[Dixielandjazz] Jellty Roll Morton - WAS Job Value

[Steve barbone]

"Bill Gunter" <jazzboard at hotmail.com> wrote (polite snip)
 
> 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."

Oops, bad example. Jelly Roll Morton made a FORTUNE playing whore house
piano. You might read the various biographies about him to verify that fact.
Certainly not; "what they used to call 'paying your dues'". But rather
collecting LONG GREEN DOLLARS. The nightly pay, according to JRM was a
guarantee of $1, sometimes as much as $5 per night depending upon the
"calss" of the house. Also, according to him: "very often men would come
into the houses and hand you a $20 or a $50 note." In 1910 that was a
fortune as the average WEEKLY wage in Louisiana was about $16. (Heavily
weighted by white folks earnings because black folks hardly earned anything)

His nightly gig take 100 years ago equates to CONSIDERABLY MORE than any
band any of us have worked for in today's dollars. He spent more money on
finely tailored suits and his Stetson hats than you and I together spend
today on clothes in a year.

That was his undoing. His Grandma spotted him one fine Sunday in those fine
threads (she coming from church, he coming from work) and asked him how he
could afford to look so sharp. He let slip the secret he had been keeping .
. . that he was a musician, earning lots of money.

She promptly threw him out of the house saying: "A musician is nothing but a
bum and a scalawag. I don't want you around your sisters, and reckon you
better move."

Some believe that nothing has changed regarding jazz musicians socially,
except that a bunch of lesser musicians are playing for nothing. ;-) VBG.

Cheers,
Steve