[Dixielandjazz] Playing for free vs undermining the pros

[rorel at aol.com]

 Hello Nancy -- a pleasure to meet you, if only online.
 
 I agree with you wholeheartedly, up to a point. I would never dream of offering my services free of charge to a venue which normally pays for the very same service. It would be very wrong of me to appraoch, let's say a restaurant or country club that hires a band and offer to play regularly for nothing. THat would personify the phrase "unethical in the extreme." As a working musician myself, that is not in my repertoire.
 
 However, a nursing home has, as you rightly pointed out, a budget. Whether it be for the month or the year they have a budget with, I am guessing, a certain amoutn for arts & crafts, a certain amount for field trips and a certain amount for music. If I call a facility on a Saturday morning and ask if they'd like me to come in later that afternoon and play for an hour, I am not taking a gig away from anybody. The regular musicians are booked well in advance and their income is not jeopordized by my spotty appearances. (I refer to my irregular gigs, not to my my physical appearances, which are irregular enough). My coming in is a little langiappe for the residents and, IMHO, hurts nobody. Parenthetically, quite often I am told, "I am sorry, we have a group coming in today." And I hang up the phone knowing that the old folks will be entertained. For me, that's even better than playing myself for I know they are being entertained regularly. Rest assured, i am not taking anything from anyone. If I thought I was, I certainly would stop right away.
 
 Regarding fundraisers: I am in the midst of preparing one right now -- the second such event for a little boy with neurofibromatosis (Elephant Man Disease). It is not in my nature to ask people who use their music money as income to play for nothing. As Steve Barbone says he does, I pay them out of my own pocket. I add that I am up-front with the musicians, telling them the cause and where their funds are coming from. Many waive or reduce their fee, but that is their choice. I dislike being asked to play for nothing myself, why should I ask a crony to do so?
 
 Case in point: I found myself a guest at a hoy-palloy party one time and as the dinner plates were being cleared the hostess announced, "And now Mr. Osnato will favor us with a selection at the piano." I blushed and said thank you but I came as a guest and I was really not prepared to play. "Oh Mr. Osnato," insisted the hostess," you must play -- I've already announced you."
 
 So I played. And played. And played. For forty-five minutes I played to the best of my modest ability. The hostess was most appreciative after the impromptu concert and told me I made her and her party a huge success. 
 
 The next day I sent her a bill for $450.
 
 She paid. But for some reason I have never been invited back.
 
 Ray Osnato
 
 From: NANCYink at surewest.net
 To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
 Sent: Sat, 10 Feb 2007 3:44 PM
 Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Playing for free vs undermining the pros
 
  REPLY TO RAY:

Hello, Ray,

While I admire what you¹re doing for the residents of the nursing homes, I
would only suggest that rather than calling a ³nursing home at random,² you
might only call nursing homes that never, ever hire professional musicians
to perform at their location. There are serious, full-time or part-time
musicians who look to nursing homes for much-needed income, and they can¹t
compete with kindly folks like you who give your talent away in exchange for
the satisfaction it gives you to do community service. Likewise, as a
graphic designer for both print and the Web, I cannot compete with artists
who give away their work for the satisfaction of seeing their work in print.
I certainly do my fair share of pro-bono work for the local jazz society,
but that is work that the STJS would not pay anyone to do. (Instead, the
STJS will find the most qualified volunteer for the job.) And certainly
there are professional musicians who will work for free while starting out
and needing to promote themselves and network (establish new contacts for
future paying jobs).

All this to say that ³warm fuzzies² are well and good (and I love them,
too), but nice people like Ray can unwittingly make life harder for working
musicians by limiting the amount of money they can charge or by taking their
work away completely in some locations. So, while it many be our
³responsibility to share freely with those in need² (as Ray says), let us
first make sure they are really ³in need² and not just looking for a way to
avoid using money that was already set aside in their ³entertainment budget²
for a talented professional with bills to pay.

Respectfully submitted,
Nancy Giffin
_______________________________________________
Dixielandjazz mailing list
Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
   
________________________________________________________________________
Check out the new AOL.  Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.