Private parties & dinners
Live music for your private parties.
Great live music is what makes that moment likely instead of lucky.
Signet Artists serve milestone birthdays and anniversaries, engagement dinners, holiday gatherings at home, club celebrations just to name a few.
Trusted and booked by
What YOU'RE BOOKING
Ensemble sizes, and how they change the vibe.
In our experience, most hosts guess too big.
A solo player
One voice and a guitar or piano in the corner of a dinner makes the evening feel thoughtfully planned, and it fits well into a home without reconfiguring all the furniture.
A duo
A duo is a great intensity for both arrival and dinner - it's a volume people easily talk across, and it has the range to lift the last hour (if that's where things are headed.)
A trio
This is the one that gets people dancing without needing a stage. Usually guitar (or keys), bass and drums. More danceable energy - or it can be a fuller-sounding-but-still laid-back jazz ensemble.
what kind of night do you want?
three common entertainment choices for private parties.
Most requests we get fall into one of the following categories.
The dinner party
We bring jazz standards on upright bass and guitar, at a level you can talk across. Great as an hour on its own, or keep things going from the time your guests arrive through dessert.
A common format for this is our jazz duo. Or a solo guitarist can hold down the same block for occasions when the guest list is a bit smaller.
The cocktail party that ends in dancing
When the furniture is going to end up against the wall, trio size is the answer: guitar, bass and drums get people dancing without a stage. A trio through drinks that becomes the band that drive danceable energy.
In situations where dancing is a "maybe" rather than the plan, an acoustic duo can cover the night well, too.
The milestone with a moment in it
Things like - a 40th birthday, a notable anniversary, or an engagement dinner. There is a toast (and sometimes a surprise), and the band plays around both: a dedicated announcement microphone can be ready to go from sound check on. When the whole booking is the moment, a proposal or one surprise song at a dinner, that has a page of its own.
“...We discussed what we were looking for, (funky jams) and they delivered. It was the perfect band for my husband’s 50th. They are personable, professional, and very talented musicians.”
Milestone birthdays
a birthday big enough to deserve a band.
For most birthdays, a restaurant with family and friends is a perfect night. But, sometimes the celebration is so important that the whole night is built to cheer on the guest of honor. If you're throwing the kind of party that's worth a band, check out some of our recommendations.
- A 30th Birthday
- These are the ones that run latest and hit hardest. A trio fills a floor without a stage, and a DJ can get your guests dancing through the end of the night.
- A 40th Birthday
- These usually look more like two parties in one evening. Guests arrive and eat, then there's some letting loose. A trio or quartet can work well for these situations.
- A 50th Birthday
- These are more often a seated dinner with a toast. Live players hang out at a lower volume at the nearest table, and the song list is built from the years the guest of honor cares about.
- A 60th Birthday and Beyond
- These are earlier, warmer, with more family in the space and more of it seated. A solo player or a jazz duo holds this evening from arrival through dessert, and jazz standards are the repertoire that reaches everyone in the family at once.
...From beginning to end. Pulled together bandmates for my husband’s 80th outdoor birthday bash. Guests were impressed with the repertoire. More than the usual cover band – jazzy sophistication.”
The intention and flow of most parties are similar. A toast, and a surprise entrance, a special video. Tell us the location, the plan and roughly who is coming, and we can build a setlist for the honoree specifically. The birthday party page covers the whole night, the surprise and the ideas.
specific vibe? we got you
We do get one request frequently for a milestone dinner at home: a table of twelve, a long dinner, and a Spanish guitarist in the corner playing something with real technique in it. Dirty Flamenco plays the traditional forms at solo or trio size, covers a dinner table alone. Both play at dinner-conversation volume and neither require a stage.
Hear it
Two of the acts featured
Dirty Flamenco playing a rumba, and Tejas Singh building No Woman No Cry from the ground up with his looper.
Where
Denver, Boulder & Colorado Springs.
In Denver, there's no additional cost for travel inside the metro area, and the booking calendar is the only constraint. A lot of holiday gatherings in homes compete with office parties in the city for the same dates. Boulder parties can tend to skew smaller. Hosted in homes and clubs where the attendees sit close to the band, so solo and duo are the sizes to ask about first. Colorado Springs hosts more of its private calendar around wedding weekends and resort terraces, and the acoustic duo is the size parties in The Springs book most.
Castle Pines, Castle Rock and Evergreen are inside that no-travel-charge area too. So a party at a house in any of the three is quoted the same as Denver.
The occasions
9 parties with details of their own.
- Engagement party
- Often the first night the two families are in one place. A duo works well, and the same duo can play the wedding’s cocktail hour later on.
- Baby and bridal showers
- An afternoon at a long table, where a solo guitarist gives the afternoon something besides the games.
- Graduation party
- Two generations in one yard. A singer and guitarist can reach the grandparents’ table and the graduate’s friends at the same time.
- Backyard party
- Anything from a solo guitarist on the patio to a trio on the lawn. A yard usually needs a little cover and a power outlet, and we can help you plan both.
- Milestone birthday party
- A 30th, a 40th, a 50th or a 60th, each with the size of act that suits it. We can plan the surprise entrance with the music and put the toast on a microphone.
- Anniversary party
- Usually a dinner with one song in it that matters more than the rest. If it’s a surprise the kids are throwing, or a vow renewal with ceremony music, we can plan for that too.
- Retirement party
- Thrown by the company or the family, with a few speeches in it. Jazz standards are the music that reaches every age at the table.
- Halloween party
- A DJ, a party band or live band karaoke, in costume if you like.
- Holiday party at home
- The Christmas jazz duo or trio through dinner, or a party band or the DJ for a house full of people, from Thanksgiving week through New Year’s Eve.
Questions
What hosts often ask when they get in touch.
Stage sizes, electrical concerns and sound needs are on the technical page.
- What does a band for a dinner party cost?
- It depends on how many musicians and how long, and for a dinner party that's usually one or two musicians rather than the full band many hosts picture. We quote each date one-by-one. What's published on our pricing page is a general market-view of what live music costs in Denver, Colorado. Describe the evening and we'll come back with a recommendation and a price.
- How much space and power does the band need at home?
- A solo sets up in about 6 by 4 feet, a duo in 8 by 6 and a trio in 12 by 8, with no stage. One dedicated 20-amp outlet covers a solo, duo or trio, and a quartet takes two. Sharing a circuit with the caterer's warmers is the most common setup problem, and one question to the caterer usually settles it.
- How long does setup take, and what does a club ask for?
- Setup takes about 45 minutes for a solo and up to 90 for a quartet, before guests arrive, and strike is 30 to 60 minutes at the end. Tell us where to park and which door to use. Clubs and managed buildings usually ask for a certificate of insurance, and we can send whatever paperwork the venue needs. Just let us know.
- How loud will it be?
- At dinner, a level you can talk across without raising your voice. Dancing later in the night is as loud as a dance floor should be. If there's a shared wall, a close neighbor or a club sound policy, let us know when you book and we'll plan the night around it.
- Can you play outdoors at a home?
- Yes. We need a covered, level and dry performance area with power run to it, and a plan for moving indoors agreed before the day, because Colorado evenings cool off fast and instruments and electronics don't like the cold or the wet.
Tell us about the party, and we'll recommend the act for it.
Live music for your event, from a solo musician to a full band, with sound support that’s the right size for the venue and a personal contact for the night.