This brought a smile to Dexter’s face. “I see you really have done your homework,” he told her. “All right. I’m willing to give this thing a shot, if we can all play together and if we can come to terms on a contract.”
“Fair enough,” Jake said. “Shall we play a little? See how we do?”
“Let’s do it,” Dexter said, standing up and walking over to his saxophone case, which was sitting near the guitars.
Of course, it was not a simple matter of just having Dexter stand up and start playing. There were the Nerdlys to contend with. For the better part of an hour they fiddled around with the microphone, the amplifier, the controls on the sound board, and the volume on the speakers until they had him almost to their idea of perfection in sound reproduction. Dexter, for his part, did not complain about their ministrations. In truth, he seemed to actually respect it.
“All right then,” Celia said when it was finally time to start playing something. “This is the first song we’ve been working on and it’s going to need some alto sax for the secondary melody. It’s called Should We Believe?.”
“A good title,” Dexter allowed.
“It’s a quad, in the key of G-major, at one hundred beats throughout. Jake is playing the primary melody with a mildly distorted electric, I’ve been doing rhythm acoustic guitar, and Lenny has been giving us a few piano fills on the in-betweens. What I would be looking for out of you, Dexter, is a nice, even secondary melody to help backfill and then a solo just after the bridge.”
“All right,” said Dexter. “Let’s hear what you got.”
“We will,” Celia just. “Just keep a few things in mind before you judge us too much. We’ve only been working on this for a week, so it’s still pretty rough around the edges.”
“And I’m not a professional pianist by any means,” added Lenny. “I’m just here to plug in and keep things moving.”
“That’s right,” Jake said. “Nerdly’s mom will eventually be playing the piano parts, just like she did on the first album.”
“I know what songs in the early stages sound like,” Dexter assured them. “I won’t judge anyone on that basis.”
“All right then,” Celia said. “Let’s do this.”
They did it, going through the first two verses and working their way to the bridge. No major mistakes were made, but the tune was very basic at this point. Still, Dexter was nodding his head to the melody, tapping his foot to the beat. Just at the point where Celia was envisioning the saxophone solo, they came to a halt, Celia ceasing her playing first followed by everyone else in a disorganized jangle of instruments.
“Well,” Jake asked. “What do you think?”
“It’s got some potential,” Dexter told them. “I like that melody a lot. Did you come up with that, Celia?”
“I came up with the basics of it,” she said. “Once we started working it, Jake helped shape it to some degree.”
“That’s a good way to work,” Dexter said. “That means y’all are open to suggestions?”
“We are,” Celia confirmed.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said. “Start from the beginning again. Let me see if I can plug myself in, if I can get into your groove, if that makes sense.”
That made sense. They started the tune over, playing with a little more confidence now. Dexter let them get through the first verse and the first chorus and then, when they started the second verse, he began to play. It was gentle, flowing melody that complimented the primary melody being played out by Jake, standing beside and slightly behind it, but not overwhelming it in any way. It was a little rough, of that there could be no doubt, but for a first-time contribution to the tune—especially since Dexter had only heard the tune once—it was impressive to behold. It had vast potential for improvement and refinement. Everyone in the room—even Pauline—was impressed.
“Well?” Dexter asked when they’d stopped playing. “What do you think?”
“I think I’m ready to talk terms,” said Jake.
“Yes,” said Celia. “Me too.”
Dexter proved himself a shrewd negotiator. He knew he was in a position of strength and he took full advantage of it. Jake and Celia needed him. He did not necessarily need them. For him to sign onto the project, it would have to be made worth his while.
He outright laughed at their offer of fifty dollars an hour for sessions, stating he would not do it for a penny less than a hundred and fifty an hour.
“National was only paying you a hundred an hour for working with Bobby Z,” Pauline felt compelled to remind him.
“That was then, this is now,” Dexter returned. “I was doing Z a favor by working for that little. He and I had a thing, you know.”
“Yeah, we heard about that,” Jake said. “How about seventy-five?”
“One hundred and fifty,” Dexter insisted. “And I want the entire weekend off. I will not work on Saturdays and only have the Lord’s day as my day off.”
“Do you go to church?” Nerdly asked.
“What is this, a religious discussion now?” Dexter asked.
“No, not at all,” Jake said. “Nerdly was just making conversation.”
“Indeed,” Nerdly said. “I was just curious about your worship habits. You see, Sharon and I are both of the Hebrew faith and we are unable to attend services at the Temple while we’re working on these projects because, in our faith, those services take place on Saturdays. Of course, our Rabbi is very understanding about...”
“I think we’re moving into irrelevancies here,” Dexter interrupted. “I’m holding firm to one hundred fifty and Saturdays off. Once we agree to that, we can start working on the incidentals.”
“Incidentals?” Pauline asked.
“Yes,” he said. “Travel expenses, healthcare costs, hours per day of work before overtime compensation kicks in, contributions to my retirement fund.”
“Retirement fund?” asked Pauline incredulously.
“Of course,” he said. “I have an IRA plan that I contribute twelve percent of my income to. You have to plan for the future, you know. I would ask that KVA Records match my contributions to this plan up to ten percent of the total yearly salary I am paid.”
Jake and Pauline looked at each other, bewildered. “Are you saying,” Pauline finally summarized, “that you want us to pay you an extra ten percent above what we already pay you and put it in your retirement fund?”
“That is correct,” Dexter said. “That does come out pre-tax, you know, so it’s not actually as much as you think it is.”
“We’ve never done anything like that before,” Pauline said.
Dexter shrugged. “You’ve never asked Dexter Price to play sax for you before. In any case, that’s an incidental, only to be discussed after we’ve agreed on the basics. As of yet, you have not agreed to a base hourly rate of one hundred and fifty dollars per hour with Saturdays off. Let us agree to that first, shall we?”
“Seventy-five an hour,” Jake suddenly said.
Dexter shook his head sternly. “There is no negotiation on the hourly rate,” he insisted. “Offer me less than one-fifty again, and I’m walking.”
“What about royalties?” Jake asked.
This got Dexter’s attention. “Royalties?”
“Is Bobby Z paying royalties to you?” Jake asked. “Is Val Ignatius? Or did you just get session pay for being a major part of the success of those musicians?”
“I just got session pay,” Dexter said. “And I’m hot commodity. That is why I insist on a high hourly rate for my work and a contribution to my retirement. I’m hot now and I can command that. Who knows what the future will bring? The only money I’m going to get out of you people is what you pay me while I’m actually working for you.”
“That’s not how we work, Dexter,” Jake said.
“Are you saying you pay royalties to your session musicians?” he asked.