Saturday, January 21, 2012

LA Club Owners.....But really, ALL CLUB OWNERS

But where are people? You see people? Show me people. There are no people!
One of my Facebook friends had posted a link to an article regarding music venues in Los Angeles, written by a working musician. I thought it was right on the money, and it could really apply to all music venues, at least in North America. I believe there are many reason why live music is suffering; the bad economy, the lack of interest in culture, the sprawl of Americans into the suburbs(they don't want to drive back into an urban area at night to see music, let alone take public transportation), the prevalence of internet(people stay home and surf the net or watch TV for free; why drive and pay 10-50 bucks to hear some difficult sounding music?). However, this article by Dave Goldberg makes great points.

There was a time when you could do a gig, even a jazz gig, at a club, and it was more common than not to get a guarantee of payment. Now, most jazz gigs, really most club gigs in the U.S., are door gigs. Perhaps college student musicians or unmarried twenty somethings will have the energy to play door gigs. I must say, it's pretty demoralizing to play a door gig at age 42. And I'll admit I have had mixed luck with getting people to come out to my gigs. I've sold out shows, but I've also played to plenty of empty rooms. I played a gig recently which was maybe one of the best musical experiences I've had, but I'm pretty sure I won't be playing this venue again due to the lack of people.

I understand the dynamic of "If you have a name, people will come to your gigs" or "you have to develop a following," or "get everyone in your extended family and everyone who you went to high school with to come to your gig!" In order to really have a name, you have to have a publicist and a label behind you. In order to develop a following, you need to have gigs, and then it gets into a which comes first, the chicken or the egg type deal.(In order to get a gig, you need a following. How can I develop a following if I don't have a gig?) And getting your friends and family to come? Well, ask my mother about that. She does her darndest, but not everyone might be available on June 26th for your one show.

Anyway, read the article. Musicians will understand. Club owners and bookers will probably have a litany of reasons to disagree. Mr. Goldberg says that:  

I think we as musicians need to fight back. Sure you can get mad about it, but that won’t do anything.We could all agree not to play those for the door gigs, but you know that isn’t going to happen. But what we can do, is explain to the club owner that it’s not in their best interest to operate their business like this.There is too much at stake for them not to be truly invested in the music presented in their venue.

I've wondered this myself for years. It takes a lot of time, sacrifice, and commitment to play music well. All of a sudden, we have to be Public Relations Experts! And some people just suck it up and put in the EXTRA work it takes to get people to come to their gigs. Those people can end up being successful. They usually aren't married with children. 

I used to play at Blues Alley in Washington D.C. in the early 90's. I played there with a lot of great musicians who did decent business. But I also played there with musicians or singers who weren't full time, who had day jobs in an office. They would play Blues Alley once or twice a year, and get everyone they ever met in life to come out to the gig. Most of the time, they were not that great as musicians. But they did good business. OK I'm being nice, oftentimes they were, um, not very good, in my humble opinion. But they would continue to get bookings. Clubs no longer care about the quality of the music, they just want bodies in the seats. And they don't want to take any responsibility for it. It's supposed to be OUR job to bring people. Period.

Spent 18 hours a day on his mailing list.....
Sometimes  I think about what it takes in the New Music Business to be successful. I almost think that I need to never practice again, and only focus on marketing myself.  Problem is, when I first fell in love with jazz, listening to Clifford Brown, Herbie Hancock, and John Coltrane, I thought to myself:" I want to PLAY this music!" I didn't think, " I want to have a huge mailing list and spend hours promoting myself on the internet!" And naysayers( I know you are out there-some of you are my Facebook friends!),  you might think I'm being defeatist or negative. You're probably right.  Maybe someday I'll get my act together  and sink what's left of my vast fortune into a massive 9 month  publicity campaign, so I can FINALLY get that 60 dollar gig  at that little jazz club near Christopher Street that never returns my calls .....



59 comments:

  1. I am very sorry to say that you are 100% right!!! If we could just impress the club owners with our knowledge of the music and show them the value...maybe we could slowly start to improve the base pay and not have to rely on the door. I would pay to see and hear you..because I know how you play..but..I am a musician and know the difference between a great player and a bad one. Thank you for your posts..we ALL appreicate them!!!

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  2. A few thoughts on reading the original piece and your comments.
    I think clubs have lost the ability to tell good from bad music, and to be able to peg their business to their musical taste. Of course the good clubs have that going on, like the Vanguard or Small's in NYC. But even clubs like The Jazz Standard want to know if you draw people in. There are very few clubs that subsist on their name alone It is hard to do.
    Here is a business idea: There should be a person or even a company, that provides booking and promotional services to clubs, who weeds through the piles of artist submissions, and determines the suitability for their client's venue based on the demographic, the location, the type of music, etc. This entity would work with the band and the club owner to market the gigs and draw people into the club.
    The idea is that just as you can't expect musicians to be promoters and marketers, you can't expect club owners to know how to create a brand from their music offerings, and build a loyal following based on the music they present. THey don't know enough about music and audiences (save the exceptions above, Lorraine Gordon, Spike Wilner, etc.) I don't know that anyone does this for jazz clubs...

    They follow the money, like anybody else. It's as if you were offered a shitty gig for 300 bucks or a door gig at the coolest cafe in town. Which one would you take?

