GIGS

[CongaTick]

Just curious whether forum members (pros and hobbyists) are busy gigging lately, whether accompanying acoustic singer/songwriters, in a band that hits the clubs regularly, open mics, rumbas....Just wanted to get a sense of whether your "performance?gigging" schedule is fairly heavy, light, irregular, nonexistent. I know Abakua is kickin' it all the time downunder....but the rest of us?????? Very little demand for committed hand percussionist in the Philly area. Just an informal sort of survey.......

[ABAKUA]

Hi CongaTick Not exactly always kickin it hehehe well, not as much as before when I was balancing weeknight gigs with weeknight rehearsals with bands, plus my day job and weekend gigs, eventually it all got a bit much and was just constantly busy 7 nights a week, sleepless, zombie like at work and no time for me to do other stuff. Im also a big fishing fan, love my game fishing, as well as enjoying my race car on the track. Constant gigs, late nights etc leaves no time for early morning fishing trips, racing the car on weekends or even just kickin it with friends.

As of the last 12 months or so, Ive found myself knocking back most gigs offered to me during the business week (mon-fri) unless the pay is well worth it.
This is due to advancement in my day job (Im a senior in business development at a major engineering co), I cant afford to be yawning, tired etc from the previous nights activities. There's a few gigs going around town on Mon, Tues, Wed and Thurs nights, however the majority of them are paying less than what I normally get on the weekends, so I dont take them cause by the time we finish, pack up etc and out of there I get home very late, the next day I cant be all buggered at work with just 3 or 4 hours sleep.
The money dont compensate for the effort, Ive worked too hard to sell out for below expected pay.
25 years of gigging constant late ones 5-7 nights a week has slowly taken its toll hahahaha getting old, cant handle being out til 2am-3am then up at 6am get ready for work in fast pace business environment.

I still do the odd gig during the week when the pay is above average, but my regular gigs are all across the weekend mostly.
From Thur-Sun I work frequently with 4 main bands, congas in 3 of them and bongo/bell etc in 1 of them.
I usually have 2-3 gigs across the weekend on average. They pay at this level/gigging circle is good and so are the benefits/incentives ie door deal extra cut bonus, meals/drinks, additional entry for guests, validated parking etc...
Then aside from the 4 main bands I work with, there are the fill in/dep gigs that come my way, pay is always good and 9 out of 10 times will be cash on the night due to being a dep.

Im happy with the balance of lifestyle and music/gigs I live. Works well for me.

[JohnnyConga]

Abakua your kinda of fortunate that you have the gigs u have in Australia, as gigging here in the States is becoming a dying art form, and especially for 'percussionists' (last hired, first fired) routine here..Im not gigging as much as I'd like to as now there are more Conga players(females included) on the Miami scene than ever, with more from Cuba that have come here over the past 10 years I was in Seattle...I am 'freelancing' with a variety of different bands-top 40- Latin Jazz-play along with DJ's(which pay more than my regular gigs(2 to 300 bucks for a couple of hours)..Im doing more teaching than i am gigging. Even guys like Luis Conte aren't on tour, and the touring scene has dropped as well...being a musician in america is on the down side as there are less places to play and with the 'greed' and 'financial illiteracy" that club owners have here, nobody wants to pay for live entertainment...so if u have a day job my best suggestion is 'keep it!"....good luck to everyone out there.....

[caballoballo]

Saludos, down here on the beautiful island is the same. Not too much giging for anybody. For me is a part time usually 1 or twice a month on the weekends not like when I was playing with 3 different bands and was too busy. My job also have become more busy as right now doing as superintendent of the aircraft structural section. This position really drains energy. But I still grab my bongó at least 3 times a week including a class on Saturday on musical notation. It's just the way it is.

[CongaTick]

Abakua, I really envy the choices you have available! Great to be able to turn down gigs. Wish that were the case around the City of Brotherly Love. (I too was once avid deep sea angler, actually ran a charter boat for Navy Special Services out of Subic. Wonderful times). JC, am so glad your vast knowledge and talents are being accessed by wise students. Also that DJ gigs are available. Hereabouts, they haven't quite gotten into the idea of percussionists "accompanying" DJ's."
Used to be in 3-4 bands at the same time. Lately, lucky if one band books me. Even accompanying acoustic singer/songwriter types has become rare. "last hired/first fired" is truly the rule. Caballoballo, glad you're getting called monthly. Well, I spend much of my "retirement" practicing and playing every day for the pure joy. Thank you, kind sirs, for responding.

