[Dixielandjazz] Chicago's Record Mart Closes-- Steve Cheseboro comments

[Norman Vickers]

To: DJML and Musicians and Jazzfans lists

>From Norman Vickers, Jazz Pensacola

 

A few days ago, I sent out a Chicago Tribune piece about  famous Record Mart Closing.  Listmate Steve Cheseborough now residing/performing in Portland, OR responds.  To correct some erroneous information I previously sent: Steve is a native of Rochester, NY.  He is a contributing writer for Living Blues Magazine published by U. of Miss ( Ole Miss).  He has Master’s degree in Southern Studies from Ole Miss. His book Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues is in its  third printing. And, he hopes, a forth printing may be in the future after further research and documentation.

 

As a performer--guitar, vocals, blues harmonica-- his comments are insightful.  I pass them along for interest and, I hope, further discussion.

 

Thanks, Steve!

 

 

 

From: Steve Cheseborough [mailto:chezztone at gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2016 11:04 AM
To: Norman Vickers
Subject: Re: Chicago's Record Mart Closes-- Chicago Tribune Editorial

 

The sharp and sudden decline of record sales has really hurt musicians and music, I believe. It has cut into the livelihoods of musicians at all levels. Today's pop stars sell only in the tens of thousands I think, or anyway some range way lower than the millions they would have sold had they been equally popular a decade or two earlier. 

It has also hurt musicians playing clubs, restaurants, smaller concerts etc. -- basically where jazz, blues, folk, and the more interesting kinds of rock are carried on and enjoyed. Just a few years ago, I'd generally sell at least a couple CDs at any little gig, six to 10 on a good night. Now I can go months without selling a CD, and two is a good night. 

The pervasiveness of smartphones (and other portable computers/sound systems/communication devices/game devices/whatever the hell people are doing on them) also threatens music by taking the audience away directly. They're not buying your music in a different format, the way they did when we switched from 78s to LPs or from LPs to CDs. They're hardly buying it at all this time. And they're hardly listening at all. Think about a person who comes alone into a club or restaurant where there is live music, maybe a visitor to your city. A few years ago, and for many centuries before that, that person would have been likely to dig on the music, maybe buy a CD and/or leave a tip, maybe tell the manager how much she enjoyed the music. Now that same person sits there on her phone, tablet or laptop playing a game, making a date, buying stocks, looking for a job, communicating with friends, whatever, and ignores the music -- except maybe to snap a quick picture on that same device, to send to the friends back home with a caption, "Look at this cool musician playing where I stopped for a drink." A musician she's not going to waste time actually listening to; she's too busy. 

The automobile and the television were the first two nails in the coffin of public life and culture, including live music. The personal computer was the third. And the smartphone/tablet/laptop is the fourth and most secure. 




Steve Cheseborough
Oregon Art Beat feature on Steve <http://www.opb.org/television/video/blues-musician-steve-cheseborough/> 
www.stevecheseborough.com
http://cdbaby.com/all/chezztone

Twitter: @SCheseborough