Blue Nickels traditional jazz band is looking for a Trombonist!

Asheville NC

Description

Blue Nickels traditional jazz band is looking for a trombonist! I'm forming a group for paid gigging in the Asheville area. Read on for details. What's up Asheville! My name is Ben Lieb. I was a founding member of the Asheville traditional jazz band The Low-Down Sires roughly 9 years ago. I played trombone with them for a couple of years, but ended up moving out to San Francisco about 7 years ago. This is what the Low-Down Sires sounded like (I'm on bone) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHIuSX9u7nI&ab_channel=JSNashville In San Francisco I sat in with bands like the Hot Baked Goods (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j57Sufb84R0&ab_channel=SwingRadio - me on bone), and eventually started my own group the Blue Nickels which got cut short because of the pandemic. I took the opportunity of the pandemic to move back to Asheville and am looking to re-form the Blue Nickels here. I'm looking for the following instrumentalists: - trumpet/cornet - clarinet - rhythm guitar - upright bass - sousaphone - percussion / snare / washboard I personally can hold down (one at a time, lol) the trombone, cornet, clarinet or sousaphone role. I know a number of instrumentalists in town and have reached out and have interest from some of them. At the same time I've been a way for 7 years and know that many people have moved to town. I wanted to open up the search to the entire area, knowing there are probably great musicians out there who are trying to plug into a group. What I'm Looking for musically: In terms of musicality, I'm looking for players that love traditional and early jazz, or who are interested in exploring it seriously. Ideally you'd be familiar with the genre, the tunes, the culture, and some of the dance culture that accompanies the music. You don't have to be an expert player, but you need to be fluid and musical with the music you play. You'll also need to have experience using your ears a lot, and have or be open to developing your ability to play by ear. We have chord charts, but this is not a "reading" situation. The music is mostly learned by listening to recordings of the music. A couple other modern groups who play in a style similar to what The Blue Nickels will be playing are Tuba Skinny https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNcxDlbHMAQ&ab_channel=LAMUSICFACTORY Meschiya Lake and The Little Big Horns https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgPBRnM6R94&ab_channel=digitalalexa Repertoire: I'm attaching some screenshots of set lists I've worked with in the past. This should give you an idea. That said, some of these tunes are fairly simple to stage, while others have specific arrangements and 3-4 parts. Starting out, we will focus on building the repertoire up with the easier songs to stage. Once their is a stead core of players and repertoire, we'll add tunes that are more "arranged" or require more rehearsal. What I'm looking for (inter)personally: Professional reliability and good communication skills. Ideally you've played with other groups and have developed a can-do attitude and learned to be an effective team player. The project in more detail: The music this band will play will be small combo (5-7) traditional jazz heavily inspired by New Orleans. I guess this music is both an era and an aesthetic. The era is roughly 1920-1940, but any number of tunes before and after, can fit. I'm not a purist. As long as is sounds good, respects the traditions, and is danceable when it needs to be, I'm open to it. We will be playing paid dance gigs for swing dancers, lindy hoppers and blues dancers, and in local non-dance venues around the Asheville area. Of course before we can play out, we need to build our repertoire. Once I hear back from enough people to fill out the musical roles, we'll start with some outdoor rehearsals/jams that will also serve as try-outs of a sort so we can all get a feel for compatibility. From these meetings a core group will be formed that can start rehearsing. We'll ideally rehearse once a week for a couple of months to get up our repertoire, get some simple video demos made, that will serve as promotional materials for gig opportunities. I just want to stress this last point. This will be a group that rehearses regularly (at least in the beginning). The rehearsals will not be paid. We'll focus on getting a quality product together, but we'll still want to have fun. The group aims to work up to paid gigs, but we may decide (for fun or for visibility) to play some unpaid gigs, especially in the beginning. If this is a project that appeals to you, please reach out and share some info about you: - Name - Age - Musical history and inspirations - Instrument(s) - Availability for rehearsals - Any video/audio of you in musical situations if you have it.