Most awkward trumpet gig ever

[DJtpt31]

I perform with a quintet I put together right after college. We perform "volunteer" at churches around the community. Years ago, one of the churches we performed for asked to hire us for two Christmas Eve services. My bandmates agreed to doing it, so we show up to the gig and there's another trumpet player there warming up. We set-up introduce ourselves, trying not to make it uncomfortable, the other guy responses with a question: are you guys playing, too? which we laugh off and respond yes. The music director shows up and apologizes to the other guy and to us saying that he didn't realize that he double booked the services. We ended up alternating hymns for both services and joked between ourselves after the gig that all the money for the gig went to the other guy (this was a little paying gig). It ended up taking a month for us to get a check from the church. We've never got a call back from them.
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"You need F-15's..." Joe Biden

[zaferis]

This past Maundy Thursday services with a rhythm section (drummer with electric drum set-and no stage monitor), small orchestra and 25-is member choir 2 (yes 2) conductors-one for the choir, one for the orch... with a clikc track going, the rhythm section at one tempo, the two conductors were obviously having what seemed to be a lovers spat.

Service one, the brass came in one time with the click track - unfortunatley by that time the choir was already 2 beats behind. - Half the orchestra went with the click track the other with the choir - rhythm section at this point lost in the mix. With no stage monitor(s) the only sound we had of them was the reflection off of the back wall. The orhcestra conductor was totally lost and seemed never to have the correct page infront of him.

Service two, got worse. the 3, now fractioned, ensembles never agreed to anything, and the conductors, though watching each other, conducted at their own pace and place.
Nothing like putting the musicians in the middle of your pwer plays....
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Freelance Performer/Educator
Adjunct Professor
Bach Trumpet Endorsing Artist
Retired Air Force Bandsman

[kehaulani]

I had a similar experience but this was between conductor and vocal soloist.

My band was to accompany a singer on the national anthem at a sporting event. The singer said he would sing over the P.A. from the press box. I questioned this but he said he had done it that way many times and all was well.

When the time came, his voice was a good beat behind the band the entire time. Sucked. Antiphonal/dueling. The band overpowered him so, as far as the audience was concerned, it was the vocalist who was off. I didn't care, at that point. Jerk.
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Yamaha 8310Z Bobby Shew trumpet
Benge 3X Trumpet
Benge 3X Cornet
Adams F-1 Flghn

[Nonsense Eliminator]

[DJtpt31]

Close to a year ago, I got a notification about a potential gig with a church needing 2 trumpets. I inquired about the gig and shortly after got a response from the music director. Told him that my buddy and I were both available to play trumpet and what not. Gave him my info and my buddies info. Got dates/times/music. We show up to the rehearsal, the dude is 20 minutes late. He finally shows up and opens the church and lets us in to warm-up. He goes and prints music that he did give us. 10 minutes later some kid walks in and starts warming up along side us on trumpet. I'm sitting there thinking to myself, "huh, that's strange the post said two trumpets... maybe he decided to have a third???" music directer finally shows up and hands music out. While that is happening he stops and says "this is not right, there should only be two trumpets..." We spend 5-10 minutes trying to figure out what happened. It ended up being that the other guy reached out to the music director who thought it was my buddy reaching out to him. This one is a head scratcher as I gave the music director both our names when we took the gig, so... I ended up not doing the gig, my buddy and the other guy did. I still got paid the same, so it worked out well for me.
_________________
"You need F-15's..." Joe Biden