So here's the overview.

At 12:05 am, on the morning of June 27, 1951, I came into the world, already telling people off. (There's a story that when the doc slapped my butt to wake me up, I hit him back. I can't confirm or deny, as that was long ago.) Approaching 5 years later, in April of 1956, I was given the gift of music, and started lessons right then. Rolling the tape forward to college, fast forwarding past the bad bands called The Kids, The Sands Of Time, and several other such inane names, I went to college and earned my BA in Music, with a dual major in Performance and Composition (so technically I guess I had a BFA) in 3 years. I believed since that time in 1956 that music is to be revered and respected, and seeing players just don't work hard enough at it is a sign of disrespect for the most beautiful art and craft there is. And I simply don't stand for it. If you are going to do this, you are going to so it with your full attention and an all consuming 100% effort as you learn and grow. So when I see guys who don't play between the weekly rehearsals, and I can tell, and I will lay into them with the fire and vengeance they deserve for disrespecting the most beautiful thing I have ever had in my life. They can either get on the bus or leave and play in pickup blues bands forever, but this particular project calls for a heavily rehearsed, polished, professional presentation, and we aren't getting that from 2 of the people. We won't get the better gigs during next year's festival schedule if we aren't up to par THIS year. We have a total of 5 firm gigs and one pending, and that doesn't seem like a lot of work to stay prepared to play just 6 gigs. None of them still work so they have nothing BUT time to practice. We use a hired gun sax player who shows up with beautifully written charts and plays them to the letter. He plays a lot as a hired gun so his chops stay tuned. We talked after a sectional rehearsal and he mentioned that the front guy, drummer, guitar player and both of us keyboard players are just at a far higher level than the 2 that are the issue and wondered how they still have a job. Unfortunately I do not (officially) hold the power in this band. Though there is something to be said for leverage. Enough about that.

Those 2 guys should thank whatever god they believe in that I DON'T hold the power or they would have been gone by now. The power brokers care more about hurting people's feelings than the quality of the product, and that's unfortunate.

And such is the life in local level bands.

Last edited by eddie1261; 06/26/21 02:06 PM.
I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.

1. How much did you make in 2023?
2. Send it to us.