Disclaimer: This post is proving to be more difficult than just coming up with ideas to write about. Do I want to help younger musicians who might be thinking that they want to make a living at music, or do I just literally post the trials and tribulations I've personally been through? I leave this to the reader. Every musician has a story, this is mine. I'm not a writer, but I would like to try to purge thoughts that have been taking up space in my brain for a while now. I'll try to be as concise as possible, as I've been told that I tend to wander a little bit. Don't kill me for it! Here we go:
PART 1: AUDITIONS
I haven't had a day job for over 40 years. My only source of income has been through music. I was forced into retirement by Covid in 2020. Thank you to everyone who had a hand in that debacle!
I was working in Vegas where I was part of a "musical event" that was one of the longest running musical events in Vegas. I call it a "musical event" as it was not a show per se. It was at the Venetian Hotel and took place in St. Mark's square or the facsimile of the real one in Venice, Italy.
It was a 15 minute musical event that took place every hour on the stage in the center of the square. It started at 12pm and went every hour until 6pm. It involved opera singers, dancers, jugglers, acrobats, costumes and choreography, all with an Italian flavor. I played guitar behind the singers with the other musicians. I was lucky to be able to sub for the existing guitar player who had the gig before I got there. I also backed up some of the opera singers in the Venetian Trio in the evening, same stage, same square same Italian flavor.
I consider myself lucky to have gotten the gig. The Venetian outsourced to an entertainment agency, who handled the auditions, the putting together of the show and costumes. Actually I was lucky to even find out about the audition. Things like knowledge of auditions are not widespread here. But I heard about it and applied and got invited.
When I got to the audition there were a ton of guitar players as that was what they were auditioning for that day, some from Los Angeles and some even from the East Coast. They all come out of the woodwork when there is an audition in Vegas. Everybody wants to work here.
I WAS NERVOUS AS HELL
But I was prepared. I REALLY wanted this gig. At that time, I was teaching in a little teaching studio and driving around to kids houses to teach them. That was our only source of income when we arrived here. My wife couldn't work because she is a Mexican citizen and needed a green card, but we were working on that. All the while burning through our savings. Side note: when we first got here in 2015 rent was cheap. Not anymore and especially not since Covid and inflation.
When I arrived at the audition and saw all of the guitar players, my first thought was - "How do I stand out amidst all of these players."- Yes, yes, probably the wrong thought. That was the same thought that prevented me from getting the gig for the touring show of Mama Mia. Long story short, goes like this...
In 2013, I was working for Princess Cruise Lines and had been applying to touring Broadway shows trying to get an invitation for an audition. I finally got one for Mama Mia in New York, but I was taking my usual 2 months vacation from ships in Miami. I had to do this audition as I wanted to quit ships so I flew to New York.
When I got there they auditioned the guitar players three at a time and we were told to read the chart as it was written. They didn't want anything else added. I didn't understand that part. But the MD said that the Mama Mia people were real sticklers for the shows being as close to the records as possible. Being a dumb-ass, I was again thinking - "How do I stand out"-. So I put in a little of my own funky rhythm playing while reading the chart as written, if that is possible. I shot myself in the foot!. I was clearly the best more experienced player and made it down to the final 3, but my ego refused to let me just play the chart and let the MD choose.
On a break I asked one of the other guitar players, who actually subbed for the Broadway show, -"How is this guy going to tell the difference when we are all playing the same thing."- He said -"Trust me he'll know."- Even though I made it through all the call backs, I didn't get the gig. Guess he knew, and could hear that I wasn't playing the chart as written. Turns out that in musicals, with singers and dancers, you have to play the same thing every night or it will throw them off. (How do you know when a singer is at the door? They can't find their key, and don't know when to come in!) Hence having to play the same thing every night so they would not get lost. I get it, but also knew that I would be bored as hell playing the same thing every night.
