So, You Want To Become a Full Time Professional Musician?

Well good luck with that.

Just kidding. I never wanted to be one of those "PREWS" I met when I was an up and comer that constantly told up and comers to do something else, the music business has changed, can't make a living, etc.

I didn't listen to them (as most young folks don't) and if you are young you might not take any of this to heed but maybe you will or at least it might give you more confidence in your path.

First off some background:

If it hasn't come up in previous posts, I am a lifetime musician. Meaning, I have been doing nothing but music for a living my entire adult life. I am not famous or 'world class' (w/e the eff that means) I do have the skills that are surprisingly lacking in many who call themselves 'musicians'. I can read music, play popular styles as well as classical and jazz. Getting here I have played just about every style of music. I'd also like to think I have done all those styles 'legitimately' and not my own way... At any given time I might be playing solo jazz, pop or classical guitar, Bodhran and mandolin in a Celtic setting, drumset in a jazz band or rock gig. In the studio even more may get asked of me. Country twang, shuffle funks, hip hop 'beats' etc. soloing over changes, etc.

OK enough of that

So option 1 : be a member of a famous band

Problems
Better off buying lottery tickets. Being  'good' means as much as being bad. Groups get picked up & dropped by the 1,000's and they are still just the tip of the 'we'll do anything to make it in this biz' iceberg.

Bands cost money and rarely make money. Bands 'go on tour' and lose money. Bands break up. It's what they do. A typical cycle is

• Start or join band
• write/rehearse songs in your rental jam space.
• get tired of ____ or ____gets tired of the band
• audition new ____
• rehearse new _____
• ______can't do it anymore because work is a bear/girlfriend is pregnant
• Audition new____
• Rehearse new ___
• Spend own money on recording
• Band goes nowhere and breaks up
• go back to top

This is particularly something to avoid if you are a supportive player (drums/bass) or are not critical to the band's sound (don't write the songs or sing the lead)

As I tell everyone who doesn't 'know'... bands are for kids and part-timers.

So unless you sing like a bird, are young and beautiful, are willing to do anything, are extremely lucky and write sure fire hits, then you need to find ways to make a full time living in music without relying on others.

So you want to be just a player, a hired gun and side man? Cool! On the surface it can be a great thing. Instead of being in one band that never gets off the ground you can be in 5.

Just kidding. You have just increased your gigs from 1 band once or twice a month to multiple bands and maybe every weekend.

There are problems. One most co-op bands are cool with Joe not making a gig because he is on the night shift but are so not cool with you not making it because of another gig. Most co-op bands rehearse more than they play and they do not want to hear that you can learn the material in a week that they took a year to learn. Most co-op bands are willing to play for chump change or even 'exposure' and do not want to hear how you want at least $50. They are never cool about paying more to the guy who jumped in and learned their stuff overnight and played it better than them. And since these things break up all the time you constantly have to be on the hunt for new bands that need someone.

 I have done this in the past and here are some helpful tips.

1. Have a minimum amount you will play for. $25 for a set $50 for a backlined gig, $75 for a gig you have to play all night AND bring the gear.
2. 1st come first serve. Band "A" books a gig and calls you then write the gig in pen and say no to everything else on that night.
3. Don't bail on a gig. Really just number 2 rewritten. If you book a gig for $75 don't bail for the $80 (or even $100) gig. Players that do that get a rep and stay home more often.
4. Really live up to your billing. Learn the material better than them

What if you want to work all the time and make enough and all your money from playing?  

First thing is you have to be really good. I don't mean pretty good I mean top of the food chain in a city of 5 million good and you need to live in a city of 5 million. I am here in Winnipeg (650,000) the average public gig pays $50-$100. Even if you could work every night (which you can't here) your max income is $36,000 before taxes. Food rent/mortgage sticks strings reeds all come from this. Vacations, night off? Not you because you have a gig every night.

So you need to do private functions. They pay more and more often than not are on week nights so you could do the public ones on the weekends (where they most likely and plentiful).

