I recently finished my graduate work at the University of South Florida, obtaining my MM in Jazz performance. I play jazz "in the tradition" as well as modern styles (think TBP, Avishai Cohen). If none of that means anything to you, you can hear me here.
After 51 years of writing for the Village Voice, Nat Hentoff has been laid off. In addition to his clumn at the Voice, Hentoff writes for a variety of publications, including JazzTimes. The internet, the economy, and shrinking attention spans are clearly affecting writers in ways much like musicians face. It will be interesting to see how much longer publications like the Voice can continue and how many will fare the rest of this storm to see the other side.
When a restaurant goes from a la carte to either a buffet or a prix fixe meal, it is able to find a new class of customers.
Could a law firm charge by the project? When I incorporated Yoyodyne, a fancy firm charged us a fix rate.
Netflix went from charging by the rental to charging by the month.
We use tolls to charge people who drive over bridges more than other folks. We don’t hesitate to charge people ordering steak more than people ordering pasta in a restaurant. Could the library charge frequent readers more? What about insurance companies charging more to young families (more likely to have a baby).
Ski areas have a huge fixed cost base (land, grooming, etc.) so they get greedy, sell too many lift tickets and the lines get long. Fixed pricing encourages people to ski a lot, at peak times. What if only cost $3 to get on the mountain, plus a small charge for each lift ride and a premium price for popular lifts at popular times? The technology is already there, the only reason not to try it is momentum.
If you’re a copywriter or masseuse or other sort of freelancer, how many retainer clients do you need to relax and spend more time on the work, less on the billing/looking part? What happens when an artist does this?
Why don’t airlines experiment with auctioning of seats, baseball card style? You could buy the rights to a seat for $200 (speculating, if you like) and then try to sell it off as the flight time get closer–it’s not hard to imagine an easy to use website for these transactions. The seat might change hands a dozen times, earning the airline a processing fee each time, and enriching those that want to start trading this expiring commodity. Sports teams are already trying to figure out how to make this work.
Changing your pricing changes your story.
What does this mean for artists? I currently charge per musician with a three hour minimum. What other ways could/should a band charge? Per person (in the audience)? Per song? Per note (an ongoing joke amongst many musicians)?
Would it change the game for the better to charge differently depending on the venue (a restaurant vs. private party)? Thanks for yet again being provocative, Seth.
A startling list appeared in the latest issue of JazzTimes:
Chris Anderson | piano | 81
Joe Beck | guitar | 62
Phil Bodner | saxophone | 90
John Brunious | trumpet_piano | 67
Hiram Bullock | guitar | 52
Ozzie Cadena | production | 83
Dave Carpenter | bass | 48
William Claxton | photography | 80
Jimmy Cleveland | trombone | 82
Joel Dorn | production | 65
Bobby Durham | drums | 71
Bob Florence | piano_composition | 75
Jimmy Guiffre | clarinet | 86
Johnny Griffin | saxophone | 80
Jeff Healey | guitar_trumpet | 41
Norman Hedman | percussion_prduction | 63
Neal Hefti | trumpet_composition | 85
Dennis Irwin | bass | 56
Peter J Levinson | publicity | 74
Jimmy McGriff | organ | 72
Dave McKenna | piano |78
Teo Macero | production | 82
Miriam Makeba | vocals | 76
Ronnie Matthews | piano |72
Earl May | bass | 80
Buddy Miles | drums | 60
Frank Morgan | saxophone | 73
Oscar Peterson | piano | 82
Tony Reedus | drums | 49
Irene Reid | vocals | 77
Mario Schiano | saxophone | 75
Richard M Sudhalter | trumpet | 69
Esbjörn Svensson | piano | 44
Donald Walden | saxophone | 69
Jerry Wexler | production | 91
Gerald Wiggins | piano | 86
With the exception of Oscar Peterson, who died in the latter half of December 2007, these are those who passed in 2008 who, in their lives, impacted the world of Jazz. Some died young and tragically; others’ passings could be considered in due time. Some were of great impact and consequence; others perhaps just a footnote.
I discovered jazz later in life than most of my peers, but very few people my age have had the opportunity to see true legends play. Monk, Trane, Bill Evans - all had passed before I was born. Miles died when I was a child, long before I ever knew who he was. I feel a sense of urgency to see those who are still alive - Hank Jones and McCoy Tyner, Benny Golson, Herbie Hancock, and so many others.
The musicians of Jazz’s great history are aging and will continue to pass. I can only hope fewer pass in 2009 than did this past year. And in the meantime, do the best I can to experience the artistry and passion of Jazz’s living history.
Wordpress just released it’s latest iteration, Coltrane. It’s named after tenor saxophonist John Coltrane and the official WP post concerning it doesn’t really explain.
It’s all about you. It’s the next generation of WordPress, which is why we’ve bestowed it with the honor of being named for John Coltrane. And you can download it today.
Since Meghan and I have made a commitment to living in Lakeland for the present time (something I spent seven years swearing I would never do), it’s time to face the reality of life as a musician (hey, even though I love my day gig, there’s an itching to do this full time!) in Lakeland, Florida.
Setting aside the relatively active Orlando and Tampa scenes, of which I am occasionally a part, there’s still plenty of room to make a living in Lakeland and much potential for a great scene here. Two of the local colleges have healthy jazz programs. There are also some great thing happening in the (well, let’s just call a spade a spade:) smooth jazz scene.
That said, there’s not a lot of jazz “In the Tradition” happening around here. I feel like there’s a dearth of musicians really interested in communicating and creating in this town. Though the scene is rather dry for casuals and restaurant gigs, there was a time when there were gigs to be had; those tend not to be very musical gigs around here.
There’s a small cadre of musicians I know who are tying to grow and write and make music on a high level, but most of them are either associated with one of the schools or former classmates of mine. I often import musicians from the nearby larger markets to play with, but we don’t rehearse and can’t really spend the time necessary to build a solid rapport. This is the most common complaint I heard at USF from visting alumni - in the average town (even in NYC, to some extent), it’s difficult to find like-minded musicians with the time and wherewithall to build a rapport and community devoted to growing as Jazz Musicians.
I really need your interaction on this one. If you have managed to do this - create a scene where there wasn’t one or where there had been one - in another town, how? What were the results? If you’re in Lakeland and have been thinking the same thing, let me know - we need to get together.
Thanks to David Valdez (Casa Valdez) for posting several wonderful fakebooks at his blog. Sarting yesterday with a post on the Blue Book, the following are available:
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After 51 years of writing for the Village Voice, Nat Hentoff has been laid off. In addition to his clumn at the Voice, Hentoff writes for a variety of publications, including JazzTimes. The internet, the economy, and shrinking attention spans are clearly affecting writers in ways much like musicians face. It will be interesting to see how much longer publications like the Voice can continue and how many will fare the rest of this storm to see the other side.