That was also a problem for me playing on ships. I would throw in my own shit while reading the chart. Yes, I have problems. I was told I had to play the solos as written. What??? I couldn't do it. I can play better solos. I needed to play my own solos. What an arrogant fuck, huh? I was talked to more than once about it. More on ships later.
BACK TO THE VEGAS AUDITION
I started to get nervous as hell and had to kind of talk myself out of it.
The guitar player sitting across from me was tuning up and preparing and struck up a conversation. None of us had any idea what the gig was for. We were just auditioning for anything we could get our hands on because a lot of times you never hear of the auditions if they even have them.
In our shallow conversation he mentioned his reading ability and how he graduated from UCLA. Well my reading ability was not great although it had gotten better from working on cruise ships playing for the production shows, but I would never consider myself a good reader. So I took that opportunity to get even more nervous and had to talk myself down once again. The good thing about Vegas is that it's dry and your hands don't get clammy. Which has always been a problem for me when I get nervous. Clammy hands can be the death of a guitar player. Or maybe for any instrumentalist. But in Vegas that didn't happen because it was so dry. So I did have that working for me.
I had the two tunes I was going to play absolutely down. I had been practicing them for months before the audition. I REALLY WANTED THIS GIG! Did I mention that? In a few minutes a guy came out and sat down with everyone and said - "Now listen. This is basically a modeling agency with a lot of ex singers and dancers on the staff. They are the ones who will be judging you. I'm here because I play in the show at the Venetian and they want at least one musician on the panel to judge who might be able to do the gig or not."- Wow! Now I was really thinking - "What was this gig all about?".-
I had two tunes prepared. One was Midnight Mood, Bill Evan's version and the other was my own arrangement of Santa Lucia. They wanted at least one Italian tune. The Bill Evans version of Midnight Mood is beautiful, as was just about anything he did. I started with that one. Come to find out, the dude who came out and told us what was kind of going on was the sax player in the show. He was sitting there along with a row or panel of apparently ex singers and dancers. I played the Bill tune and finished. He stood up and said -"Beautiful! We usually stop everyone way before the end but the tune is so beautiful and you were playing it so well I wanted to hear it to the end."- I said -"Thank you."-
I mentioned that I had another tune to play but he put a chart in front of me instead and asked me to play it with him. He was going to play flute. I read the tune from the chart, I don't remember what tune it was but he seemed excited and started talking to the others on the panel that I might be able to do what it was that they wanted. I still didn't know what they wanted.
So basically that was it. They said that they would have call backs in a week or so. I got called back. This time I had to play to a video camera for the CEO of the company and give a little speech about myself, what I had done recently and what I wanted to do in the future. Since I still didn't know what the gig was all about I couldn't really gear my little soliloquy to what they wanted, so I just said I'm new here and could really use the work and I'm available right now and can work my schedule around what ever you have going on.
I GOT THE GIG!
Yes, I got the gig. What happened next was bizarre. I auditioned for a gig without having any idea what the gig was. I got the gig and accepted it and still had no I idea what the gig was. I had to go to the agency office and fill out a lot of paper work, and listen to people describe what everybody, but the guitar player, would be doing. They had been auditioning singers, dancers, acrobats, jugglers, kind of a poor man's Cirque do Soleil. (Everybody copies everybody in Vegas!) Still no word on exactly what I'd be doing, but the rehearsals would start in a week.
Without going into horrible boring detail I rehearsed and started, and the gig lasted about 4 years, until Covid put everything on hold. The gig turned out to be a musical event resembling a mini Venetian Carnival in Italy. Except this was Vegas. It was a fun gig, paid well, and all I had to bring was my guitar. Sound people took care of the rest, and if I was working the day show I was home by 6pm. And home by 10pm if I was working the trio gig. I was tired of the late night gig thing so the hours were great. And then the lay-offs started happening. I was losing my gig, my wife was losing hers after finally getting her green card, everybody was being laid off and businesses were closing. Vegas went fade to black.