GottaHavePride
4/23/2006, 12:40 AM
OK, so here's the situation:
About a year ago a friend of mine decided to put together a latin band. Great, so he gathered up some heavy-hitters and put together a killer band with himself as the singer/bandleader. Then he got a job in south Texas teaching and left the group. So since then the band has been running more or less as a democracy, filling holes as a couple of other people have left the band.
Now to our problem: the conga player is starting to act as though he's the bandleader. By which I mean: trying to take charge of rehearsals, gradually moving himself more front-and-center in the setup at gigs, giving himself a mike to talk to the crowd, making decisions for the band without asking anyone else (like canceling a gig without asking anyone else about it), and so on...
Specifically, last night we had a serious problem, in that myself, our trumpet, and our bass player were all up at Wichita Jass Festival with the OU jazz bands. We got back to Norman late and the latin band's gig was delayed starting. By a solid hour. So he's all acting steamed at us for getting back late. Weeks ago when he asked if that was a good night to book a gig I told him "No. The three of us will be in Wichita that day, we're not sure when we play, and that festival always runs late, usually by hours." He booked it anyway. And then at the gig all night (on his microphone) he's taking backhanded jabs at us because he's ****ed.
I'm about to the point where I'm ready to tell him he either needs to tone down the attitude or try to find a new trombone player. And not to sound arrogant, but there isn't another trombone player in Oklahoma that could cover the book for this band without months of rehearsal. And even then they wouldn't get the style right. and I'm not the only one in the band that's starting to think this guy is a drag.
So I guess I'm just venting here.
About a year ago a friend of mine decided to put together a latin band. Great, so he gathered up some heavy-hitters and put together a killer band with himself as the singer/bandleader. Then he got a job in south Texas teaching and left the group. So since then the band has been running more or less as a democracy, filling holes as a couple of other people have left the band.
Now to our problem: the conga player is starting to act as though he's the bandleader. By which I mean: trying to take charge of rehearsals, gradually moving himself more front-and-center in the setup at gigs, giving himself a mike to talk to the crowd, making decisions for the band without asking anyone else (like canceling a gig without asking anyone else about it), and so on...
Specifically, last night we had a serious problem, in that myself, our trumpet, and our bass player were all up at Wichita Jass Festival with the OU jazz bands. We got back to Norman late and the latin band's gig was delayed starting. By a solid hour. So he's all acting steamed at us for getting back late. Weeks ago when he asked if that was a good night to book a gig I told him "No. The three of us will be in Wichita that day, we're not sure when we play, and that festival always runs late, usually by hours." He booked it anyway. And then at the gig all night (on his microphone) he's taking backhanded jabs at us because he's ****ed.
I'm about to the point where I'm ready to tell him he either needs to tone down the attitude or try to find a new trombone player. And not to sound arrogant, but there isn't another trombone player in Oklahoma that could cover the book for this band without months of rehearsal. And even then they wouldn't get the style right. and I'm not the only one in the band that's starting to think this guy is a drag.
So I guess I'm just venting here.