You need to be versatile style wise and be able to read charts of varying quality. You need to have real suits. shirts and ties and possibly a tux.

If you are on your game getting the private stuff you can raise that to $50,000 maybe you can deal with that.

There is the dream/option of being the studio player during the day but you need to have those top of the food chain skills, exceptional reading skills,on the spot transposition skills, stylistically versatile, take direction, be able to interpret non musical directions "I need that to be more bouncy" (actually told that once) and you need to have multiple studio owners want you.

So what if you are not in a real big city, or are not top of the food chain good or "GADS" both?

Well you need to get a real job. Now one of my pet peeves is Facebook, twitter etc. profiles that someone lists them selves as a professional musician when they can't read music, can only play certain type(s) of music and spend 40 hours a week crunching numbers, writing code or w/e. So if you have the real job and do a few gigs are you a professional musician?? I will answer with this, Mike Farquharson  one of my former teachers, who has many writing credits, is a juno nominee, has a masters in music and is a teacher at Berkeley, listed himself as a part time musician during a time when his piloting career took more time than his music career. This guy is a monster player and has forgotten more about music than most of us will ever know. 

Now with that off my chest...if you like the stability of a day job then cool, the trade off is you are not a full time musician you are w/e you do 40 hours a week and you play music on the side.

You could work in a music retail place but they are busiest at night and quite bluntly I don't see the difference between that and working at Starbucks...you aren't playing or holding an instrument.

But if you want to make 100% of your money as a musician then you might have to do something else other than hustling gigs or (worse) waiting for the phone to ring.

So basically you have to teach.

Now if you are top of the food chain and live in a big city there might be a few post secondary schools (and even a few private schools) that need private lesson instructors. But to teach at the post secondary level you have to be 'play any style including the hard ones like you were born to it' good and great. Some (not all) of these students are future top of the food chain types so if they want you to show them how to do a chord melody on bass for Polka Dots and Moonbeams in 11/8 then that had better be something you can do already.

The day time teaching gig is sweet perfection, you have a job that is music, you get challenged yourself, and you are free to do the evening gigs. Be warned, these can be 16 hour days.

Teaching privately is also a good option. 

You still have to be good because your students could (and should) be anyone from a 5 year to a person preparing for a university audition (a future top of the food chainer). Your students will be in the afternoon and evenings (after school and work) so those dinner hour gigs are off the list as you need to be available till 8-9 o'clock. You need to have teaching skills, patience with slower learners and low practicers, you need to have rapport with people (kids in particular) you need to be presentable to parents, you need to be versatile, you need to be able to read music.

You need a lot more than the skills of the average musician (plays blues, rock, metal, can't read, knows only a handful of chords, etc. common among guitarists, bassists and drummers) but not as much as the top of the city of 5 million food chain.

So it is available to more of us.

At our Music School In Winnipeg we get plenty of 'musicians' calling or writing us looking for a teaching position. Most do not have an education, most are lacking in basic musicianship skills and most make contact in January (1/2 way through the teaching year).

If I had a nickle for every guitarist that can teach blues and rock looking for a teaching job after Christmas...d00d everyone can teach rock and blues and we had all our teachers lined up last summer.

Being in a band is not a credential or a moniker of musical acumen.

Once again the band is for kids and part timers.

So to make all your money as a musician you need multiple revenue streams. Playing and teaching are 2 basic and accessible ones studio playing is another, but much harder, avenue.

Other things that help.

Play or be able teach more than one instrument. I have been through enough clarinetists that can't double on flute or sax. Our Voice/Piano Violin/Piano or me the Guitar/Drums/Bass/Piano/Ukulele/Mandolin/Bodhran teacher have very full teaching schedules.

Get a musical education. Yes it matters... college diploma, degree in music therapy, education degree with a music focus..these are the types of music teachers that get and keep students and teaching positions.

Get versatile. One of the best rules I ever made for myself was to never make fun of a style of music unless I could play it. If you go to the trouble of learning to play a style you think is 'lame' or easy you will find it is neither. Even my die hard metal students get a kick out of my bluegrass chops.

Have standards. Too many rookie teachers are afraid to not please the kid and will forego standardized teaching materials (fear of losing the student to the cost of a $9 book) or methods. That is why many guitar and bass teachers will pander to student. So if the 9 year old wants to start with Metallica then they make the 9 year old in charge.

You need to use the standardized materials to be fair to the student and to yourself. If the student goes with a different teacher then that new teacher can pick up where you left off. It also frees you of having to create all the lessons yourself.
You need to use the standardized methods to be fair to the student and yourself. I have seen 80% of students who are pandered to quit because no matter the passion a 9 year (or any beginner) can't start with the music they want. At the same time students using standardized methods last much longer and actually learn to play music.

So while my life plan may not be for you here is a look at an average month for me.

Teaching 5 days a week, a jam session, recording session, lounge gig(s) wedding or corporate function. All of it using my music skills. None of it feeling like work.

Come and Get Your Steaming Pile Of Jazz Fest

Long past due for my yearly diatribe on the local excuse for a festival that is supposed to be about  furthering an appreciation of jazz music through presentation, promotion and outreach.

I won't go whole hog this year because, quite bluntly, all of the same problems are still there and much has gotten worse. I don't think it has been this bad since a failed punk rock bass player ran the thing.

If you wish to read past thoughts.
2011 Jazz Fest
2011 Jazz Fest Post Mortem
2012 Jazz Fest
2012 Jazz Fest Post Mortem

Over all I believe that a publicly funded non profit arts group with a mandate to promote jazz should do just that. It should also live up to it's name International Jazz. Only 7 'over a 100 ' acts are international jazz

Even if all they booked was: jazz, latin, blues and music mistaken for jazz, and as long as the majority was jazz, then we jazz fans would be happy (or at least have no legitimate reason not to be)

but...

1.  it is still less than a third is jazz (31/100) and less than half jazz  appropriate (42/100) so your 58-69 acts are mostly made up of popular types of music. You know the kind that is on the radio, played in clubs all the time. Stuff you can see and hear 365 days of the year.
2.  still have samey bookings that conflict with each other 
3. still blatant favoritism to a handful of locals 
4. still having that same handful of people rearranged to make 'new' groups
5. still run by a bean counter and a DJ
6. still using posters to advertise 
7. still padding the bio's to decive you into beliving you are getting a jazz act
8. still trying to make it seem like a year round full time job with non jazz concerts through the year
9. still having most nights with little or no jazz (2 with 0, 1 with 1, 1 with 2, 2 with 3)
10. still relying on beer sales on the opening weekend with 4 out 22 acts jazz 11 out of 22 jazz fest appropriate. 
11. still zero jazz on the opening Saturday (you know the biggest day and night of the weekend).
12. still too long at 11 days and is one day longer than Montreal's (who has 10 Stages, 150 concerts, 300 free concerts and 3.000 artists)
13. still having acts play for free on one day expecting you to pay on another day
14. still giving the pop acts multiple bookings
15. still having locals opening for major stars forcing us to pay real money to see someone we can see for free year round. (headliner wants to do a short set? charge less)
16. still having locals you can see year round for free playing in clubs for a fee
17. still giving gigs to people or groups who have had as few ZERO gigs in the past year
18. still promoting the 'sure fire' money grubbing non jazz more than the 'supposedly' struggling jazz
19. still losing money
20. still an artistic failure
21. still leaving many local veterans out of the festival

To add to the 'not the sharpest knife in the drawer' organizing dept...4/5 of this years TD jazz labs are freaking blues players!!

I also waited a long time to write this. In year's gone by I started the conversation early (at the time of their 'big' schedule announcement) but with all the encouragement coming in private I thought I'd wait till the day of the fest opening. I also wanted a picture of who was in the area (playing other jazz festivals)

Some Notes

Well if you know your jazz you don't need me to show you but...

