[Dixielandjazz] Where is the music going?

[LARRY'S Signs and Large Format Printing]

I completely understand but the daytime competition here are some pretty
good people with Karaoke machines and a bunch of really bad  piano players
who are willing to take $50 - $75 to play.  It's really difficult to find
day gigs here that will budget more than $200.  I am assuming that you take
a leaders cut.  There are no jobs here that I know of that pays $350 during
the day.  We work an extremely high end sr. home ($6k per month) and get $50
for a sideman but they usually have 5 piece groups.  It's not my gig but I
think they pay $300.  So the leader gets $100.

I choose to work rather than set at home.  I would personally like to work
with good musicians it's just a whole lot better all the way around and
there's another thing I just won't pay less than $50 and often I pay more
with $60 being the average for an hour.  When I work for groups that are
playing in the same market I get $35 and truthfully I make a whole lot more
staring at my computer here at home.  The guys that I hire are better than
$35.  I was making that in 1960.

The thread is "Where is music going" well here it is.  By choosing to work
at $200 I have closed out some of the groups that charge more.  I have done
it by providing a better more attractive service at a lower cost.  That's
the American system across the board.  It's called free enterprise.  By the
same token the groups that go around and perform for free or for not much
cut me out.  The DJ's did a job on musicians and many just dropped off the
playing field.  I think it was worse here in St. Louis.  Every band got hurt
by it.  I played with a wedding band that eventually just folded up because
of it.  Them's the breaks.  But to answer the question it's electronics and
computers.  I choose to use them as an aid to showcase me as a musician and
I use BIAB as a background.  The only thing is you can't make mistakes in
rhythm or not listen because it won't follow you.  I think that it takes a
pretty fair musician to use it and to program it so that it doesn't sound
too canned.

I'm all for art but if it comes down to lasting in the business or setting
home and playing for myself, I'd rather last.  That way I can produce the
art when the time comes.

Here is the difference. I compare music to other arts. Commercial artists
draw things like telephones and cars and make signs.  Fine artists paint
landscapes and some pretty strange things at times.  Commercial artists
produce things to sell.  Fine artists often don't care if their work sells
and paint for different reasons.  It's the same in music.  Some musicians
see themselves as "Jazz" artists who do not care if their audience likes
them or not and like Artie Shaw sees them as morons.  Then there are the
"Commercial" musicians who understand that they are selling a product and go
with the flow.  I am in that latter group.  I play jazz for art's sake when
the occasion demands but when it doesn't I don't.  That keeps me from
playing nonsensical solos and trying to foist them off on the public as art
or worse still not giving an honest return for the customer's money.

I know several musicians and band leaders who have complete distain for
their audiences and sometimes show it.  I have seen it even break down to
name calling.  I saw a band leader one night at one of the most posh venues
(MAC club) in St. Louis insult a patron because he asked for a CW tune.
Guess what?  The band never played there again.  That band leader and his
girl friend believe that they are the sole authority on big band jazz.  They
also believe that other band leaders conspire against them and that if you
play with other bands that your performance with him is degraded because
those other band leaders tell us the wrong things so therefore we can't play
as well.  True this guy and his girlfriend who is a radio DJ are nut cases.
She does OKOM when she DJ's but she's been fired from every station in town.
She now does the traffic reports.  The moral to the story is that you might
believe that you are the best and the authority if you don't give them what
they want you too will be doing the equivalent to the traffic report.

Again I think it's wonderful if musicians can perform their art for people
that want it and will pay for it but I live in the real world where those
things don't always work out the way I like it.  Actually I learned that
quite young by watching  my musician friends not work as much as I did and
fall away one by one.  What got them is not going with the flow.

One of my best friends who for 40 years has been a big band leader has
dropped to a sextet.  He would rather play big band than anything else but
the economics just won't support it any more so his choice was quit or
change.  By the way he's one of the guys that has been able to maintain a
strong Jazz feel to his groups and still make money at it.

By the way I have a larger Trad Band that I'm trying to book but that's my
hobby and the computer pays for it with other gigs that do pay well.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: "LARRY'S Signs and Large Format Printing" <sign.guy at charter.net>; "DJML"
<dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2005 8:55 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Where is the music going?


> LARRY'S Signs and Large Format Printing at sign.guy at charter.net wrote:
>
> > Since you brought up BIAB, I personally made $675 for two gigs on
valentines
> > day and two gigs Fat Tuesday with BIAB.  Not bad for a total of 5 hours
> > playing.  While it's not as much fun as playing with a group it does
pay.  I
> > have built a series of one hour "shows" that are really popular with the
> > seniors from Dixie to 40's and 50's.  I have about 600 tunes and add
more
> > all the time.  Put it through a good amp and spkr system and it's a gold
> > mine.  It's about the only way a sax player can go out and work duo's
and
> > singles.
>
> Well, yeah, I suppose so. But the day I buy BIAB to play a clarinet or sax
> single for Seniors is the day I will quit playing again.
>
> I routinely get $100 in Philadelphia, per sideman, playing in trio format,
> for seniors at small assisted living facilities, one hour gig. We do
sextet
> Dixieland gigs at the larger ones, same $100 per sideman for one hour. The
> trio does Great American Songbook stuff and Sextet is usual Dixieland
> set-up, except with amplified guitar as chord instrument.
>
> Every once in a while we run across a single act in a senior facility and
> while they may pay quite well, especially if you book two a day, they are
> just not my thing.
>
> Personally, I quit playing in 1962 when I could not make a living as a
jazz
> musician. While I could make a living as a musician, I did not want to be
a
> musician, I wanted to be a Jazz Musician. So I didn't play at all for 30
> years. Now, I make a living as a jazz musician. Had it been this easy in
> 1962, I never would have quit.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
>