[Dixielandjazz] Whores Travel Expenses and Music

[Steve Barbone]

My Personal Opinions:

Playing on a street corner is busking. Not a damn thing wrong with it Carol.
And do what you want with the money. You earned it. You do not screw up the
market by playing on a street corner so do your thing.

Playing free at a venue (retirement home)is not whorish since whores get
paid for services rendered. It is worse than whorish if you are screwing up
the market for music at that venue. If others get paid to play there and you
don't, then you are harming the market. That's trashy.

Playing the Saints for the 10,000th time is not whorish. Louis did it and
Tony Bennett does it with "San Francisco" etc. That's called GOOD BUSINESS.
Any musician or band worth its salt can figure out how to make that tune
sound fresh. e.g. We always end a program with Sweet Georgia Brown
(superstition). Always do it a little differently. Always have fun with it
as does the audience.

High Society solo is not whorish if done by a competent jazz musician who
knows how to make it sing. E.G., When I grew up in NYC, I'd go to Ryans
about 40 times a year. I heard Omer Simeon play it there most times I went.
It was always a thrill. On the other hand, I've also heard some pretty bland
clarinet players do it and it sounds, . . . . bland. Best way to play it IMO
is 2 choruses of homage as Johnny Dodds did it, (In Sheik's Fake Book) and
then add a third chorus which is all your own.

Travel expenses? First of all figure it costs 50 cents a mile to run your
car, if you buy a new one every 4 years. So it costs you $50 to play a gig
that is an hour away. (100 mile round trip) I do not think convoluted
mileage charges make a lot of sense. My rules of thumb are below, using the
Philadelphia Art Museum as a point from which gigs are measured in miles.

1) All gigs within 100 miles roundtrip are local. No mileage is paid.
   Especially since my band guys live at least 25 miles from each other.
   Sometimes the gig is in their backyard, sometimes mine.

   What did I do when gas prices went up a few years ago? I raised my band
   prices. I get $20 more per man than I did three years ago. $10 for gas
   and $10 for other inflation.

2) Gigs 100 to 150 miles round trip. Add $10 per man. (MINIMUM)

3) Gigs 150 to 200 miles round trip. Add $20 per man. (MINIMUM)

4) Out of town gigs (more than 200 miles away round trip) are negotiated
   higher. Usually travel money at IRS rate for 3 cars, hotel and dinner and
   breakfast at hotel. Then use 3 cars and split the travel money. If
   someone wants to bring his girlfriend and travel alone, no travel money.

4) Folks should quit doing those $60 gigs that are 100 miles away. Doing it
   because one loves to play is no excuse. It is plain stupid. In effect,
   you are paying to play and that's an insult to the whoring business. No
   self respecting whore is going to pay you to get your rocks off.  Busk on
   your local street corner instead. You can fulfil your urge to play, can
   play what you want, won't screw up the market for music and will make
   more money that way.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone