By STEPHEN PEDERSEN / Arts Reporter / Playing in the Band

Adam Fine is in his mid-20s, plays in four bands, gigs wherever he can, and even loans his bass out to visiting bassists - but still doesn't make a living out of music.

"It's such a habit!" he joked when we talked last Saturday morning. "I do it because I love it. A good gig can change your mood dramatically, clean it right up."

His cellphone rings. It's the bass player from one of the bands playing in the Celtic Feis. He wants to return Fine's bass. "Bass players don't travel with their basses," Fine explained when he finished the call. "They have to buy an extra airplane ticket for it. So I end up renting my bass - I don't charge a lot - just enough to cover maintenance."

Like other freelance musicians in Nova Scotia, Fine has a day job, though there are a lot of nights as well. He works for JazzEast as a concert producer.

"During the fall and winter the weekly concerts at Stayner's is my series," he said, "It's a continuation of what used to be until Hell froze over." JazzEast lost Hell as a venue when The Marquee closed down last year.

Other venues he oversees include the Saint Mary's University Art Gallery, the Scotia Festival Music Room, the Casino Nova Scotia and occasional concerts at the Khyber.

Fine quickly learned, on the job, that some venues are better suited to jazz than others. "Blues shows were badly attended at the casino," he said. "One of the performers told us that blues audiences don't go to casino concerts." Other kinds of concerts do well there as JazzEast's showcase venue for visiting artists.

At JazzEast, as part of a production and administrative team that does everything ("Everybody does everything," Fine explained), he is one of three office computer nerds. He designed the JazzEast website.

Jobs like his are learned through working at them. JazzEast artistic director Susan Hunter helped him learn what you couldn't learn at York University or Dalhousie - things like organizing the volunteers that JazzEast depends on to help with venue management and chores related to keeping visiting musicians happy. It's Fine's job during the year, but during the Festival (July 15-24 this year) JazzEast hires a full-time volunteer manager to keep track of some 450 volunteers.

Versatility on the job, and racing through steep learning curves, is a specialty of successful freelance musicians in the Maritimes. Fine's four regular part-time bands include The Hurtin' Unit (country rock), the Family Lebanese Country Band (more country than Lebanese, he said), Gypsophilia (Django Reinhart style jazz band) and Atlantic Standard Time (jazz funk).

"Each band plays a couple of shows a month. I also play in Alma Latino once in a while," he said.

Fine grew up in Toronto. At Northern Secondary, a high school with a long-time reputation for first-class music ensembles, he began playing "a bit of piano" and french horn, watching other players for fingering and depending on his ear for the rest. But it was only when he started playing bass that it started to be fun, he said.

He played mostly funk and R&B - James Brown and Motown (styles he still keeps up). "In high school I had this great band teacher, Gary Cameron, who got me into jazz and swing," Fine said.

"He was really enthusiastic about music. Some of the kids were keen. Others, if they were not playing well, he'd leave the room. 'I don't know what you guys are doing,' he'd say, 'I can't stand this.' It was control by shame."

Fine, however, was on to something. He maintained a high scholastic average, but found ways to skip classes to go to the band room and practice. He started playing all the other instruments - alto horn, flugel horn, tuba.

After two years in York University's jazz program, Fine came to Dalhousie to finish his degree, studying bass with Symphony Nova Scotia principal bass Max Kasper. At Dal he met up with saxophonist Dani Oore and the two of them formed a jazz group they called Zemmy Bemmy.

"My zaidie (grandfather) wanted me to go to Law School. I was accepted at Dal. But I was pretty distracted at school," Fine said. He found plenty of opportunities to play, including a klezmer gig with Dani and his brother Sageev (piano). They called the band Hamentashchen after a three-cornered pastry filled with preserves and poppy seeds.

Dearest to his heart, among his JazzEast duties, is that of co-ordinating the Creative Music Workshop that starts July 10, five days before the TD Canada Trust Atlantic Jazz Festival, and ends two weeks later with a concert in the Mainstage Tent on the final afternoon.

"The CMW is the best way to make the transition to becoming an artist rather than just a musician," Fine said. "You get a sense of the whole picture rather than just worrying about what the notes are."

The faculty has expanded over its nine-year history since it was started by Jerry Granelli, Don Palmer and Skip Beckwith of Alive and Well. In 2005, it includes saxophonist David Mott, trombonist David Tronzo, guitarist Christian Kogel, bass guitarist Jay Anthony Granelli, bassist Skip Beckwith and director drummer and percussionist Jerry Granelli.

"Jerry commands the respect of the students by being such a hipster," Fine said. "It's the right kind of charisma."