[Dixielandjazz] Re: How do you put a value on a job

[Bill Gunter]

Hi listmates,

A correspondent friend of mine wrote to me on the topic of being a 
Professional Musician and said (among other things):

>If you are a PROFESSIONAL MUSICIAN OF ANY KIND, YOUR DAY GIG IS BOOKING 
>YOUR NIGHT GIGS and promoting your services to others continuously to 
>assure you have a full calendar of professionally paid gigs to support 
>yourself and your sidemen at liveable wages.

Anyway, I thought about what he said thought I'd share my feelings on this 
matter with y'all.

I responded to my friend by observing:

Spoken like a true professional and I have no quarrel with you on anything 
you say. These are all worthy sentiments. However, it doesn't change the 
axiom I stated in my previous message which was (at the risk of being 
redundant):

"A job is worth whatever anyone is willing to do it for"

Certainly a person can set a price on his labor but that doesn't mean that 
others are required to hire that person. Nor does it mean that nobody else 
can submit a lower bid.

Certainly an employer can set a wage he is willing to pay for a specific job 
but that doesn't mean that you have to work for that dude. One always has 
the option of saying to the employer, "Take this job and shove it!"

I said the thing was an "axiom" -- definition:

1. a statement or idea that people accept as self-evidently true

2. a basic proposition of a system that, although unproven, is used to prove 
the other propositions in the system

It matters not if the quality of work declines or that one person suffers 
because of the actions of others. All the decrying of what amateurs and 
price cutters and others of their ilk are doing to the profession may be 
words of value to the professional but they mean nothing to the amateur (or 
to the real world, for that matter).

You wrote: "Musicians used to be respected as Professionals . . ."

That's not an axiom. To be perfectly accurate on this point you'd have to 
say "Some musicians have probably been, at any given time, respected as 
professionals by some, but not all, people." You have to qualifiy these 
things or they are merely sound bites that roll off the tongue nicely but 
have no real meaning.

Musicians have also been regarded as wandering minstrels which basically 
meant that they were simply beggars with an amusing talent.

By the way, a corollary to the axiom "A job is worth whatever anyone is 
willing to do it for" may be formulated as "A job is worth whatever you can 
convince somebody to pay you."

Finally, to be sure - I do admire the work you do and the results you 
achieve from your efforts. You are an inspiration to those who have faith in 
what it means to be a "professional!"

But what about those old New Orleans dudes who used to play for drinks and 
tips in brothels and saloons - Ask Jelly Roll what he got paid in those 
early days when he was a pimp and a sporting house piano player. I think 
that's what they used to call "paying your dues."

It isn't easy being a professional . . . but then it never has been.

Respectfully submitted,


Bill "Getting to be too old to keep paying dues" Gunter
jazzboard at hotmail.com