Jeremy Monteiro: Late-Night Thoughts of a Jazz Musician by Monteiro Jeremy;

Author:Monteiro, Jeremy;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited

So there it is, two totally opposing views by two people I loved and admired. Both true statements.

What I have done is taken the two statements and tried my best to come up with my own blend of seriousness, virtuosity and communication coming together, being musically humorous and also… entertaining.

This has become MY personal truth and method of expression thanks to Michael Brecker and Eldee Young.

37

The Difficult Jazz Scene

Running a jazz venue or bar in a sustainable way has become really difficult.

Firstly, when smoking was disallowed, it cut out a huge part of the audience. I am not saying we should bring back smoking in bars. I am just stating an economic observation.

Next, because of strict drink-driving laws, people don’t really drink much at jazz bars these days. Again, I’m just outlining another cause of lowered expenditure and income at jazz clubs/bars.

The “one-Coke wonders” sit all night and expect the club to miraculously make enough money to pay rent, staff and the musicians from their $10 “contribution” of one or maybe two drinks.

So clubs figure out that they should levy a door or cover charge to at least cover the cost of the musicians, and then hope that the revenue from drink sales can cover the cost of staff and stock.

But the audience members don’t understand that the band earns the money from the door or cover charge. So they grumble about the cover charge and try to negotiate: “If I buy a bottle for my five friends and me, you should waive my cover charge.”

But it does not add up. The revenue from that bottle will not cover the cost of the bottle, and the share of rent, staff and musicians’ fees.

Then the audience stays away more and more because they are unhappy about the cover charge.

On top of that, most people now have a lot of entertainment devices at home, from large-screen TVs and Blu-ray players to games machines and the internet, so going out has become much less attractive.

But they will pay big-ticket prices to sit in a recital or concert hall without any drink. This seems a bit incongruous to me.

The clubs may then engage cheaper musicians, edging top pros out of gigs, just to keep prices down.

Then, what happens is, top pro musicians will start a teaching practice or teach at schools and colleges; they sometimes make enough to form a base income to then occasionally make the upside income on tours, concerts and corporate gigs.

Trouble is, the pros are teaching a whole new generation of musicians, some of whom turn out good enough to enter the job market in music… where there are no jobs.

The jazz musician ecosystem, in its previous form, is dead. All over the world it’s like that. Even the top pros experience difficulty.

My advice to young aspiring musicians wanting to make a living doing music is: think very, very carefully. Actually, really, really consider doing something else. I think one can still achieve a high level of professional performance while doing something else to make a living, if it’s too difficult to make a living from music.

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