[Dixielandjazz] Fwd: Secretary of Arts for USA

Sun Jan 11 13:45:56 PST 2009

Hey, if I wanted to go out and work in a bunch of bars and get paid very little to hear the owner gripe about the cash register or door could, I could fill my calendar.

I hear you Bill - I dumped those jobs years ago.  At one time when I was in college and when I had a young family I would drive hundreds of miles sometimes for a gig. I would do bars and generally anywhere I could turn a buck.  I simply needed the money.

Today it's a completely different thing.  I still take jobs that may be marginal or not fun gigs but I do well with the checks.  Actually I'm a completely different animal than I was then.  At that time I played with bands -- today I am the band.  At that time I only did music -- today I entertain and sing along with the music.  At that time I was not a particularly astute businessman and today I keep getting better at it.  As I have said before, It's not about the music but a whole bunch of other things that the music part is only just that, a part.

I wish that when I was young I had understood the dynamics of the music business better.  Actually it's a multi faceted thing and differs greatly but the one thing that is true for everyone, as I see it, you have to be so much more than just a good musician to make it over the long haul.  Good musicianship is what gets you in but it won't keep you there.

I have found a niche and it's working for me.  I am working when most others aren't.  The only thing that is a problem is getting people to think out of that niche.  It's sort of like being type cast in acting.

The bulk of my events are now corporate and I'm still doing well with that one exception but the private stuff is going away as is the work with other bands.  People just don't have the bucks lying around.  I suspect the wedding planners are taking it in the neck.........couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.  I also suspect that the churches aren't doing as well.  St. Louis University church hosts a lot of the high end weddings so they and others like them may not be doing as well with their rentals.  It's like a rock got dropped in a puddle and the ripples are spreading out.

One of the things with the wedding trade is that you book strings.  That is, you play a wedding and will book one of the brides maids or someone at the wedding will take your card and you will do the same thing over and over.  Break those strings and it's hard to get established back.  This is what I think will happen with the wedding band that has, as the leader said, took a year off.  

I sub with two big bands and play all the gigs with a third.  The sub gigs aren't there.  Two things are happening: first is that the guys in the bands aren't copping out on gigs so they don't need subs as often and there aren't as many jobs.  The third group is pretty expensive and only books about 10 or so a year.  I worked a lot of high end weddings with a 6 pc group with three singers and that has gone away.  I also noticed that a guy that I work some low end Sunday afternoon gigs with hasn't called me either.

While my act is doing well, the bottom line isn't going to be so good because of the other bands that I play with are not doing well.  Surprisingly, I am way ahead in gigs for my personal act from last year so I guess I am going to work at booking my Duo / solo act more.

I really take my hat off to guys like you who do some good stuff like Basie.  It's true the people do love it but it's like getting kids to eat there vegetables.  They really like it if they try it but getting them to try it can be a chore.  

I have been at this so long that I think that I'm like the old fire horse....just ring the bell and I'm rarin' to go.  Trouble is the bell isn't ringing very much.  Music is like a narcotic.... you get to where you crave it.

Meanwhile I booked a Chili cook off next Saturday night with my Latin act.  It's not for a huge amount of pay but as with any gig there is always the possibility of spin offs, those strings I talked about.

Hey come on..... quit laughing.  I will get paid and get all the chili I can eat too.  OLAY !!!
Larry
St.Louis 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: BillSargentDrums at aol.com 
  To: larrys.bands at charter.net 
  Cc: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com 
  Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2009 6:32 AM
  Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Fwd: Secretary of Arts for USA

  When times are bad, those gigs that exist and survive solely on the sale of alcohol do quite well as people who drink a lot like to escape and drown their sorrows more than usual.

  However, the bulk of my engagements, private events, come from big dollar people. Gigs like weddings and corporate functions. Since Labor day, so many of those people have lost so much, and they don't know where it going to end up, and the new prez is IDIOT enough to tell the confidence driven economy that it's going to get worse, and it's going to be that way for a long time . . . . . that they's sitting on it and nobody's moving.

  Don't get me wrong, I still have gigs, good ones, more than many others, but I still know what's happening . . . especially to folks like me who don't do cheap bar gigs . . . or cheap nursing homes.

