[Dixielandjazz] Clarification on discussion about playing on ships for free

[John Wilder]

Hi list members,

 

I'm John Wilder - mainly a lurker - often don't even get around to reading
the list.  However, I've worked ships and also know many ship entertainers
and musicians.  I do band arrangements (Charts) for ship entertainers.  I
also owned a cruise travel agency for over ten years.  I read several of the
posts regarding playing jazz festivals at sea, and it seems that there is a
general misconception regarding the festival situation.

 

I just returned to Sacramento this morning from playing five days at an
Indian Casino in the Portland area, so please bear with me if I make
spelling or grammar errors.  One tends to make errors when groggy from
travel.  Anyway, on to my subject:

 

Most of the jazz festivals at sea (probably ALL of the Dixieland festivals)
are NOT sponsored by the cruise line.  A travel agent books blocks of cabins
as group space.  With most group space, free cabins are given for every
so-many cabins sold.  The travel agent then invites band members to go on
the cruise without paying for the cabins in return for playing the concerts.
In many cases, the free cabins the band members receive are the cabins that
were given to the travel agent who put the group space contract together.
(Jazz-Sea Cruises would be an example of such an agency.)

 

With the contracted cabins held and the bands booked, the travel agency then
tries to entice enough jazz fans to go on the cruise and buy up their
contracted cabins to earn the free "tour conductor" cabins they've promised
to the band members and also make a profit.

 

The cruise line is NOT the employer of these jazz festival at sea band
members - the travel agency is (or a promoter working through the travel
agency, in some cases).  While I'm sure the cruise line knows the space will
be used to run a jazz festival, it's no different to them than if Toyota
Corporation booked cabins to run seminars aboard and then asked for meeting
room space.  In general on a jazz cruise, the jazz concerts are not open to
the general public aboard, and a passenger needs an event badge to enter a
concert.  The only difference is that at a land-based jazz festival you
actually buy the badge.  With a jazz festival at sea, you get your badge as
part of the package by buying your cabin from the travel agency who is
producing the festival.  If you buy your cabin on the same sailing from any
other travel agency, you would not receive your badge, and therefore could
not attend the concerts.

 

Someone mentioned contacting the cruise director and complaining that the
musicians should be paid.  Using the scenario of Toyota booking space so
they could run seminars, you would not complain to the cruise line that the
speakers at the closed Toyota event were unpaid.  They would just tell you
that the Toyota event is a closed function in which they are merely using
the ship space for private functions, and they have no control over what
compensation is paid to the speakers at a private event.  After all, why
would a cruise line pay musicians whose performances are unavailable to most
of the passengers?

 

There are many musicians and entertainers on every ship who are employed by
the cruise line.  These musicians, however, do not play in the private jazz
festivals at sea concerts, but mainly in areas of the ship open to all
passengers.  These are the only musicians for which it would do any good to
complain to the cruise line management about poor working conditions, pay,
rules, etc.  As far as the cruise line is concerned, the jazz festival
musicians (or the speakers for the hypothetical Toyota event) are just
passengers like any other passenger on that cruise.

 

If you have a problem with the musicians who participate in the festivals at
sea not getting paid, your problem is with the travel agency setting up the
festival - NOT with the cruise line.  Getting mad at the cruise line because
a private group doesn't pay musicians when they use their ship is somewhat
akin to going to an Amway presentation at a local Denny's restaurant, and
then getting mad at the restaurant because the Amway products were priced
too high.

 

I have no strong opinion one way or the other regarding whether the
musicians should receive financial compensation in addition to the cabin for
them and a guest.  However that said, I will mention that my friend Jim
Coston who has worked cruise ships as a headline act from New Orleans for
over 25 years has told me that before the Dixieland festivals at sea began,
he could often book Dixie bands on the ships for good money.  Since the
festivals have proliferated on the ships, he has not been able to book even
one Dixie band direct with the cruise line, as they just tell him that if
they need a Dixie band they'll just wait for a festival at sea and then ask
one of the performing bands to do and "extra" concert or two for free for
the other passengers.

 

I hope this post helps to clear up any misconception regarding jazz
festivals at sea.  Well, with that - I'll retreat back into "lurk-dom" for
now.  Bye!

 

John Wilder

JohnWilder at Comcast.net