    Then again, perhaps the venues of the future are on the Internet...
    Pablo

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  3. We have a real problem with this in Portland, OR. The most egregious offender being our town's flagship "Jazz Club" known as Jimmy Mak's. This guy is legendary for his stance on requiring Jazz musicians to work for the door (often a percentage of the door) while the club rakes in the cash. He boasted that he grew his business by 20% last year! Yet, the trend of major Jazz acts "flying over" Portland continues. Our most-recognized Jazz club (Portland only got 1 entry - Jimmy Mak's - in Downbeat's latest Jazz club directory) is selling the city's diverse Jazz scene short because of sheer greed. Worst yet, when one attempts to engage Jimmy in coversation about Jazz, one quickly finds that the man is not a fan of the music. So he's kinda like some sort of terrible Jazz slum-lord.

    The only hopeful sign I see is that there are new endeavors happening in Portland...like Ivories Jazz Lounge (which hosts Christian McBride this week) and the Portland Jazz Festival's mission series which gives international, national, and local acts guaranteed money when they play.

    But it's terribly sad that Jimmy Mak's gets most of the recognition in our community when they really aren't a supporter of the community.

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  4. Couldn't agree more and thanks for expanding on my article on your blog. What you are talking about at Blues Alley goes on at Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood. When I saw they hired local bands on off nights, I inquired about my quartet and was told sure, they'd love to have us. First we had to write them a check for $500. Then we get 50% of the door. After $1,000 was collected at the door we would get our check returned to us and 100% of the remaining door above $1,000. What? I've never heard such a thing. So I laughed and walked out. But people are doing this. And I'm caught up in it too. I'll get called to do a gig with a singer at Catalina's and it pays $100. Piano, bass, drums, and saxophone all getting paid $100. But it's the singer that's paying us, or her manager. Plus they are paying the club the $500, I guess. So you can't say to the venue that you aren't getting top musicians in town to play there. They are. I haven't really decided about how I feel about this. I mean, should I care where the money is coming from? The singer has identified that if she wants a top band, she has to pay. But this is so wrong. And there are lots of people out here doing it. Rich wives of Hollywood types, who have no problem throwing down $1,000 for their wife to get on stage and sing tunes. Or you get rich "managers" who most likely want to bang the hot young singer, so they lay the money out. Or they really are managers and believe that their young singer is going to be a star and are willing to put the money into her career to build a following. It's a fine line, but the clubs are getting off scott free for sure.

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  5. This is interesting stuff. I'm in Sydney Australia, and we've got similar things going on. I was only talking to someone about it today, and the venue we're working at is taking the line that the band must bring in the people, and doing minimal publicity. I contend that the venue should at least be doing it's best to build up a reputation as a place that people can rely on to provide quality music, so that they can go there anytime and be sure there will be something good on, perhaps within a certain broad genre category (Jazz, Funk etc.)I think the band should also do a certain amount of promotion, but for the venue to put the responsibility entirely on the musicians is wrong, lazy, and as someone said, basically bad business practice. I think the reasons for this are complicated. Some of them George has touched on - competing technologies (i.e. TV, home theatre systems, the net etc.), but I also think there's more talented musicians out there, and less venues (the Global Financial Crisis has definitely contributed to the dicontinuation of live music in many of the hotels here for example). Also part of it that no one has mentioned is the age old attitude that music is just a "hobby", and not a "real job", which can result in people being disrespectful to musicians, and not taking seriously their need to make a living. I don't know what to do about it, but I certainly make sure I always educate anyone (venue owner or otherwise) about the last point if I get that attitude. I think that talking to the venue owners the way Dan has described is probably a good start.

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  6. Dave, I think part of the problem is that "top musicians" are working for $100 at Catalina's. That's "hobby money", not professional compensation.

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  7. complex issue is complex

    here in san francisco, it's not uncommon for someone in the band to go around between sets with a tip jar soliciting handouts from the patrons

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  8. I agree Pablo, but if you aren't going to take a bill to do jazz gig in a large town, then you'll never work. I guess I should rephrase that. Top musicians that don't have a big name. I mean just because Peter Erskine lives in Los Angeles, I'm not talking about him. I'm talking about guys that play their ass off, but still aren't going to pack the place based on name recognition. And sometimes even people with name recognition are willing to play for that money too. When I lived in New York, I had a little duo gig in a restaurant, and I got some pretty well known guitar players on major labels willing to play with me on that gig. $100 and dinner, done. It's sad but true.

    And as for passing around the tip jar, isn't that the most embarrassing thing. It's like begging on the New York subway or something. I always try to explain that to a venue, that it just tells everyone.....Hey we don't pay our band.

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  9. yes, passing the tip jar is embarrassing to say the least.

    however, i feel like the venue owners present an even bigger obstacle beyond not wanting pay: they don't know anything about music!
    a lot of the gigs here in san francisco get sucked up by these hacks who can barely play at the level of a first year junior college jazz ensemble.

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  10. I'm always wondering how come we don't have a real working union like SAG? Not counting the existing ones that seem to have no bearing on the club scene. As a musician, I make most of my living wages doing background work - the bottom of the totem pole in the film/tv/commercial world... yet I get a meal, free parking, and $150-$350 a day depending on the project. I'm happy to pay a reasonable dues knowing that they are out there negotiating and enforcing these rights for us... compare it to the non-union actors who work the same hours as me for 1/3 the pay (at least they still get food & they're still making more than most gigging musicians) but point being, union VS non-union is a BIG DIFFERENCE. To a certain degree I blame ourselves for not organizing yet... I mean, BMI just now started paying songwriters the licensing fee due to performing their own songs live all over town...why did that take so long! And why did I not even realize it should be happening until they offered it?!

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  11. I wrote this in response to the various articles making the rounds. IMO, a dose of reality for all of us:

    http://theworkingbassist.blogspot.com/2012/01/much-ado-about-club-owners.html

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    Replies
    1. This is an excellent op ed!!!

      Delete
    2. Are you any relation to ED Shaughnessy?

      Delete
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