  The father of the bride just no longer has that nest egg intact that he had set aside for his daughter's wedding. Yea, my jazz band does a ton of weddings, we play Count Basie and the like, it pays  great and the people live us, and we end up exposing a bunch of new folks to music they never knew was so good.

  Also, the financial company that wanted to use us for a big event this month canceled for financial reasons. Another big bucks gig.

  Hey, if I wanted to go out and work in a bunch of bars and get paid very little to hear the owner gripe about the cash register or door could, I could fill my calendar. Life's too short for that crap. I've got it worked out that I can go out and play one gig and make more money in one night than most make in 15 . . . and even though times are screwed up, I will survive . . . that is until the government decides to intervene and create an Arts Czar to interfere with the natural market forces and screw thing up for everyone.

  Bill
  BillSargentBands.com

  In a message dated 1/10/2009 9:35:18 P.M. Central Standard Time, larrys.bands at charter.net writes:
    I certainly agree for the most part.   But speaking of all that for some reason I am booking my act very well for the new year.  This month will be slow but things are looking up.  Having said all that the other bands that I often work for are strangely absent with gigs................One has completely closed down.  I was playing about 25-30 jobs a year with them.  He will still pick off a gig if one comes along but he isn't advertising or doing anything new.

    Mardi gras has gotten so big here that it's getting rough to book a Valentine's day gig.  Everyone is spending their money on MG.  I lucked out and booked a Valentines gig this year.  I also picked up two new clients this week who will likely have return gigs.

    That's what we do in the music business and that's stand on our merits but it helps a bunch if you go out and beat the bushes too.  Money is the grease that makes all this go around.  

    I'm so incredibly happy that I can still command a good price for my talent when guys that are better, the competition is great and so many have gone by the wayside.  It's a real ego trip and I just can't help it.  The more I make the better I feel about my music and talents because people will pay me to do what I love.

    An interesting quirk to the music business and government is that in my end of the business the venues are requiring paperwork for taxes and do send 1099's.  Now I don't like to pay taxes any more than anyone else but when you compete against guys that aren't paying, then it's pretty unfair.  Now there is an element of getting caught and the guys that do it all the time may have problems.   I don't consider the guy that comes in and picks off a gig or two as being important but the guys that are there all the time need to be on the same playing field that I am.  A little fear is a good thing.
    Larry
    St.L
      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: BillSargentDrums at aol.com 
      To: larrys.bands at charter.net 
      Cc: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com 
      Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 8:33 PM
      Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Fwd: Secretary of Arts for USA

      Keep them far, far away!

      The government has screwed up and over regulated every single thing they've done outside of the military . . . and by the looks of it, they're about to screw that up now too.

      Don't want nobody else's money (outside of regulation and telling us how to live our life, that's all that government is, taking money from those who earned it, as in you & me, and giving it to someone who didn't), don't want their advice, and certainly don't want them regulating is or forcing some to "give" us work.

      I'll stand on my own merit and efforts, thank you very much.

      Bill

      PS, It's because of what congress has done and the recent campaign for "change" that has given you & I the current lack of work and lack of fluid capital.

      In a message dated 1/10/2009 4:06:36 P.M. Central Standard Time, larrys.bands at charter.net writes:
        I nominate me......... I couldn't do any worse than anyone they might 
        pick....Rock On!!!
        Larry
        StL
        ----- Original Message ----- 
        From: "Stephen G Barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
        To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
        Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
        Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 12:21 PM
        Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Fwd: Secretary of Arts for USA

        > >
        >> Dear Friends,
        >> You may already have received this, but it is so important,
        >> I'm passing it along.
        >>
        >> Quincy Jones has started a petition to ask President-Elect
        >> Obama to appoint a Secretary of the Arts. While many other
        >> countries have had Ministers of Art or Culture for centuries,
        >> The United States has never created such a position. We in
        >> the arts need this and the country needs the arts--now more
        >> than ever. Please take a moment to sign this important
        >> petition and then pass it on to your friends and colleagues.
        >>
        >> www.petitiononline.com/esnyc/petition.html
        >>
        >> Happy New Year!
        >>
        >
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