The musician's blues...

[Jim Alfredson]

Just a small vent of frustration:

Had a gig an hour and forty-five minutes away from Lansing in Wyandotte, MI tonight. Work has been slow the last few months, even the national touring work I do, so I'm a bit stretched right now. I took this gig because I enjoy playing with the other musicians but also because I need the money. And the money on this gig was shit to begin with. Gas is $4.29 in Michigan right now and the gig only paid $100. I probably spent $40 in gas at least getting to and from the gig.

Anyway, I'm almost to the gig, flowing with traffic down Southfield Freeway, and I turn right on Jefferson, using my signal. Moments later the flashing lights are behind me. Cop pulls me over. I'm thinking maybe I have a tail light out or something. I haven't gotten a speeding ticket in 6 years or more because I don't speed anymore... used to when I was younger but I got over that shit.

He comes up to the window. License and registration, proof of insurance, all that jive. I'm always friendly and polite to cops. He asks me if I know why he's pulled me over. I tell him honestly no. He said I was going 45 in a 35mph. I said I had no idea what the speed limit was, I was just flowing with traffic, which is true. He looks at my license and asks if I still live in Lansing. I say yes. "What are you doing here?" he asks. Playing a gig in Wyandotte, trying to make a buck.

He goes to his car, comes back and writes me a ticket for "impeding traffic". He's trying to be nice. That ticket means no points on my license, no increase in my insurance. But it also means I cannot fight it and it's a $116 fine. Did I mention the gig only paid $100.

I fucking hate that shit. I could've stayed home with my wife and kids and I would've SAVED money.

That's my rant.

[CJ Shearn]

That sucks!

[sgcim]

What non-musicians don't understand is there just ain't a living in it anymore.

Most jazz clubs in NYC aren't paying enough to justify commuting there, unless you can somehow afford an apt in Manhattan.

With my equipment, I usually have to drive into Manhattan, the Bronx or Westchester, and the price for tolls, parking and gas comes to $50.

One time I thought I found a parking spot on 1st Ave, but after the gig, I couldn't find my car.

Turned out it had been towed, and I had to take an expensive taxi ride to the West Side so I could pay the $200 fee to get a cop to escort me to my car. i remember there was a girl crying her eyes out because she didn't have the bread to get her car out and had to phone her parents in NJ to help her.

I lost about $100 on that gig.

I've got a steady gig that I've been doing for the last 20 years or so in Westchester coming up this summer, and if we didn't carpool, we wouldn't make shit.

[JSngry]

I could've stayed home with my wife and kids and I would've SAVED money.

And invested in family.

Feeling your pain, all the way.

[.:.impossible]

I can certainly relate, and I'm not a musician. I often drive 2.5 hrs to lose time and money. The life of a salesman.

[sgcim]

I can certainly relate, and I'm not a musician. I often drive 2.5 hrs to lose time and money. The life of a salesman.

I know where you're coming from. After my late father got married in 1947 after the war, he quit music and became a salesman for the rest of his life.

Never had a salary, lived on commission. If he didn't like the job, he just quit, and moved on to the next one.

He must have worked for at least 50 different companies selling anything you can imagine...

[BeBop]

The financial part (along with my utter lack of talent) ran me out of the music business back in the 70s. Music life these days is a concert (including three with the much more talented and skilled Mr. Alfredson) when I can squeeze it into a 100+ hour workweek. But it seems pretty clear that music - live music in particular - is just slipping down people's priority list. One reason, in my mind, is that people want something at no cost (a different thing than "free"). So they'll YouTube and download and freeload. And the creator gets zip. Sad.

[robertoart]

The financial part (along with my utter lack of talent) ran me out of the music business back in the 70s. Music life these days is a concert (including three with the much more talented and skilled Mr. Alfredson) when I can squeeze it into a 100+ hour workweek. But it seems pretty clear that music - live music in particular - is just slipping down people's priority list. One reason, in my mind, is that people want something at no cost (a different thing than "free"). So they'll YouTube and download and freeload. And the creator gets zip. Sad.

That's true to a point. But for the younger generation the digital 'availability' and consumption of their work is second nature. The upside is that creative people have exposure and presence 'in the world' potentially beyond their locality. People still go out and become part of scenes and movements, just not older folks so much. And DJ related music is the other half of the sky these days.

[mikeweil]

Had my first paying gig in two years (for a multitude of reasons) a few weeks ago on a Saturday evening. Club is in a pedestrian zone, so I had to park the car after unloading, there are several parking houses around. Parking space is a rarity in the town where I live although it is the capital of what equals to a US state. When I return to the parking house at midnight to pick up the car I had to face the fact the house closes at 10 pm (on a Saturday evening, with plenty of bars, restaurants, clubs and a cinema in the quarter) and stays closed on Sundays! Now the guitar and sax player took me and my wife home with just the most important and irreplaceable stuff, in a small car stuffed to the limit. I was able to pick up the rest of my instruments with my day job transport service van on Sunday evening when the cub re-opened. Picked up my car Monday morning - the parking bill had summed up to € 30 ... the gig paid me € 70. Now I could have pretended I lost the parking ballot which would have meant paying only € 15, but there was nobody around to cash the fee and give me a ballot to leave the parking house ... you get the idea why they don't have a porter in the house. This is the capital of the region but a stinky provincial town as far as these things are concerned.

Now what made things even worse was that I had recommened that very parking house to our bass player who lives 50 miles away ..... he had to call his father to pick him up after midnight which he hated to do as their relationship is a bit stressful at the moment. He called it the most superfluous gig in all his life. Don't know yet how he managed to get his car on Monday ... I wonder how much he paid. Neither of us had the idea of checking the opening hours.

Now he's young 25 (the rest of the band is between 50 and 60), just made his exams at a Frankfurt music academy, we accompanied him on that occasion, but his teacher told him that he better look for a better band, as the saxist was okay but the guitarist and percussionist couldn't carry his bass case etc. .... he still has to make up his mind. Now we rehearsed the stuff for his exams for half a year and now we don't know what will happen ... we have another gig on the birthday party of our saxist's sister-in-law, but after that - no idea. Rehearsing all that exams repertoire was taking the band to its limits, beyond our styles range and technical capacities. I almost gave up playing altogether but didn't want to let the bass player down on short notice. The guitarist told me after the gig he shared some thoughts and feelings about the band (but he won't stop playing, as he's a music teacher). If I had known in advance it would be such a lot of work and strain in the wake of our move (which I had no idea that it would come up when I agreed to play his exams) ... We'll have to talk about the band's future at the next occasion.

Shit happens.

p.s. sorry for ranting ....

Edited June 11, 2013 by mikeweil

[bdamusic]

Life and Death in the Jazz Business:

[sgcim]

Good post. Years ago, I was playing with a very talented jazz musician, who was too broke to afford a car, so i had to pick him up at train stations, and we'd drive to our gigs together. I also played on a jazz LP with him.

Somehow, he got hooked up with a journalist, who became his agent, and the next thing you know, he was releasing albums on a big label, appearing at all the big festivals around the world, and winning jazz polls on his instrument.