|
As most of you know, Beth and I moved to Nashville at the end of May.
It's been a hot Summer here!
I have been very fortunate in that my networking has lead me to people who will be influencial to me down the road. My friend, John, and I have spent many hours in his state-of-the-art studio remixing and mastering some of the old cassettes of original tunes I wrote back in the 90's. I am producing them as C.D.'s know and they will be available for the Holidays. I'm working with Barnes and Noble on distribution arrangements. I'll keep you posted.
My friend at Sony Publishing really enjoys my music and marketing techniques. Last week she gave me a complete listing of who's who on Music Row. I have been making appointments with the top producers in town and pitching 6 of my most marketable songs to them.
Most of my performances with the LS Jazz Express have been for private, society functions. I am using a 34 year old pianist and a 24 year old upright bassist. They both perform with Michelle Wright on tour and the pianist also is part of my son's fusion/jazz group. I haven't done anything with the Express because we wanted to re-invent my marketing before promoting to the public.
While in the studio, John and I edited both the Express and the Jazz Express demo CDs by shortening them both to around 4 minutes, 20 second snippets of each song with them fading out and fading in. Very professional and to the point.
I have also met the drummer who plays on The General Jackson along with the members of the show group. Sat in on their first set and had a blast. We also play golf every Tuesday morning. All of the golfers are music business owners or performers, such as Jerome (one of Nashville's top session guitarists, Aritha Franklin's bass player and (for you drummers and drum students) Chris Brooks, co-owner of Row-loff Productions Percussion Publishing Company here in Nashville, distributor of The Rudimental Cookbook. He and I are going to get together after PASIC to discuss future projects.
Networking and marketing is the name of the game! There are so many fine players here. It's a matter of finding your nitch and people who like you and enjoy your playing - and that's who you will be working with. It all takes time,
but the rewards are to be enjoyed down the road.
That's it for now. Drop me a note once in a while or look me up when you are in Nashville. ALso, when you get a minute, check out:
www.myspace.com/larrysmithdrums.
Still keeping the oldies alive...
Larry Smith
615-719-1718
|
|
