[Dixielandjazz] Unions - Musicians - Cabaret Card

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

And because most OKOM Players and Bands did not change with the times 
and modernize their show and sound if indeed they ever had a show there 
are fewer and fewer Watchers for OKOM  and getting fewer and fewer 
every year folks:

Specifically why guys like Steve and I keep preaching to the choir 
about getting out there anyway you can AFTER YOU GET YOUR ACTY TOGETHER 
and being seen where there are mass audiences.   Better to go out and 
PLAY for Free once a month at an event with 50,000 people attending 
than playing for $25.00 to $40 to a die hard dying off group of hard 
core fans in a Monthly meeting.

Now if you look at the calendar Guys and Gals there are usually four 
other Weekends besides the one that hold the Traditional Jazz Society 
Party /meeting of the faithful.    If all of you would take one Sat or 
Sunday and go participate in one of those big old Street fairs or other 
community project festivals once a month and bring your die hard fans 
out as well to cheer you on.   Those folks who have no clue about OKOOM 
and or your bands would get a chance to see it and hear it and also see 
that you have some older folks coming to attend their event as well  
HELLO   CAN YOU SPELL "NETWORK"  ADVERTISING, MARKETING, If you are any 
good at all you will have folks coming up to ask for your card for 
future gigs THAT PAY not just all the local BENEFITS  who try to get 
bands for free at EVERY EVENT AND SAVE UP THEIR MONEY TO PAY A 
HEADLINER FOR THEIR ANNUAL GALA FUNDRAISER with all the money they 
saved by conning you and others to work for free all year long.   NOw 
you bring out your local Jazz Society and set up a booth at these kind 
of events and run a membership drive for your Jazz society, sell Cds, 
cassettes or whatever and turn those 50,000 people that came to someone 
else's event into a substantial number of converts for OKOm and your 
organization.    Every FREE gig is not necessarily a Free Gig if you 
know how to use it to Promote good gigs that come out of them, it is 
called advertising marketing and deferred income, and if you sell a 
pile of Cds and such it is a paid audition guys.     Do you think they 
sell all those Fords just because they manufacture them :))  Build them 
and they will come :))  nope it does not work that way in real life.  
Ya gotta go out and work for it.

    The Musician's Union is not GOING TO CALL you and send the Big 
Yellow Gig Bus stocked with Beer and free lunch to your house to take 
you to the gig  and pay you.

Work with those folks, talk to them about getting your band's photo and 
or a story about you and or the Jazz Society in the newspaper, send 
press releases and Public Service announcements to all the radio 
stations and Tv stations and newspapers all around you, that folks is 
how you get recognized, appreciated and build a reputation for being a 
great band rather than a bunch of old guys just getting together in the 
garage to amuse each other and keep your chops up so you can maybe get 
on the list to play that once a month Jazz Society party.


This is an everyday business, treat it like one and it will treat you 
like one.

Cheers,  Tom Wiggins



-----Original Message-----
From: mcclernan1 at comcast.net
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Sent: Sun, 5 Nov 2006 10:25 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Unions - Musicians - Cabaret Card

   On Nov 5, 2006, at 11:50 AM, Steve Barbone wrote:

> Mike asked about who killed the unions? And whether in my 802 days
> you had
> to have a Cabaret Card to work in NYC. Here are my opinions.
>
> 1) Greed and Corruption of the union leaders. . .
> 2) Greed of the Club Owners. . .
> 3) Changing live music scene. . .
> 4) Amateur bands. . .
> 5) Too many musicians in each market competing for too few paying
> gigs.
> 6) The passage of "Right to Work" laws.

7. Our product is reproducible by mechanical means.
8. We have become a nation of music "watchers".

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