GEORGE BENSON. Great guitarist and singer. But before you hope this tour is in support of his Nat "King" Cole tribute album. Check again he is doing his 'sex funk'. But to me this is on the list of things that get mistaken for jazz so you decide if you want to see the former prodigy who was to have the jazz guitarist torch passed to him after Wes Montgomery who, instead, sold  his soul.

BTW this is supposed to be their big jazz name AND commercial money maker so good luck with that.

RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA
Saxophone. If Micro tonal jazz is your thing. The Guitarist plays fretless so kinda interesting. But I can think of more accessible artists with great artistic cred. This seems like a bad booking, particularly main stage and on a Monday

PATRICIA BARBER
Singer Pianist. Real deal

PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND
If trad is your bag (but weren't they just here?)

JANE MONHEIT
Singer. Don't know what your getting with her serious jazz cred but has started to 'genre cross' and we know what  that means...downward pressure to do pop and sell more units

COURTNEY PINE
Saxophone. If you only go to one show this might be the one

Glenn Miller Orchestra...
Just kidding, this is on the 25th of June and not part of the festival but since they have nothing the week before they could have been. Ironic that it has no place in our Jazz Fest but DJnotalent does

Because the international jazz bookings are so thin, even my "I don't care what else they have at the festival as long as I can see some great international jazz" people are complaining for the second year in a row.

Too little and, with the exception on Rudresh and to a much lesser extent Pine, too samey and too safe.
Little variety with 3 singers one who plays guitar, one piano and 2 sax players.

On that note here is my list of touring jazz acts in Canada this June.
How many rock bands, DJs and hip hoppers would you trade to have one or more of these acts?
Heck I'd trade em all for Kurt Rosenwinkle.

Barry Harris (actually played with Charlie Parker)

Bill Charlap

Bill Frissel

Bob James

Charles Lloyd

Charlie Hunter

Christine and Ingrid Jensen (yes they have been here recently)

David Sanborn

Elaine Elias

Emily Clare Barlow

Esperanza Spalding

Houston Person

Jacky Terrasson

Jazz at the Lincoln Center (ya I know, they over did it, had them too much, took a bath last time but they are on the list)

John Abercrombie (I don’t think he has ever been here)

John McLaughlin

John Scofield (I don’t mind as it is his Uber-Jam Band)

Joshua Redman

Kurt Rosenwinkle (come on, one of the best ‘new’ guitarists in a long time)

Larry Goldings

Lionel Loueke

Michael Kaeshammer

Peggy Lee

Quincy Jones

Ravi Coltrane

Now in case "they" are actually reading this or the karmic spirits are at work...here is my rough draft of a fest sched using the jazz acts slated for this year. The headliners (with one addition) as pay for events, all locals on the market square stage for free and touring Big City Canadians in the clubs

No pop, rock, folk, country, hip hop or DJ's no need to plum "Austin City Limits" for your outsider indie band.

Pardon the layout as it doesn't seem to work on this blog

_________________________________________________________________________________

Theater Series Mon June 17 Tues June 18 Wed June 19 Thurs June 20 Fri June 21 Sat June 22 Sun June 23 RUDRESH MAHAN-THAPPA'S GAMAK WEST END CULTURAL CENTRE • 8 PM PATRICIA BARBER QUARTET WEST END CULTURAL CENTRE • 8 PM I Can Dream     KURT ROSEN-WINKLE BURTON CUMMINGS THEATRE • 8 PM PRESER- VATION HALL JAZZ BAND BURTON CUMMINGS THEATRE • 8 PM JANE MONHEIT BURTON CUMMINGS THEATRE • 9 PM COURTNEY PINE CENTENNIAL CONCERT  HALL • 9PM GEORGE BENSON BURTON CUMMINGS THEATRE • 9PM Touring  Canadian Acts Club Series JENNIFER HANSON GYPSOPHILIA CURTIS MACDONALD Imaginary Free Out Door Series with all Local  Talent JODIE BORLÉ JOANNA MAJOKO SIMON CHRISTIE QUINTET THE KEITH  PRICE DOUBLE QUARTET PAUL DE GURSE QUARTET TRIO BEMBE MARCO CASTILLO THE KNAPPEN STREET ALL-STAR BAND EPP, PRICE & PRESSLAFF COMBO LATINO PAPA MAMBO  Walle Larson ERIN PROPP CURTIS NOWOSAD QUINTET REGGIE SAN MIGUEL AARON SHORR AL SIMMONS DANIEL KOULACK, GREG LOWE RON PALEY THE LUCAS SADER PROJECT ROSEMARIE TODASCHUK JANICE FINLAY BIG JAY HARRISON QUINCY  DAVIS & U OF M'S PROMISE DEVON GILLINGHAM KARL KOHUT MARTHA BROOKS QUARTET MIRA ?

