Covering for Piano in a big band

[Woody Sound]

Our KB player couldn't make rehearsal this week, so the leader asked me if I could try to cover both parts. Everyone thought it sounded great, in fact better. The opening to "Ya Gotta Try" was tough, but they all loved it. I did sort of a chordal melodic comping thing.

[citizenk74]

Well done! The "Six-string lap piano" strikes again! Now if you could only get double pay!

[sgcim]

Our KB player couldn't make rehearsal this week, so the leader asked me if I could try to cover both parts. Everyone thought it sounded great, in fact better. The opening to "Ya Gotta Try" was tough, but they all loved it. I did sort of a chordal melodic comping thing.

Those uptempo Nestico charts always start with a rhythm intro. Your solution is the best one, because you want the band to know where to come in with no uncertainty. When I blew off the changes at that tempo, there was always a little uncertainty. "Wind Machine" is another nightmare.

Did you catch COVID in the pit playing a show. I wear an N95 for every gig, rehearsal, etc...I start "Dogfight" in two weeks.

[Woody Sound]

Did you catch COVID in the pit playing a show. I wear an N95 for every gig, rehearsal, etc...I start "Dogfight" in two weeks.

No, the covid came from a big band rehearsal. The next day emails and texts were flying back and forth about everyone getting sick. It's an "open rehearsal" with an audience and a bar, so who knows how it got started.

[hotpepper01]

The previous bigband that I played in, didn´t have a piano player for the better part of 3 years. Reason for me to quit there. Indeed, intros and outros have been challenging. It meant often stealing the corresponding right hand parts of the piano sheet musuc, delete those same parts of my own sheet and incorporate the piano parts. A lot of work and often sounded "thin" when a guitar solo came with only bass and drums if there was a full horn part just prior to the guitar solo.

[rpjazzguitar]

A great local player told me that he had big band gig where he got the charts early the same day.

He said that he spent the time crossing stuff out. I'm guessing that included everything he didn't feel he could play accurately enough.

In a situation where there's no piano and the guitar player gets the piano chart (meaning that they probably called every pianist they know and nobody could make it) the trick is to figure out the essence of what is needed and how to play at least that much. But, if you have a piano part only and you've never heard the arrangement, there are some things that are unknowable. For example, how do you know if a countermelody is piano only (meaning, it's important) vs a line that's voiced along with 4 trombones so the absence of the guitar won't be noticed much?

If, you're a guitarist they called ahead of pianists, then you didn't need to read this post - you know the territory.

[charleyrich99]

I play in a big band that doesn't have a pianist. I try to do my solos as mostly chord melody with just a bit of single note and some octave lines. It keeps it sounding full otherwise if I just do single note solos it feels like the bottom dropped out when my turn to solo comes. It also helps, I find to stay close to the melody.