... sometimes I wonder if an arranger player is a such type of person who deliberately seeks isolation and then creates special ways of communication with outside world; I mean, there can be a reason why we choose to socialize here in such a form without calls or instant messages.
Funny you mention that. I've been at this crazy game for 50 years, and in the early days I was always in a band. There were no arrangers, or drum machines.(except the horrid home organ bossa nova units) Through the late 70s, and early 80s it was the same thing. Then mid 80s brought the death of disco, the birth of punk rock, and grunge bands, and drunk driving laws stiffened. Bands were forced to reduce their size to keep working. I was a full time bassist/singer in pop top40 bands, but I saw the writing on the wall, and knew that as band members were dropped, the last man/woman standing would certainly be the keyboardist, so I put all my attention into that arena. By 1989 I was 90% a soloist, and working many of the same rooms that I worked with a 4 pc band .... FOR THE SAME MONEY.
I used a Rhodes, Moog bass, drum machine du jour, and whatever synth was popular at the time. For really large rooms, or extended engagements, I added my Clav D6, a second synth, and a module layer with my main synth. It was a totally live rig, except for the drum patterns. Manual bass all night long. No sequences.
Fast forward to the 90s, and some of us who had recently gone solo began to yearn for the camaraderie of our bandmates, so a few of us decided to go to dinner on an off night. That small group turned into an organization of over 100 members who meet once, or twice a year to bitch about the biz, talk tech, and have some food and jam a bit. It's an amazing brotherhood of local talent who are mostly soloists, (but not all), and mostly full timers, (but not all.)
It's always a great time, and we get to meet, and chill with our peers, who mostly work the same nights, so socialization would otherwise be impossible.
Given our global borders, this forum is much the same to me, and even though we razz, and tease, and sometimes ruffle feathers .... it's basically a love fest. Music lovers coming together to share thoughts, songs, and wisdom. When we share personal experiences, and console each other in the tough times ... it's even better.
Let's all raise a glass to NIGEL! Thanks for creating this meeting place, my friend. It's a sanity haven for lots of us.
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