​I hope this time together has been positive for all involved as much as it has been for me.

Best Wishes for the future,
Claire Maillot

​Red & Black Music Mall is an additional Facebook group to help connect clients and artists. This group is for artists who wish to be notified of available engagements, and for clients who require great music. It’s also a place to report unscrupulous traders.

This is a free service. This group is unmoderated and unregulated. Please feel free to email info@redandblackmusic.co.uk should you have any specific queries or complaints, and we will do our best to resolve these :) If you’re a musician, please use our sister group Red & Black Musicians Marketplace.

Brazil's music is a rich and diverse cultural heritage. The subcontinent includes a myriad of styles far too numerous to mention here, a treasure trove of musical gems. At Red & Black Music, Brazilian music has always been very close to the heart. In recognition of this, we offer Brazilian setups across 3 out of our 4 projects.

​Hello,
If you're a musician, please join Red & Black Musicians Marketplace, a new Facebook group we've set up opening up an additional channel of communication to help musicians find musicians in elusive places.
Looking for musicians or engagements? This is an additional group for musicians who wish to be notified of available engagements, and for engagers who require musicians.
Please also don't forget to send your email to info@redandblackmusic.co.uk so we can sign you up for Bcc offers. Available UK-wide.
Many thanks, onwards and upwards!
The Red & Black Music Team
https://www.facebook.com/groups/redandblackmusiciansmarketplace/

​Red & Black Music is a limited company run by two permanent staff; a manager who takes care of our everyday business (artists, clients, contracts and finance) and a producer who focuses on the artistic and creative development of the company. Occasionally, we hire in extra executive members for specific roles such as assistant tour managers or producers on a freelance basis as and when the need arises.

​​My role in Red & Black Music will be to represent client interests, facilitating day-to-day operations and communications, supporting Rory from the perspective of maintaining our brands and reputation and managing all internal agreements to ensure that they are met. I have strong experience in conversing with clients and business intermediaries through my role as a digital editor, where I was in charge of handling the iBooks' sales relationships with Apple. Although I’m new to the performing arts; I believe my skills and qualities will be most relevant in this new role. 

Jo’s done a great job so far, so I won’t be modifying much at all to what she’s put in place.
Thank you for your patience as I get up to speed on the processes and systems.
I look forward to meeting you soon.

Best Regards,
Claire Maillot

Red & Black Music offers a flexible range of arranging, composing, transcribing and typesetting services, designed for producers and ensembles. Scores are priced per 5 minutes, per element. Prices are divided single / combined to encourage producers to build up ensembles according to their needs. To qualify for combined packages, producers must select from minimum 2 groups of elements (e.g., vocals and rhythm).

Vocals:

• £05 single / £03 combined - 1 lead or backing vocal part
• £10 single / £06 combined - 1 lead or backing vocal part with lyrics
• £15 single / £09 combined - 1 lead and 1 backing vocal part with lyrics

Rhythm:

• £05 single / £03 combined - piano / guitar or lead sheet
• £10 single / £06 combined - piano / guitar and bass
• £05 single / £03 combined - percussion (combined)
• £10 single / £06 combined - percussion (multi-line arrangement)

Horns:

• £05 single / £03 combined - 1-horn arrangement
• £10 single / £06 combined - anything up to a 3-piece horn section
• £15 single / £09 combined - anything up to a 5-piece horn section
• £20 single / £12 combined - anything up to a 7-piece horn section

Strings:

• £05 single / £03 combined - single string part
• £15 single / £12 combined - 4-piece string arrangement (string quartet)
• £20 single / £15 combined - 5-piece string arrangement (string quartet + bass)

So, for example, an arrangement for the DIÁSPORA 11-piece band would cost:

• £09 - 1 lead and 1 backing vocal part with lyrics
• £06 - piano / guitar and bass
• £03 - percussion (single)
• £09 - 4 horns

= £27

We will soon be offering producers a catalogue of over 100 arrangements of songs within the jazz and world music spectrum. 50% of the  proceeds will go to the PRS Foundation meaning that money will go to the original composers / lyricists of these songs.

We work with a variety of different artists across the jazz and international music spectrum, most notably Latin band DIÁSPORA
(www.diasporamusic.co.uk).

We guide young and emerging artists to help get them off the ground and we work with established artists to help maintain their careers. We offer consultation and administrative schemes, either exclusively or non-exclusively, on a pay-as-you-go, commission or contractual basis across the following areas:
​

• Diary and events management
• Digital documentation and development
• Finance
• HR
• Marketing
• Production
• PR
• Website development

At the heart of our management initiative is an online system comprising events, commerce and communications management facilities aimed at artists, to facilitate and streamline their aspects of business.

