[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
they ve been asked for sometimes by a band or singer, a fixer (see
below) or a producer. They play because they love playing; they
get the chance to play with a wide range of different people and, if
they don t like a particular producer, band or singer, they can say
no . They also don t suffer the stresses and strains of stardom.
176
Training required 177
The picture painted here is of course somewhat idyllic and not
necessarily a description of a typical session player. However, a
session musician who is successful and in demand can enjoy
much of the best that the music business has to offer a musician,
can choose when and with whom to play and is not reliant on
the sustained popularity of a particular band or type of music.
The session player does of course have to have something to
offer in return for this appealing way of life, and that usually
comes in the form of technical excellence combined with an
efficient approach to work or a unique, distinctive style which
will give a special gloss to the finished product. The two
combined would make for a most highly prized session player.
However, the latter quality tends to be found in star name players:
the value a Stevie Wonder harmonica solo or a Mark Knopfler
guitar break can add to a recording is immeasurable. These two
and other such virtuosos will usually only play sessions for their
friends (and this is often done for nothing!) or their heroes. Even
a fixer with an open-ended budget wouldn t be able to persuade
such talent into a session unless there was something other than
money to be gained by that player making an appearance.
Session people must have more to offer, in terms of musical
know-how and professionalism, than the regular band member.
For example, everyone acknowledges the unique talent of
Rolling Stone guitarist Keith Richards. How many are aware,
however, that many of those memorable guitar licks took hours
and sometimes even days to perfect? While a permanent line-up
can spend open-ended amounts of time together rehearsing and
developing styles and techniques, a paid-for session player will
always be expected to deliver pretty well straight away. That s
what the successful session player will always be able to offer,
and will be paid well for it.
TRAINING REQUIRED
Most working session players will have had some form of
musical training, and will have taken that training on into some
sort of further education at music college, academy or
university. Such a background will not only guarantee the ability
to play at least one instrument to professional standards but will
also mean that the musician concerned will be able to read music
or sight read. Many fixers and producers insist on this, although
178 The session player
not all do. There are those players whose name or style would so
enhance a piece of music that they are allowed to bring their own
methods into the recording studio, however unorthodox they
might be.
Having been through a formal musical training and
presumably having acquired some sort of qualification, the
would-be session musician would then seek to gain some
experience with a regular band or orchestra. This would give
the player experience of rehearsing and performing with
other musicians under certain pressured conditions in the
studio, on stage or both. This will give the player experience
of playing with other musicians, under pressure, which will
be invaluable when he or she decides to go on the market as a
session musician.
There is also a new breed of session person, known as the
session programmer, who is brought in to coordinate any
sequencing, sampling or other computer technology which
might be either required during a recording session or a live
performance. Such talent is becoming increasingly important in
the music business of the nineties, and people with such skills
can command fees at least similar to those earned by a session
musician.
WHAT IS A SESSION?
A recording session is quite simply the coming together of a
number of musicians and singers for the purpose of recording a
piece of music. That piece of music might be a single or an album
track by a particular artist; it might be a jingle for a radio or
television advertisement; or it might be all or part of the
soundtrack for a film or television programme. Such pieces of
music written and recorded for a particular event, product or
purpose, are being recorded, day-in, day-out, the world over.
Most such sessions are staffed by freelance or session
musicians because quite often such jobs are one-offs. It would
be far too expensive for a studio, a film company, a rock singer
or band to employ, say, a string section the whole year round.
Far more economical is to identify exactly where and when you
need strings on your album, your soundtrack or your jingle,
and bring the string musicians, or string section, in for just that
one job.
The fixer 179
So where do we find these musicians? And how do we know
they re the right musicians for the job? Answer: we don t
necessarily, but the fixer does.
THE FIXER
Fixer is the somewhat inadequate term used to describe the
person who seeks out, assembles and manages the group of
musicians required for a session. Who employs the fixer, and
indeed whether or not a fixer is used at all, depends very much
on the type of session. If it s a rock session, then the producer, the
artist s management and artist will have a say in the choice of
fixer. If the session is more formal, for a film or television show,
and without the personality of a recording by a name artist, then
the producer in consultation with the arranger and possibly the
composer will choose the fixer.
A fixer will have a very broad musical knowledge and
background and some kind of formal musical training. He or she
will need to have worked with many, many different musicians
and will have a valuable address book full of names to suit every
type of session.
Once contracted for a particular job, the fixer will find the
musicians, draw up their contracts a job which will include
determining whether or not there will be royalties, a lump sum
or both ensure that all the musicians arrive at the right place at
the right time, iron out any pre-session problems, stay there to
see that all goes well and then that s it. Rarely does the fixer get
involved in any post-session work; in fact, the only job left after
the recording is over is to make sure agreed fees are paid. The
fixer will receive a lump sum payment, which will include a
fixing fee, and the rest will be distributed to the musicians,
according to their contracts. And if the fixer s client fails to come
up with the cash, it s still down to the fixer to pay the musicians.
So it is important that the session musician gets to know a
network of fixers. The more fixers the session musician gets to
know and gets on with, the more jobs will come his or her way.
There will, of course, be many jobs which don t involve a
fixer; many producers (Chapter 8) carry a close-knit team of
session players around with them and don t require the services
of this middleman. To be a favourite of a top producer is any
session player s dream as the respect that producer has within
180 The session player
the industry will rub off on to the session players. As you can see,
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]