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Re: Re: Zoe Keating in NY Times article.@borisfx.com
On 1/30/2013 12:24 PM, Daniel Thomas wrote:
Local musicians cannot do all that much about fat cat greed. But we
can stop playing out for dirt wages. No pearls before swine.
I really agree with you on this, Daniel, but as someone who's still out
there in the trenches trying to make a living
wage as a performing musician (with a small amount from the dwindling
number or people who pay to take music lessons)
there are very, very few decent paying gigs any more.
In the 80's, it was a point of pride to me not to take less that a
couple of hundred bucks for a gig.
In 2012, I had one gig that paid $60............all others were paid
less than that.
I am really interested in playing jazz (one of the historically worst
paying forms of music there is, admittedly, but also
representing one of the few remaining ways of getting in front of an
audience where, ostensibly, other gigs
and potential students and studio work can be generated).
In our area the places who pay for jazz musicians to play with offer
tips and a meal or up to $30 and a meal.
I'm struggling to find out some way to keep living doing what I've done
professionally for
the last 35 straight years so I've elected to take those low paying gigs.
There are still higher paying gigs (in the $100/person range) in
Monterey and Carmel, but there are very, very few of
them and the people who have those gigs are jealously holding onto
them. Wedding, Parties and Bars that have
constant, employable live music have just dwindled to very, very little.
But as unfair as the sub-liveable wages are, the restaurant where I
play, weekly, couldn't possibly afford to pay more.............for
them, it's a labor
of love to have Jazz at their establishment and they are also struggling
financially.
So, I'm with you but at this point where we live, I wouldn't play ever
in public if I insisted on a liveable wage.
It's a tough nut to crack and I'm not wild about it, to be honest.
respectfully, Rick