[Dixielandjazz] RE: Our re-assembled band playing for free

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

Dear Steve P. & all:

Those of us on this list and many who are not on the list take our 
livelihoods very serious, and fight like Hell to find and secure good 
paying gigs to support our sidemen and their families in what used to 
be an Honorable and Professional Profession until so many bands started 
doing exactly what you are doing.

Does your plumber come to your house and fix the toilet for free ?  
Does your Doctor  or Dentist or Lawyer, come
provide professional services for free?  does your insurance man give 
you free insurance coverage, well mine certainly does not, he charges 
me about $1,200 a year up front whether I need it or not.   My Lawyer 
get s $350.00 to $500.00 an hour, Doctor and Dentist are in the same 
category,  Hell my mechanic gets $85.00 an hour, the plumber here gets 
$125.00 an hour.

I have no idea what you and your guys do to earn a living, but you can 
bet your ass you would be pissed off as Hell if I brought my band of 
thirteen guys into your town and started offering to do it for free if 
nobody wanted to pay us.

I have no plans to dabble  in Brain Surgery, or Heart Transplants, Root 
canals, or toilet repairs, or insurance sales, etc when I retire,  Ha 
ha RETIRE  what is that some kind of social disease?   In this ever 
inflationary economy it will soon be a benefit that only Politicians 
and many of the above named professions will ever enjoy, and sooner or 
later it may well catch up to them as well and we will have 120 year 
old Blind Surgeons back in the operating room attempting to do a second 
Heart Transplant on some Banjo or washboard players botched weekend 
hobby job.  :))

Not only is the practice of playing Free damaging the overall 
employment situation for musicians directly it also sends a very 
dangerous message to many other simple  narrow minded folks who quickly 
get educated to the fact that you don't have to pay musicians.   I know 
because I ran a festival for a city for many years that NEVER paid 
Entertainers a dime, and had five stages of non-stop entertainment for 
ten hours a day for two days.   They got what they paid for too, total 
garbage groups and karaoke singers by the dozens, DJ's and when they 
ever got a group that could actually tune up correctly and play ten or 
twelve songs in the same key they were just proud as punch and would 
sit around the board of directors meetings  talking about the acts that 
were "Pretty Good" .

Soon there was nothing but crap acts at the festival and the city has 
not seen or heard a real professional act in twenty years simply 
because the first thing out of their mouth is
OH WE DON"T PAY OUR ENTERTAINERS" but you get all this great exposure 
and promotion so you can book lots of good paying gigs from it.   Then 
they print up the guidelines of how to run a successful festival and 
pass them out at surrounding cities Chamber of Commerce mixers every 
month teaching other festival organizers that they don't and should not 
pay artists either.

what folks like you and many others practicing the same thing as well 
as all bandleaders should do is go get your butt on the entertainment 
committee of as many organizations and events within 50 mile radius of 
your house and re-educate these folks to the fact that Musicians and 
artists are working class people too and if we are to live and pay 
taxes in their community then by God we deserve to be paid so we can 
afford to live there and be their neighbors, support their schools, and 
countless other non-profit minded organizations.

Anytime they want to raise money for some cause or another they run to 
the musicians to proved FREE Entertainment for things like their 
Hospital's great Gala Charity Ball fundraiser where all the Doctors and 
Lawyers and very successful business folks in town get all dressed up 
in Tuxedos and evening gowns and go out for a $500.00 a plate 
Fundraising dinner primarily for a chance to see and be seen.  These 
events all get great publicity and kudos for the organizers and all the 
good they will do with the money they raised.  However when it is all 
over and said and done the local charity generally gets the change left 
over in the bottom of the pot since they spend most of the money they 
raise to throw the party, and pay for the catering company, the tent 
rentals, sound system rentals, stage rentals, table and chair rentals, 
heater rentals, lighting rentals, ticket printing, and on and on but 
they want the dumb ass musicians to play for FREE, and eat  in the 
kitchen away from the IMPORTANT GUESTS AND FOLKS.

Your performance fees for Charitabl;e and non profit organizations 
should be a special reduced rate for "Expenses ONLY"  since they all 
get their "Expenses" paid as well as their executive directors salaries 
even if they have a host of "Volunteers" doing much of the work which 
they usually do ( like the Doctors and Lawyers wives who want to get 
their pictures in the newspapers in their gowns at the social Ball and 
make certain that they get invited to all the other Social Functions 
thrown by the other Important members of the elite circuit.    IN the 
meantime most of the Bands and or entertainers can't even get their 
name mentioned in the press, not to mention that most of the guests at 
these events are simply too busy chatting and being seen to even pay 
attention to the music anyway.    Some of them are lucky if they 
actually Dance one number, and don't even do that unless there is a 
Press Camera pointing at them.

Now, there, That pretty much sums up the Playing for Free philosophy.

I was recently asked to bring my "High Profile"  (their words) show to 
play for the Big Gala Black and White Ball fundraiser for the S.F. 
Symphony, but they wanted us to perform for Free to help them raise 
money to pay the players in the Symphony at an event where they had not 
one but Two headline super star artists making in excess of $35,000.00 
a day, I know because I have booked them on tours.  The Symphony 
players were also going to do a performance for which they would also 
be paid.

I told them Yeah right folk, my High Profile Act will perform for Free 
the SAME DAY YOU GET THE SYMPHONY AND THOSE OTHER HEADLINE ACTS TO 
PERFORM FREE FOR ME.

They kept searching until they found some other acts stupid enough and 
desperate enough to play, to do it for them.

Jeers,   There ain't no Free Lunch and there should be no Free Music 
either,  Hell they even Pay DJs while musicians sit at home, and it is 
NOBODY'S Fault but Dumb ass Musicians who never learned how to treat 
their business like a business.

And for those that would say " It ain't Nobody's Business if I do" 
(play for free that is)  I say OH YES IT IS, IT IS OUR BUSINESS OR LACK 
THERE OF.     Perhaps it's high time we started burning musical 
instruments :))


For Crying Out loud, you should all be smart enough to at least "BARTER 
YOUR SERVICES FOR SOMETHING USEFUL AND VALUABLE".


 Rev. Tom - Bob  Wiggins
First Church of Musical Reality.



-----Original Message-----
From: Steve & Cathy Pendleton <bestofbreed at mindspring.com>
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Sent: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 11:02:10 -0400
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] RE:  Our re-assembled band playing for free

   Hello, everyone,

I sure stirred the pot with the words, "play for free."  My comments
in yesterday's digest to the contrary, the band is not looking for
any free gig we can get.  Over-exuberance on my part, not accuracy.

Having been on the other end of the situation (years ago) where
someone willing to play for nothing bumped my group out of a gig, I
understand the other Digest writers' points.

So, cheapening the value of what we do, is not our objective.  I
fully expect that, as the group nears and enters retirement age, we
will pursue our dream of playing gigs, while supplementing our
retirement incomes.

Best regards,

Steve Pendleton
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