• Everyone keeps their jazz gig
• jazz every night
• Latin jazz on some nights (with room for more)
• 7 days long (In a perfect world I would start it on a Friday (not Thursday Night?) and end on the following Saturday...making it 8 days)
• no fake opening weekend with lots of beer tent and little jazz content. Though an Opening weekend with jazz, tent or not, would be nice

It is just spit balling, I know there are flaws in the plan. I didn't go to the trouble of properly matching groups, or editing out multiple groups with virtually the same members, or people who have 0-2 gigs under their belt and I didn't add in any of the glaring omissions in respect to local players (which Jazz for lunch spots and/or the empty Sunday could be filled with).

I left out blues acts. I believe blues has a place at jazz festivals but they now have their own festival.

You could even time it so the free shows didn't conflict with the pay shows.
As a bonus, the pay concerts biggest customers could and should be the local jazz musicians.

Have the free shows weekday nights 5-7:30 with time to walk to the 8 pm concert

On Friday they could stop at 8:30 in time to walk to the 9pm concerts and on weekends the shows could run all afternoon and stop at 8:30.

Less acts cost less money so maybe it can stop losing money (or at least be an artistic success while in the red)

Jazz fans get their fill and the complaining stops. You could still put in the odd, blues soul, "real" R&B funk with horns act without screwing up the festival.

So there ya have it. Feel free to pass it along and send your complaints to the right people. Telling me or talking among your selves does little good.

Now either to calm you down or bloat my YouTube views, I give you something you will probably never see at our jazz fest and can see for free all year  here is me playing 'Darn That Dream' solo 7 string guitar.

My Winnipeg Part One: The Weather and Skeeters

I now this is not music related and maybe later installments will. 

Nonetheless here is the first of "My Winnipeg"

A few years ago Guy Ritchie made a movie by that title. The horse heads and oblique imagery won some awards but I didn’t see “MY” Winnipeg there. I have lived here since 2000 and not that I would be considered a ‘pegger’ by local standards (I think you have to be born, raised and stay here or be famous and spent a short amount of time here to get that designation) I do think I can offer a perspective  of  Winnipeg, as a resident for over a decade and a perennial outsider.

The 2 things people think of when they hear the word Winnipeg.

Winterpeg. 

Yes it is cold, yes winter can start before (Canadian) Thanksgiving, yes it can last till May and yes every flake of snow that lands in October is still there in March.  Hearing about it and living it are 2 very different things. At first it seems unbearable, “what have I got myself into here” kind of unbearable. But you look around and see that people aren't dropping like frozen fruit flies and you figure out quickly that survival can be done. 

When I got here I bought what I’ll call a super coat. Eddie Bauer, $600 down filled kind of ‘super’. I remember walking my dog in December and it was -17.  I had on the super coat and was still cold…now I only wear that coat when it is ‘really’ cold. I got used to it (the cold that is). At some point in winter -17 is considered a break in the weather for Winnipeg. Snow is welcome (in the actual winter) as it means it has become warm enough for snow to fall.

