The Smalls Model: Is this the future for clubs?

[fasstrack]

http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/jazz-club-is-going-digital/2810

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-smalls-jazz-club-musician-revenue-sharing-project

The first time I was paid to perform at Smalls was in December, 1997, as part of a two-guitar group featuring Eddie Diehl. The place was packed both Friday and Saturday, with lines down the block. Bear in mind that Eddie, though, a great player, is at best a minor jazz celebrity and I'm not sure I've heard of myself. The club's cache had to have something to do with the business we were doing. We also got paid what was a decent wage for non-names on a weekend at a NYC jazz club.

Fast-forward to the other side of a little thing we like to call 9-11. As someone said 'everybody (in the nightlife business) got creamed'. No more long lines just to get into a cool place. The club started struggling like everyone else to survive and eventually it got to be too much for owner Mitch Borden, who closed down for a while.

Enter Spike Wilner, chief owner since 2007. He kept the place going with local talent as always and performers made less, to offset operating costs. But Smalls was, and there was a difference: Spike, a pianist, is an inveterate archivist. He felt it was important to document the music being made, and he has turned out to be visionary in other ways. Soon a huge archive, video and audio, was amassed. Now Spike is using this digitized archive to hang a revenue sharing plan for performers (See the article and the link to the fundraising campaign). With a Netflix-like model, patrons would pay for unlimited access into the video and audio archive into a fund that would come back to the performers. There would be additional benefits from the revenue stream such as a charity fund, the Harry Whitaker Foundation, that would help Smalls performers in emergency times.

The bugs naturally need to be worked out, and at least one idea is perplexing to me (the idea of popular performers---i.e. the ones most requested could end up making the most money could cause some resentment), but for a club seating 60 with a world-wide reputation there has to be sources of income for the musicians other than those long-disappeared lines. I wish Spike the best and commend his out-of-the-box thinking. Perhaps this is the start of something.

I will let him know I posted this in the hopes that he will speak for himself and expand.

Edited July 29, 2013 by fasstrack

[fasstrack]

The more I think about it, the more I would love to see/hear certain sets again (or ones I missed). Cases in point from recent years: Clifton Anderson brought a smoking group in w/a pianist totally new to me. Colleague James Chirillo playing with the trio of John Bunch just before the latter's death. Jay Leonhart doing The Bass Lesson. In short there's just a lot of good music in that archive.

One thing unclear to me: Is the live video stream still free? It seems a subscription ($5/mo)was tried and failed.

Edited July 29, 2013 by fasstrack

[kh1958]

Live video of all sets from the club is still currently $5 a month. Occasional nights are free.

[Hardbopjazz]

Some other clubs are doing this without charging. $5 is not a lot to pay. I had joined for a while, but angle of the video and sound wasn't that great. There is a hum while watching.

[kh1958]

At present, the video is still not real sharp; the sound is quite excellent now. You can turn it up loud and it's pretty much you are there sound quality.

[alocispepraluger102]

At present, the video is still not real sharp; the sound is quite excellent now. You can turn it up loud and it's pretty much you are there sound quality.

i frequently record the jam sessions and some other sets live-------------the sound is quite good. actually. the composition, precision, and musicality of these cats just wingin' it on playback is amazing.

[Dan Gould]

I used to stream some archive sets and got some very nice transfers out of them. They come through very 'hot' so very high signal-to-noise = nice recording despite low bit-rate.

[John Litweiler]

This discussion reminds me of the many wonderful performances over the years at Joe Segal's various Jazz Showcases in Chicago. Joe recorded them all and surely nobody else will ever hear them.