After Hours Big Band-New CD-Almost

Hi Everybody,

Here’s the skinny: The After Hours Big Band has recorded a brand new CD!

This is a really cool project! We’ve recorded an exciting mix of tunes, including great arrangements of standards like That’s Life, Green Eyes and Secret Love, plus two tunes from the Count Basie book, as well as Henry Mancini’s Dreamsville, from the music for Peter Gunn, the wonderful rock ballad Traces, and three contemporary tunes, including Kaleidoscope, the CD’s title track, and Madrid, both by Erik Morales.


Here’s the thing - none of these tunes was written by any of us in the band. They’re copyrighted and the people who wrote them deserve the royalties their music should earn them. That means we need to buy what’s called “mechanical rights” for each tune. The royalties themselves cost about 9 cents per tune per CD, and sometimes a little more, depending on the tune’s length, plus a $15 processing fee per tune.


The mechanical rights to the thirteen tunes that will be on the CD will cost $575 for the first 300 copies. In addition, we need to pay our recording engineer, Todd Franklin, for recording us and mastering the CD. Then we actually need to manufacture the CD – another $550. The total cost will be about $1600 for the first 300 CDs.  After that, they should be self-sustaining. If we should get more than $1600, we’ll use it to buy rights for as many downloads as we can afford. (The same fees and royalties apply to downloads as to physical CDs.)


 For those of you who don’t know us yet, Renee Wood’s After Hours Big Band plays big band music from the swing era to right now – latin jazz, funk, swing, fusion, rock – if it’s great, we play it! The band is located in West Plains, Missouri and has been together for almost twenty years. There’s no other band like us for over a hundred miles in any direction. We’ve played all over the Ozarks region for dances, weddings, parties, concerts and civic events of all kinds and have earned a reputation for spirited performances and musical excellence.  Most of our gigs are provided at no cover charge, for everyone to enjoy.


 CD sales, not gig fees, are our major source of income, however production costs have gone up enormously since we produced our last CD, Blue, in 2008. Helping us produce this new CD will make it possible for us to bring this uniquely American music to more people more often. There is nothing like hearing a big band live and we want lots of people to be able to experience it!


This campaign will only last from today through midnight, December 31st. If you can help us out you’ll get some great music sent directly to your door, our heartfelt thanks, and the knowledge that you’ll be helping us bring this wonderful music to many more people than would have heard it otherwise.