I agree with the buffet tune...

We will be standing and acting like were good.

Margaritaville is one of the most requested and well-received songs I do. I don't get what's wrong with it. I do a few more too, Livingston Saturday Night, Come Monday, A Pirate Looks at 40, I Like Pina Coladas, etc.
They are no worse in content than a lot of other artists' work. Am I missing something?
DonM

I'm not against it... it's when everyone starts singing assault - assault assualt ...and a fight breaks out...

Don, it's a simple matter of preference. If I played ANY Buffet music I would be laughed out of the places I work.

I really can't stand it. My people want Four, What are you doing the rest of your life, Song for my Father, Here's that Rainy Day, When Sunny Gets Blue, Masquerade, Got to get You Into My Life, Moondance, Chicken Shack and the like.

I'm a specialist, not a generalist, and, in my opinion, Buffet music is "fluff". Now, if I were an entertainer, I'd play them all.

But I'm not, so what I have to do is leverage musicianship to a very small but loyal audience to compensate.

If I had to play what I consider fluff, I'd quit.

I actually played whatever I got paid for years ago. Had to. I don't anymore.

I have become the jazz standard bearer around here, and I'm proud to try to keep this wonderful music alive and available to the public. Have to. All the really good jazz players have either died or quit in disgust.

Jazz is a powereful, lifetime quest, and I am in awe of it's complexity and meaning on so many levels.

Russ

Jazz players have a long history of taking some of the more banal pop tunes and turning them into jazz barnburners. Perhaps if you played Buffett like Buffett, sure, you'd score a goose egg, but play it like YOU, and who knows?

The S80 belongs to a friend who was playing at my retirement party. My band did a set, so I used it instead of carting my stuff in. That was almost three years ago and I think I had a PSR200 and a VR-760. Now it's the E-60 and a Hammond XK-1. I'm working on an arranger version of the Rascals' "Lonely Too Long." I hope to have it ready to record soon. The midis for that song suck and the arranger styles are not much better, but the E-60 has an 8bt that's not too bad.

If I played ANY Buffet music I would be laughed out of the places I work.

Russ,

Some guys can play Buffet tunes, and some can't! I can only echo DomM's statement about Buffet songs. I've even played them as instrumentals for background music at upscale dinner parties and they've always been very well recieved. Even my Louseville and Lexington, KY relatives requested them when I performed at U. of K. a couple years ago. I seriously doubt that your clients would laugh you out of the restaurant. It just ain't Jazz.

Cheers,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

I heard buffet is a hell of a jazz player .

You've got to pronounce it "boo-fay" if you're playing a jazz club...