Customize The Band For Your Event
Below is some info on the various ways in which you can customize the group to meet the needs of your event. Have fun checking out the different ways in which you can involve us in your special day! Jazz it up or jazz it down! Looking for a jazz quartet in Ottawa? We got it! Trio? Quintet? Vocals? No vocals? 10 piece band? All covered- we are not just a jazz quartet in Ottawa.
Rest assured however, that if you do not want to do an in depth customization of the ensemble, we can simply take care of it for you and suggest a configuration that we know from experience should work for your event.
Click on a topic below for more info (drop down text).
Different types of “Split Bookings” are also possible. An example would be a 5 hour booking divided up as: Duo for 2 Hours and Trio for 3 Hours (the 3rd musician arriving later to join the other 2). This is less expensive then having the Trio for the entire 5 hours. In this way, the “Split Booking” is a great way to make the group fit into a specific budget for a longer booking, or to simply vary and/or build the musical texture of the group over the course of the evening to suit the flow of your event. Whether you need a jazz quartet in Ottawa, or a Trio or a more intricate booking involving more then one group- we’ve got you covered!
Jazz Guitar (electric) Trumpet
Latin Percussion Electric Bass
Flute Vocalist
Acoustic Guitar
In some cases, certain musicians that are booked to play an instrument can also provide vocals.
Looking for another instrument? Just let us know and we’ll see what we can do!
Please note that although we guarantee your specific musical instrument selections, we normally cannot guarantee any specific musician for your event. If this is necessary for your event please let us know and we can try to accommodate this requirement in some situations (i.e. if you need a list of names ahead of time for event access reasons).
Four of the most important times that the band needs to make sure they are aware of are:
1) the time we must have all of their equipment set up by
2) the time we must begin their first set
3) the time the booking is over
4) the time we can begin to pack up their equipment
The most common scenario is that the band simply needs to be set up in time to begin their first set and can begin packing up as soon as they are done their last set. An example would be if the group must be set up by 6pm, begin the music at 6pm, stop at 9pm and are permitted to begin packing up their equipment at 9pm.
However, there are some situations in which you might want the musicians to be done setting up their equipment earlier than the time that they are to begin the music. There are also some situations in which you might want the musicians to delay packing up when they are done. These scenarios are nothing to worry about! We are very experienced. If you are unsure of whether or not the ensemble’s set up and/or pack up times need to be customized to suit your event, just let us know what concerns you may have and we can tell you whether or not our set up and/or pack up should be customized and by how much. We’ll take care of it!
For example, if you want the band to start performing at 6pm and you have a speech going on in the same room at 5:30pm, you may want the band to be done setting up by 5:30pm if you feel that the group’s set-up would disrupt the speech.
Likewise, there are situations in which you might want the musicians to delay packing up their equipment upon completion of the booking. An example of this type of scenario would be if the band is done at 9pm and you have a 30 minute slideshow presentation beginning at 9pm on a projector screen directly behind where the band is set up. In this case, even though the ensemble is done at 9pm, you may want the musicians to wait until 9:30pm to begin packing up if you feel that it might disrupt the slideshow.
We charge only from “the time we must have our equipment set up by” to “the time we can begin to pack up at” both of which are chosen by you based on your personal preferences when you plan your booking with us (we call this time frame the “booking period”). The actual time we spend setting up and packing up (before and after the booking period) is free.
Whatever you need just let us know and we will do our best to make it happen!
Optional Full Sound System and Lights and Professional Sound Technician
For a very small extra fee, we can also provide recorded music during our breaks and a small one speaker P.A. system/ipod set up suitable to fill small to medium size rooms with background music. The music would be a mix of Jazz, Funk and Latin oriented music similar to what the band plays and would be suitable for background music. That being said, depending on your preferences, it can also be nice to have an actual short break in the music at an event (especially for parts of an event when there is social mingling, such as cocktail hour or dinner). So it is not necessarily a bad thing if you don’t have recorded music for the bands breaks.
All of this can be helpful if you don’t have DJ or master of ceremonies (and if the venue itself doesn’t provide house music) but you don’t want there to be an actual break in the music when the band takes their short breaks. It can sometimes be more seamless and simpler if the band provides the recorded background music for these parts of an event rather then the venue, since it can be difficult for the band and venue to quickly and accurately communicate regarding when to turn the venue house music off and on (the band leader usually has to go looking for a member of the venue staff multiple times over the course of the event to get it turned off and on….and they are usually very busy).
To give an idea of our typical set/break structure- over the course of a 4 hour booking the band would typically play for 3 hours and 15 minutes and take 3 fifteen minute breaks. These breaks can be timed/combined/split up anyway that you need in order to suit your event. For a 3 hour booking the band would play for 2.5 hours and take 2 fifteen minute breaks. For bookings 1.5 hours or less, the band can perform the entire booking with no break (unless you would like one included).
The band is also well suited for playing generic “play on/play off” music (short improvised bits of music in different styles to add excitement to introductions for presenters as they come on stage). For example, if the best man at a wedding is coming up to the stage for a speech, we can play a cool funk groove for about 20 seconds as he is announced and makes his way to the stage. We are good at timing this so that the music starts the moment his name is announced and ends the moment he approaches the microphone. This can be a very cool effect (late night show style!). If you have many presenters, we have 4 or 5 different pieces of this kind of music that we can cycle through to change it up so it wouldn’t have to be the same thing 2 times in a row. These wouldn’t be specific recognizable songs (just riffs/grooves which makes it easier to time since we can start and stop on a dime).
We can also provide recorded music for specific songs for special parts of your event (for example a processional song for your wedding ceremony or a short clip of some energetic music for someone coming on stage at a corporate event). The band can also perform these special songs (rather then having a recording played), but it is sometimes simpler (and a bit cheaper) to have a recording played if a special part of your event calls for something very specific. We can help you determine ahead of time whether having a recording or having the band perform the song would be the best choice (based on your preferences, what you value and the details of what you need musically).
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Below are some ways in which we can add something to your event or special day by providing a jazz quartet in Ottawa or other configuration. Click on a type of event below to learn about some of the commons ways in which the band can be incorporated into various types of events (drop down text).
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