[Dixielandjazz] Reflections on museum-piece music...impoverished Seniors...nobody likes OKOM but us...etc...etc

Sat Dec 30 10:16:56 PST 2006

Dave Wrote: 500-700 for a gig if I market hard but
those $6K/mo/person retirement centers that Larry loves so much won't even
return calls unless you¹re willing to give it away. I got $100 from the last
one that actually paid us. In the winter months, to keep us going, we¹ve
found it beneficial to play gratis for a couple subsidized senior housing
places which seem to treat us well.
_______________________________________________

I'm sort of wondering how you handle booking one for one price and another 
for another price?  One of the largest Senior centers here is a multi 
center conglomerate.  The recreation directors meet each month and compare 
notes and exchange ideas.  Once you work cheap for one you can't get above 
the ice with the others.  A friend of mine has the Blue Light Jazz Band.  He 
takes whatever he can get for them.  It's usually a quartet and he books it 
at $500.  No P.A. system - fake books, no tuxes etc and never on Saturday 
night.  He books his six piece with 3 singers for $1500-2000 under his name. 
That way he can have his cake and eat it too.

I am working for a friend who plays piano at a couple of the centers on a 
regular basis.  He gets $60 for an hour which is good if you are a single 
and don't have to carry anything except a book of charts.  When he books a 
trio or larger group he has a devil of a time getting more than $35 a man 
out of them.  I get a whole bunch more than that out of other homes in the 
same corporation working a duo.

Why is that?  Well I would like to say that I have a whole bunch of quality 
on my side but that wouldn't really help because in this business I don't 
think quality counts for all that much.

There are some things that count though and that's a fast paced program that 
they want to hear and dress sharp.  A lot of bands because they aren't 
making much dress pretty casual.  My guys wear vests and wear long sleeve 
white shirts and ties.  I also wear hats.  The old people love it.  Straw 
hat or a jesters hat for Mardi Gras, Bunny ears for Easter, Sombrero for 
Cinch De Mayo and so on.  While some think this is corny the old people like 
it.  If anyone remembers Arthur Godfrey you will remember corn sells 
especially here in flyoverland.  I think showing up casual shows some 
disrespect for the audience.

I think it's because I don't cut my prices for any of them unless they give 
me multiple bookings or they have a large number of Medicaid persons staying 
there.  The subsidized Medicaid facilities haven't any margin for 
entertainment.  I have talked to some of them who have $100 a quarter 
allocated.

Many of the recreation directors know each other and will fix your price for 
you.  If you work for one price at any venue it's really hard to get more 
the next time.

A tip that you might try is going to civic organizations who will pay part 
of your charges to play at the low income facilities.  The Kiwanis, Lions, 
Masons and Knights of Columbus come to mind.   That might work in a small 
town area.  A hundred dollars from each group a couple of times a year might 
make a difference to your bottom line.

My biggest problem is people willing to give away what I am charging for. 
There is another dynamic at work here too and that is the Rec. Directors 
have to provide entertainment for their seniors.  They put it into their 
brochures and use it as a sales tool and even show it on TV in ads 
sometimes.  They need entertainment on a regular basis but they don't 
necessarily need quality.  They go for quantity.  They can say they provide 
entertainment x number of times a week.  Looks great on paper.

Around Christmas I can't give away music to these people because every group 
in the world is touring the old folks homes FREE.  They are knee deep in 
singing bodies.  They almost need traffic control.

I think that if you think of music as a product and service that they need 
to survive then you will price it fairly, package it attractively, make it 
available,  make it's quality uniform, deliver it reliably and then 
advertise it.
Larry
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Dustin" <postmaster at fountainsquareramblers.org>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 8:03 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Reflections on museum-piece music...impoverished 
Seniors...nobody likes OKOM but us...etc...etc

Larry wrote:

  It is true that some and possibly many seniors are on fixed, poverty level
incomes and need help.  To that end I will give a senior facility a price
break if the majority of the people there are on Medicaid but what about the
upscale senior residences that charge $6K and up a month per person.  They
plead poverty too and everyone knows that by saving a buck they increase
their corporate profits.

I recognize those for-profit ³retirement communities² that can¹t afford to
pay a trad band. I dunno what trad rates are in high population/burgeoning
economies like California and the Brandywine Valley, but up here in the
frozen northeast I can usually get 500-700 for a gig if I market hard but
those $6K/mo/person retirement centers that Larry loves so much won¹t even
return calls unless you¹re willing to give it away. I got $100 from the last
one that actually paid us. In the winter months, to keep us going, we¹ve
found it beneficial to play gratis for a couple subsidized senior housing
places which seem to treat us well. We go back every year and for some of
those old gals (not many guys in them) it¹s obviously the high point of
their existence, which gives us a good feeling.  Like Butch said, I don¹t
care WHY they come to hear us, I¹m just glad when somebody does/did and
enjoys the experience.  We¹ve actually moved the band back to a sliver of a
large round bandstand and invited the 12 young people in the audience (who
wandered by the park in the rain) to come up into it while we played the
last set of a gig that should have been rained out.  We play, they come up
and stay, and we¹re all happy! If we¹re all lucky, the rain will stop by the
time we have to break down and some kids will have heard something in our
trad jazz that touches them in places they never knew they had. This sort of
thing has happened to us twice in our short existence.  One other February
Saturday night we played the back end of a popular small town bookstore,
where they host readings and such.  We were supposed to collect $3 a head,
same as the folksinger acts that play that venue.  Besides the proprietor
and a few band spouses, exactly 2 people showed up!  We played 2 sets with
our usual panache and energy, tried out some new material, and I think those
2 people had a great time!  (I think I actually caught one of them taking a
chorus...)  Such is the hardscrabble trad-jazz life up here in trad New
Hampshire, home of stone walls, maple trees, black bears, real colonial farm
houses, and ski areas which sure could use some snow right now.

Wishing all a jazzy and peaceful 2007,
David Dustin
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