Posted by ken k on November 08, 2001 at 22:59:30:
In Reply to: Brass Quintet Dealings posted by Jason Arnold on November 08, 2001 at 12:53:23:
Our quintet has been together for about 14 years in various guises, but we have been Basic'ly Brass! for 12 years now, with the same personnel. The three low brass players have been together since the start. We are totally a democratic group. We have no leader, business, musical or otherwise. Anyone can book gigs, everyone comes up with musical suggestions, etc. I would have to say that all five of us are equal, musically speaking. Everyone respects everyone elses ability and opinion. Needless to say it is not always rosy and happy. Just like in a family there are times when you get frustrated with someone else, but we know by now that we will weather the storm so to speak. I would probably think that we are an exception to the rule however. In our first edition, we had a trumpet player who thought he had to run the group as leader, but the rest of us did not want to have a single leader type of group, especially with this guy leading it, so the four of us said goodbye and started Basic'ly Brass. That was 12 years ago and we have not looked back. I am sort of the spokesman for the group; in concerts I often MC ala Chuck Daelenbach. I do alot fo the arranging for the group. Myself and two others do a majority of the booking, but we always split the chec five equal ways, no leader gets double or anything. Everyone occassionally buys music for the group. Heaven forbid we would ever disband; I have no idea how we would split up the book which has well over 300 titles in it. For us it is as much an avocation as a vocation. We try to rehearse every week although it just isn't possible anymore. It is probably closer to twice a month. We get about 25 -30 gigs a year, so it is fairly profitable, but we are not incorporated or anything, everyone does their own taxes and declares their own income etc.
On the other hand, I often sub with another local quintet who run the group much more "business-like." They have a leader of sorts and they put money into a kitty from each gig to buy music etc. Just different styles. We are all good friend too, but it definitely different that when playing with BB.
I also play in a tuba euph quartet "2Bas2EU" but we are not a consistent group. We basically get together when we get a gig. So I sort of take control over the group just to keep it going, but I would not call it my group. That is just the way I like to run things. The key is getting players you can work with and have fun with. Easier said than done I guess.
ken k