Sometimes people aren’t really sure what they are looking for when it comes to hiring musicians for their wedding reception, corporate event, cocktail party, or dinner party, etc.   A music agency like Rossi Music has years of experience in helping clients figure out what they want.  The following is a collection of tips that we feel might be helpful when deciding on the right type of entertainment.

Jazz music is actually a fairly broad term these days.  Jazz Bands at Los Angeles Events are typically  Trios, Quartets or Duos and the musicians are generally well trained and versatile in many musical styles on their instruments.  The classic jazz quartet typically has bass, drums, piano, and horns such as trumpet and saxophone.  This group can be whittled down to a variety of trio formats such as piano, bass, and drums.  For more intimate events, we usually recommend replacing drums (for softer levels) with saxophone or guitar and using a jazz trio with guitar, sax, and acoustic bass or sax, piano and bass.

Regardless of instrumentation, these groups typically play jazz standards from the Great American Songbook.  When done right, this type of music sets a nice ambience for any event where people need to be able to talk, socialize, and enjoy themselves and not be distracted by the music.  Wedding dinners, wedding reception music, corporate events, cocktail parties and wedding engagement parties would be good examples of these events that call for this kind of ambiance background music.

Another approach is to have a jazz vocalist in the style of Ella Fitzgerald or Frank Sinatra join the jazz trio or quartet.  Again, when done right, the vocalist has the ability to either remain in the background or be slightly more engaging depending on what the event needs.  There are equipment concerns such as adding a sound system and microphones that might affect the price so be sure to consider this when hiring a vocalist with a jazz band, but it’s usually worth the extra expense!

For a less traditional approach there are a couple of options that are still in the jazz style.  Smooth jazz or R&B jazz bands (think George Benson…) often provide a more contemporary groove while still remaining background music.  Swing bands or “gypsy jazz” bands (think Django Reinhardt…) can offer a retro 1920’s acoustic jazz feel that seems to be in vogue at the moment.  “French lounge” (think Pink Martini…) jazz groups with a vocalist singing in French are also very classy.  There is also the “big band jazz” in the style of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Glen Miller which lends itself to nice dinner music and swing dancing.

One last option to remember is the very versatile Jazz Band that can play soft instrumental music for the early part of the event and then kick it up to dance the crowd for the rest of the night with either swing and latin dance music or even current Top 40 Dance Band music. It’s all possible if you know what you want. Our musicians in several of our bands are that versatile!

Again, these are just a few of the many different styles that you could have.  Feel free to check out our website at www.rossimusic.biz for links to our various Jazz Bands in Los Angeles  or call our office at 818-902-1233 to find the right group for you.

Go directly to the jazz band page at http://www.rossimusic.biz/our-performers-jazz-ensembles.php