• An integrated events management system detailing clients, lineups, managers, producers and venues, and providing email friendly contractual and financial templates, with built in accountancy spreadsheets to help you keep on track with financial targets. Events can even be grouped together into tours or residencies.
• The UK's first, monitored suppliers database. The database not only provides contact details of suppliers by discipline(s) and town / city, but it also reports on their offer history (occurrences, average response, average response time, average notice) and their general performance.
• An automated deal calculator. A calculator that generates instant quotes that factor in all fees, expenses and charges solely on 2 inputs (desired band / lineup and postcode).

This system will soon be available to both non-paying and paying artists (managers, producers and performers) setting a new standard for live music management. The incentive for managers will be to ensure that they are representing the highest quality calibre of performers and delivering the best possible performance. The incentive for performers is to provide formal progression routes whereby they can find more work.

Please note: while we are happy to offer advice on artist promotion, we are not an agent, as we work with artists on a more microcosmic scale. If you are looking for agent representation, we recommend Band on the Wall as caterer for your needs www.bandonthewall.org

​I work across the following areas of management:

• offers & engagements
• memberships
• payments
• private hires (Rory is still leading on public promotions)
• as an ongoing project, developing the Red & Black Arts Network (online database)

I realise that the issue of memberships requires some clarification, and it is worth being clear on this.

Everyone copied in on my email is a first member of this production (I'm currently tying up loose ends with a couple of members), having signed the release in April. I'm sorry that it is taken so long to provide membership certificates.

As we are not technically acting as an employer, we cannot use membership 'contracts' as such. This is why we are using 'certificates' as they are effectively casual, written agreements, which, unlike engagements (contracted on a freelance basis), are not contractually binding, i.e., they work in the same way as offers, where you are free to choose.

In theory, they outline my parameters / expectations which will hopefully be useful and informative. In practice, you are all busy freelancers, some of you working with multiple productions, so it is also an opportunity for you to stipulate your own preferences regarding your availability and / or membership within this particular production. 

I will continue to send and contract offers and engagements, so any availability and / or membership issues must go through me. For certain members, I need to know in advance any unavailability for periods of 14 days or more.

Rory will continue to produce engagements (subsequent to a gig confirmation) including devising arrangements / programmes, organising rehearsals and acting as an on-the-day liaison, as well as doing auditions, but in terms of bookings, I am responsible for all O&E.

Meanwhile, T&C (supplier) can be found here:
​www.redandblackmusic.co.uk/suppliers.html

My email address: redandblackevents@icloud.com

Let me know if you have any questions.

I look forward to meeting you soon.

Thanks,

Jo

PLEASE NOTE: Diáspora is now under new management of Red & Black Music. Our new email address:
redandblackmusic@me.com
​
Thanks!
- Diáspora

Just got back from a session playing piano with Sergio Barbati on bass and Jon Desbrulais on drums, at a charity event in Wickford, Essex. Great fun and inspiring to play with such brilliant musicians, in a small trio combo.

September has been an exciting month for us as we are under new management! Red & Black Music is now the new brand responsible for delivering Diáspora, the jazz quartet and the trio, alongside affiliated jazz and international music projects. The business, officially started 2nd September, will offer management, production and directorial solutions for directors and musicians. Working closely with the Musicians' Union, it will also conquer inefficiency and communication deficiency (otherwise known to musicians as 'flakiness') within the music industry. The website is still under development but more information will be going up soon...

Diáspora gig in Worcestershire the other week went down a storm! The gig was also the first with the all-new London-based band, a debut for vocalist Roberta De Francia and pianist John Cervantes, who both performed admirably! It was also my first gig doing entirely lead vocals with Diáspora. Needless to say that the practice certainly paid off! On this gig we also had 1 car coming down from Manchester with Demetris Kanaris on bass and Ric Parmegianni on congas, 1 car coming down from Bolton, with Gavin Hibberd on trumpet, and, from Bournemouth, our much-missed and respected Dave Simpson on kit/timbales. All of us rendezvoused at a farm in the middle of nowhere (well, just over the hills from Stroud, actually!) under a clear night of stars, to play 2 fabulous sets of salsa and Latin Jazz before stopping for a pint and then heading off our separate ways... well most of us! The London crew stayed behind and slept on camp beds of course! All in all a wonderful road trip. Many congratulations to our bride and groom for the evening, Russ and Jenn. Such a lovely couple and family, we wish them the very best!

Another exciting thing is that we've got our first P.A. system for the band. We opted for a Yamaha 300 model, which can do anything up to a 5/6-piece band, plus take it wherever we go for the jazz quartet and trio gigs. The sound is perfect and crystal clear, and I am also very excited about hooking up the mixing desk into Logic and doing a bit of home production!

Possible new regular gig on the horizon. We want to bring back 'The Open Session' formula but do it in a slightly different way. Of course, the aim will be a platform where musicians and performing artists can road test new material. Watch this space!