Being in Chicago for three and a half weeks, I feel pretty good about how many times I've played with other musicians so far, from jam sessions to open mics to street performing. It's been a great adventure, and I definitely plan to keep up these things. That being said, I've heard it's a pretty nice thing to actually make some money for performing! Now as I've mentioned earlier, I have made about $70 while street performing, but I don't know if that really counts as being a "professional musician."
Last night was my first time since arriving that I was actually invited to perform with a band. This was new for me here in Chicago, as it wasn't just me showing up at a jam and asking to sit in. This was the result of my jamming with the house band each Monday at the Wonderbar. And by the way, this band is called Low Spark and there are some of the best jazz/rock fusion players I've heard. And even better, they're all awesome guys, with ZERO egos (which is sometimes are rare thing for really good musicians!). So anyways, they liked my playing enough to ask if I wanted to play a few tunes with them at a different club, aliveOne. So nothing too big, but I'll take it!
Tomorrow night I'll be playing with my new street-musician-conga-playing friend Kay Smith at a cool record/book/art store called Transistor. This gig may not "count" as well, as it doesn't actually guarantee money to the band. If the tips collected for the night go over the sound guy's fee, then we split the pay with the two other bands playing. So we might get $20 or 20cents. And if not we at least get a recording of our performance, kind of like God's Garage (see earlier post). So it's good exposure (which I definitely will accept at this point), but maybe not the best for putting bread (or my preference: cereal) on the table. But hey, we've got our temporary band name, Brownsmith on their billing.
So there you have it, quasi first "official" gigs in the Windy City. Do they actually count? Who knows. And really, who cares? Things are moving. And more and more I don't think it matters how fast, as long as there's movement.
I hope all of you readers are moving somehow as well.
Last night was my first time since arriving that I was actually invited to perform with a band. This was new for me here in Chicago, as it wasn't just me showing up at a jam and asking to sit in. This was the result of my jamming with the house band each Monday at the Wonderbar. And by the way, this band is called Low Spark and there are some of the best jazz/rock fusion players I've heard. And even better, they're all awesome guys, with ZERO egos (which is sometimes are rare thing for really good musicians!). So anyways, they liked my playing enough to ask if I wanted to play a few tunes with them at a different club, aliveOne. So nothing too big, but I'll take it!
Tomorrow night I'll be playing with my new street-musician-conga-playing friend Kay Smith at a cool record/book/art store called Transistor. This gig may not "count" as well, as it doesn't actually guarantee money to the band. If the tips collected for the night go over the sound guy's fee, then we split the pay with the two other bands playing. So we might get $20 or 20cents. And if not we at least get a recording of our performance, kind of like God's Garage (see earlier post). So it's good exposure (which I definitely will accept at this point), but maybe not the best for putting bread (or my preference: cereal) on the table. But hey, we've got our temporary band name, Brownsmith on their billing.
So there you have it, quasi first "official" gigs in the Windy City. Do they actually count? Who knows. And really, who cares? Things are moving. And more and more I don't think it matters how fast, as long as there's movement.
I hope all of you readers are moving somehow as well.