Latino Music Cafe

Small Groups Are The Big Thing: Part 2

Posted on 15. Jan, 2010 by Hector Aviles in Latino Music

In Part 1, I explored the topic of how small music bands seem to be flourishing in this down economy and focused the discussion on the Salsa genre. Is this applicable to Latin Jazz bands? Absolutely, and perhaps more so! As I mentioned in Part 1, even with the recent release of some very good big band recordings, tiros and quartets may be proliferating at a faster pace in Jazz and Latin Jazz.

Same economics apply to musicians and club owners

The issue driving smaller bands is the economy and its impact in venue owners. Small bands have been a musical format for many years, but recently club or event owners are dealing with less revenue as people are more careful in how they spend their discretionary money…and less people have discretionary money. That drives demand for groups that will charge less, and one of the best options to maintain music quality is to hire smaller bands of good musicians.

In Jazz in general, and Latin Jazz in particular, the music lends itself to the format of trios and quartets. In Salsa, smaller groups brings down the quality of the music significantly . I also suggest that the audience needs and expectations may be different for these genres.

There’s room for both; its a matter of audience

I mentioned in Part 1 of this topic that people attending the Fuego Latino event did not mind that Fuego Latino played over a music track. This obviously does not compare in quality to a live music group, but the audience expectations are set differently, mostly to have a good time dancing, and sometimes even singing. Would event attendees had preferred a full live band? Of course yes! But they came for a good time and left having had a hoot. So they got good value; a lot of fun for a good price. It’s like going to eat at McDonalds vs. eating at a Steak House. The expectations are different, but you can argue that you can also get good value for the price. I guess that’s why its the #1 franchise in the world.

With Jazz and Latin Jazz, the audience is there for the music and will be looking to the performance of the band through a different glass than those attending a Fuego Latino salsa event.

Smaller bands good for new artists

 Jazz and Latin Jazz trios and quartets are proliferating. I would think, without having analyzed any data, that new artists coming up would be more inclined to use a smaller band format based on the assumption that bigger band gigs would go to better known musicians. If I were a club owner and am looking at investing in a bigger band for an event, I would probably go with one with as much name recognition as I can afford. Club and event owners will seek the smaller groups more when revenues are down. As with Salsa, bigger Latin Jazz ensembles do have their appropriate venues in larger events.

I don’t mean to say that small bands are only or even mostly for new artist. Many established artists have seen the need to downsize to be able to keep busy. Some can accomodate the band size to the gig needs. Eddie Palmieri is a great example of this. He can play with bigger bands, small bands, and may switch between Latin Jazz and Salsa.

Small bands with good Latin Jazz music:

There is a plethora of good Latin Jazz from trios and quartets. The excellet blogger Chip Boaz of The Latin Jazz Corner, has recently reviewed some very good recordings, as also have the folks from Latin Jazz Network. Among them, are:

Samuel Quinto: Salsa’ N Jazz

Mark Levine: Off & On: The music of Moacir Santos

Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet: Bien! Bien!

Related Blogs @ LatinoWebCafe:

Small Groups Are the Big Thing; Part 1

Another Way to Enjoy Latin Music