[CongaTick]

JC...$2-300 for a couple of hours accompanying a DJ? Really? Wow. Not too shabby.

[JohnnyConga]

Yes Congatick I work with 2 different Dj's for private parties., weddings etc.. and I get paid well for them just playing 2 congas on a stand and do at the most 3 hours... Im the guy who actually started the whole 'play along' thing back in the late 80's early 90's on South Beach and now it's a common thing here in some of the clubs.. I just got a call for a gig on Xmas eve with a 'Klezmer Orchestra' and there paying $450.oo for one rehearsal and the gig..but this is a one time a year gig with them..I was actually surprised they remembered me from the last one...you might want to approach some DJ's and tell them that your available to 'play along; with them..it's good 'for show' but you must be able to play for at least 45 to 50 minutes by your self to the DJ's programmed music, what ever it may be...and tell them u get 100 an hour...I wish u the best...here I am back in the early 90's on S. Beach doing my play along thing with friends...oh yeaaaaaaaaa...

[CongaTick]

Have approached a couple of DJ's here, but no bites yet. But I'm not finished plowing the field. No problem on the 45- 50 mins play time. In the meantime, I'll try and scout up some "roadies" as sweet as the ones in your pics. Oh yeah, indeed.

[wooddrum]

A good way to get gigs here in Germany is busking. I played for a couple of years as Cajonplayer with this guys, and we got a lot of gigs on the street.

Sorry for the poor quality, but i like the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1h51UKKJXc

[CongaTick]

Wooddrum, love the vid. Huge fun!!! Glad there is some liberal acceptance of street busking there. Hereabouts in the the City of Brotherly Love (Phila.) the storm troopers would arrive immediately and haul you off to jail.

[rhythmrhyme]

x2, nice busking vid woodrum!

You have quite the Didge player there! fast and tight - very difficult to do, I've seen many try and fail!

[wooddrum]

I´m glad that you like the vid, guys!

Yes the dige player is tight, but for some reasons I finished the cooperation with this guys in 2012.

Currently i´m doing many hands on, and teambuilding workshops for Cajon playing - i own 60 homemeade cajones for that - and building , aswell as Blacklight Theatre workshops.

This allows me not to play every crappy gig and i love to work with students.

I´m playing now 2 - 4 gigs/ month with my Band Los Vecinos, and we can sort out where we want to play.

What a pitty that you guys get in trouble if you do street busking in the states. Is it everywhere the same?

Here in Germany you have to follow the rules - every City is having different rules - and you´re safe!

[CongaTick]

The enforcement is capricious and varies from city to suburbs to town, etc. Every little governmental power center issues different ordinances, but the fact is that before busking anywhere you'd better do a lot of research.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... d=11626203

[windhorse]

We're sort of stuck in learning mode. Just had a guy here from Guantanamo Cuba who taught us some "Conga" and several other patterns that they play in Santiago as well as his area. Love how they bend clave in their bell patterns.
We're also still studying a song list brought to us by Reymundo Gonzalez. https://www.dropbox.com/s/4aq2j25xf26l63r/Rey%20Orisha%20Song%20Class%20all%20Audio.pdf?dl=0
And, several of us are "underground" with learning the oro seco, llongo, and chacha on bata. We may not come out of hiding for a while.
Three of us are in groups and make their living from gigging. One owns a restaurant and plays once a week in his own bar through his own sound system. (He's a bass player/singer/percussionist who is awesome, not what you might think, where you've got a captive audience so let's abuse them with my own non-musical crap) So, the real musicians amongst us are constantly grinding it out. My heart goes out to those guys! The rest of us are just Afro-Cuban junkies come together for our fix once per week at Ritz's studio. We gave up playing in our park as we were overrun with homeless people - many quite mentally ill - who became so bothersome that we just don't play outside anymore. You should see what it looks like on Boulder's Public Library lawn,, it's quite the spectacle.
Sorry if that sounds sad.. I guess I do lament a bit about the "old" days when we could share the vibe with passers-by, but hey.. At least we still study and play when we can!

[windhorse]

Sorry, this post got on here twice,, --- snippage -----