first of all, *swoon* to merit a Chronicles mention ;)
second, this last paragraph is everything. the longer i’m in music and meet people in different facets of the profession, that you more i hear this truth. everyone is hustling, wondering how long their “fix” is going to work….but keeping on because we are called to it, because we love it
The axiom to this is that if you make music then you're a musician. Maybe not a great one or even a good one, but a musician none the less. Maybe not a great one or even a good one, but who cares?
But it's not always that simple. Not when they are being denied opportunities and discriminated against. Take it from one who can't get a gig in the city; many of the clubs are run by young musicians who have never heard of me and won't even think that there might be something out there unfamiliar and worthwhile. Dizzy's, which I have sold out every time I have played there, won't even talk to me. Or Roulette, where I played to a standing ovation four years ago. A lot of this is age - if you are as old as I am and relatively unknown, it's a no-go. To stay afloat I need to work in New York and I am being aged out. I mean even Emmett Cohen was almost not booking older players until I started hounding him on line (but of course he won't hire me). Mysteriously, he changed. We have a Louis Armstrong project which has gotten raves and guess what? We were turned down by the Louis Armstrong museum, which I knew would happen; I met the guy who books it and I could tell he was thinking "this old man has nothing to give us." He never even listened to the music. I know, as Howard says, I can keep making music by myself; but without the stimulus of even occasional gigs it is hard to maintain chops, chordal reflexes, or build a following. And I can still play and I am still composing. I will stop now except to remind people that it was people like me, coming up in the '60s, who helped to save this music by continuing to teach and write about and advocate for it when everybody else thought it was dead. Now we are being unceremoniously discarded.
first of all, *swoon* to merit a Chronicles mention ;)
second, this last paragraph is everything. the longer i’m in music and meet people in different facets of the profession, that you more i hear this truth. everyone is hustling, wondering how long their “fix” is going to work….but keeping on because we are called to it, because we love it
Thank you Dan!!
"Musicians make music"
The axiom to this is that if you make music then you're a musician. Maybe not a great one or even a good one, but a musician none the less. Maybe not a great one or even a good one, but who cares?
Right on! That’s what I’m talking about 👍👍
right on vinnie.. you are preaching to the choir here!
This is true across the arts. Writers write, painters paint, sculptors sculpt dancers dance. Something that not all money-makers understand
But it's not always that simple. Not when they are being denied opportunities and discriminated against. Take it from one who can't get a gig in the city; many of the clubs are run by young musicians who have never heard of me and won't even think that there might be something out there unfamiliar and worthwhile. Dizzy's, which I have sold out every time I have played there, won't even talk to me. Or Roulette, where I played to a standing ovation four years ago. A lot of this is age - if you are as old as I am and relatively unknown, it's a no-go. To stay afloat I need to work in New York and I am being aged out. I mean even Emmett Cohen was almost not booking older players until I started hounding him on line (but of course he won't hire me). Mysteriously, he changed. We have a Louis Armstrong project which has gotten raves and guess what? We were turned down by the Louis Armstrong museum, which I knew would happen; I met the guy who books it and I could tell he was thinking "this old man has nothing to give us." He never even listened to the music. I know, as Howard says, I can keep making music by myself; but without the stimulus of even occasional gigs it is hard to maintain chops, chordal reflexes, or build a following. And I can still play and I am still composing. I will stop now except to remind people that it was people like me, coming up in the '60s, who helped to save this music by continuing to teach and write about and advocate for it when everybody else thought it was dead. Now we are being unceremoniously discarded.