core of jazz musicians who also play rock. Keys, bass and drums. They will do background music at events that have a pre-dance social or dinner period.

Then, we move to a dance section. We play simple, but good dance hits that get the crowd moving. this group would allow me to use the same musicians for both a jazz and rock-oriented group, with adding a sax player for the rock portion.

I don't like working with singers if I can help it. They control repertoire, if they quit, your hard work goes out the window. Often, they don't read music and therefore, don't do charts very well. They are a lot of work to get ready for a gig. They are very hard to sub if not available.

They also tend to be more limited in the songs they can sing, compared to instrumentalists who seem to be able to do so much more.

So, do you think a dance band can be successful as an instrumental band? Keys, drums, bass, and sax? (with maybe a guitar in there too)? Play danceable tunes like Elvis Presley, Motown, Creedence Clearewater Revival, maybe even newer songs that lend themselves to an instrumental approach?

I notice in my smooth jazz band that people do get up and dance to many of the rockier jazz tunesl like Watermelon Man, Comin' Home Baby, certain bossas -- could this be extended get people dancing to a sax-fronted version of Blue Suede Shoes, Rock Around the Clock, I Heard it Through the Grapevine, Billie Jean (heard a smooth jazz tribute that could be made poppier and rockier), Stray Cat Strut (Stray Cats), Hurt So Good, Old Time Rock and Roll, September, Come Together, Don't Know Why (Norah Jones).

Comments welcome...as I think through this.

 

Sounds like the idea is a bit of a loser, then. I appreciate the input...I probably won't do it, although I think I might try weaving a few of the instrumental dance hits into the jazz repertoire to gauge everyone's reaction.

I will answer one question above though -- the one about who we are targeting. Probably the jazz crowd that comes out and likes to dance to the music we play. They dance to Cantalope Island, Watermelon Man, Song for My father, and definitely, the instrumental R&B tunes we do. Even autumn leaves.

However, I see that as a fairly limited crowd -- only a few of them actually get up and dance. I thought perhaps others might like it, but I see now that's unlikely.

Years ago, when I started my first band, a rather arrogant player asked me that question. Who are we targeting, and is there a market for the kind of music you want to play?

My answer to that question is "I don't know, but we can find out". This meant putting together a sample of three songs we do, and then going out and trying to sell the band with them, plus a business card that was ambiguous enough to allow us to sell future incarnations of the band if the concept at the time was a dud. If it we got bookings, fine. If not, well, we would know. With only an investment in three songs, it wasn't going to be a big deal.

 

There are a ton of bossified tunes out there on youtube -- and I like many of them. Someone asked if any of our instrumentalists can sing -- even if they could, I wouldn't want to do it that way given "singeritis" -- that band affliction which disables the whole group when the vocalist is not available,quits, or decides s/he wants s different band..

 

In a purely instrumental band, this wouldn't be a problem because the tunes would be selected for fast learning, and there would be subs to cover the first call players if they quit or were not available. That would be one of the assumptions of the band, and the repertoire -- that everyone is free to move on, to join other groups, or whatever they want to do. My peace comes from knowing I can sub anyone in any position.

 

The idea is to NOT have a singer. If I built the band with instrumentalists who can sing, that would make it even harder to sub players. Relying on musicians who do two things in a band kills the flexibility I'm looking for. They are very hard to replace.