How would you deal with this gig situation?

[SwingSwangSwung]

There's a guy who hires me on a fairly regular basis to play guitar for him. He's a good singer/piano player who covers a lot of different styles. He does a fair amount of jazz tunes and standards. He is the center point of the band - it all focuses on him. He does all the singing and most of the solos. The pay is good, he's organized with charts, etc. However, on several jazz tunes the changes he uses are wrong. They are not reharmonized in some cool way, they are just flat out wrong.

I cringe every time I have to play some of those wrong changes. Would you bring it up to him, or just let it lie and get paid?

I know, I know. What would Miles do!

[billkath]

Well-depends if you want to keep the job or not. You need to be diplomatic if you do. I've been in this situation thousands of times. The trick is to say "Have you ever tried it this way?". If they say "Cool-but I like it my way" suck it up, if you want to keep the gig.
"Bring him up on it" sounds very aggressive to me. Rather-offer another way to do it.

[Jake Hanlon]

Be polite and professional about it. Tell him you think there might be a mistake in the chart and ask him if he could go over it with you in terms of something that might make it sound better. What Musician doesn't want to sound better? Show him your idea and if he as the boss makes his decision.

The key is to not be confrontational about it, that can get you fired. Just tell him you think there's something that you think might make the chart better and ask him to hear your idea and if he has ears at all he'll see the light.

If he doesn't like your idea then you just have to deal with it and get paid. We all go through gigs where the leader makes mistakes on charts and they are oblivious to it. I know from my own experience how many Vocalists I've worked with that have blatant errors on their charts either wrong changes or poor transposition. Good thing about that is often you can make the correction on the fly yourself and no one is the wiser LOL.

[max chill]

Tell him how much you're willing to pay him, to play them your way?

[jeffstritt]

Originally Posted by max chill

Tell him how much you're willing to pay him, to play them your way?

+1

We all have to do gigs and play tunes we don't want to do, but in the end you gotta make that paper!

[Reg]

I get hired a lot as musical director for up front people, to deal with making all those types of choices. I've been doing it for a while, that's why I get hired, they trust my choices and that I understand how they hear tunes. I am still very careful about playing what I hear as correct harmonically on gigs with out running something bye them first... It's more out of respect rather than the $... when changes are just lousy... it's usually not that hard to suggest new ones. Some need to feel it others need logic... I've quit a few great paying gigs because of bad ears...

[Baltar Hornbeek]

what's this doing here?

[JohnRoss]

Originally Posted by SwingSwangSwung

Would you bring it up to him, or just let it lie and get paid?

Say it, one way or another, as delicately as you think necessary. You'll be doing him a favour, improving his arrangements, so there's no objective reason why he should not accept your input, at least. He might not take it well, in the worst case he might even not want to use you again, but these things need to be said - you're uncomfortable, and the band isn't giving its best, either, things are out of kilter.

Incidentally, I've been on the other end, though less often. I have a particular recurring memory of a silly little performance something like thirty years ago when I insisted on such-and-such a chord in such-and-such a place in the tune, and the pianist saying no, it should be another chord, and me pulling rank and getting my own way. I was wrong, it was me being overconfident and glib, and though it didn't actually matter very much in terms of how the act went, it's still with me after all this time, especially that I never had the chance to say, yes, you were right.

[Dookychase]

You might ask him whose arrangement he is using, whether its his or someone else's.
You know that after listening to the same songs by different artists, you'll come across different arrangements.
Maybe bring along a couple of arrangements by someone else to the next rehearsal and get the band to go through them just to hear what they sound like. It might click with him.

Good luck.

[monk]

This can be dealt with without hurting anyone's feeling or creating animosity. Put together some simple charts of the tunes in question. Get together with the guy and tell him that you have some arrangement ideas for these tunes. If he reacts positively, great. If not, you can then make an informed decision as to whether you want to continue working with him.

I recently had an audition/rehearsal with a "jazz-blues" singer/pianist/songwiter. Several of her standard charts had iffy changes. I suggested the correct changes by saying "have you ever tried this?". She listened and responded that she liked her "arrangement" better. I respectfully refused the job when it was offered.

Regards,
monk

[jeffstritt]

Remember the golden rule... The person with the gold rules.