When I first moved here I did find welcome relief from the weather wimps I left behind in southern Ontario.  Here, in Winnipeg, the cold weather was reported in actual temperature and not any bogus “feels” like. Back in 2000 any reference to wind chill was in watts and time it takes for exposed skin to freeze.

In Winnipeg, this was important information for your survival.

Unfortunately that has changed. Now we have the temperature reported with that ‘feels like’ nonsense.

For the record wind chill is calculated based on how your body would react walking in an open field, into the wind and buck naked. Now it may seem there isn't that much to do in Winnipeg but I do not see this taking off as a hobby.

Nonetheless we now have a city where many people will say it is -40 when the wind chill overnight was severe. Of course all of these folks could be naked sleep walkers. Wind chill doesn't make your -40 antifreeze become blue ice cubes and, unless your house is drafty, wind chill doesn't increase your heating. It just affects exposed skin.

But boy it is still very different place in the way the majority of peggers deal with winter. More walk, cycle, skate, para-ski, après ski, downhill ski (and folks these are just hills), ice fish, skate, toboggan, pole walk, snowshoe and just plain do more outdoors, for more of the winter, than most Canadian cites outside of prairies. And if we get a break in the weather those that have stayed inside for the real cold will come out and join in as well.

I really think the provincial motto should be “you have to dress for it”

You will also see peggers doing outdoor stuff till the last day of the ‘good’ weather unlike Torontonians who tired of good weather back in May. Winnipegers know it is going to be bad soon and for a long time.

Now you’d think a place so well known for winter would have their collective act together when it came to snow removal. Well they don’t. Part of the problem is that we just don’t get that much snow. So after most snowfalls there isn't enough worth sending the plows out for. SO, unlike many places, we can't just pile it to the side and wait for it to melt. Sure by February it looks like a lot but that is because none of it melts. So every flake from dusting to blizzard is on the ground.  The average snow storm is quite small compared to anything in the ‘lake/ocean effect’ parts of the world. This winter Canada got a round of storms We got 10 cm and it was called a blizzard…Newfoundland got 70cm and lost power for a day.

Here the plows don’t scrape the pavement, they don’t use salt for melting or traction and residents are not required to clear the snow from the sidewalk in front of their homes. As well they clear the front of EVERY driveway.

Here is how a typical snow storm goes…
·         Snow falls. If there is enough there is plowing
·         Plowing is based on needs (main streets, schools, fire routes, etc.)
·         You shovel your front and back with the sidewalk optional
·         City plows your sidewalk
·         You shovel the piles created
·         City plows your back lane
·         You shovel the piles created
·         City plows the street where you live
·         You shovel that out

Now some of that may not seem particularly unique but what is unique is that a little snow here can cause a lot of trouble long after a snow storm in the form of blowing drifts. Unless someone complains those drifts are there to block the way (or barrel through).

Also unique is the absence of any roadway melt. So what happens is they don’t plow to the pavement, everyone packs it down driving on it, at any intersection it becomes as slick as ice due to everyone spinning out when they accelerate or skid when braking. Once in a while (and before some storms) they will throw some sand at the intersections (nowhere else) but after the first 5 cars the sand is dispersed. I have learned to drive on the snow pack outside the ruts as in the ‘real cold (-25ish) because the snow has better traction than the pavement.

I guess you have to ‘drive for it.’

On the upside they do reuse the sand (collecting it when they clean the streets in the spring)

AS I finish this section it is mid April and there is still a lot of snow on the ground and minus temps during the day.

Mosquitoes. 

There in no way around this, no way to couch it in lovable terms, they are here and they are unpleasant. Some years are worse than others. Peggers try to put a spin on it by saying ‘we have skeeters because we have no pollution.’ While it is true we have little air pollution (what little we have is blown east) we have mosquitoes because we have no hills. Lots of standing water = lots of mosquitoes. As an avid outdoors man I can deal with bugs (though I am Quasimodo allergic to black fly bites) and I can either put on bug dope or grin and bear it (at least when catching fish) but getting wailed on whilst walking the dog or even just taking out the trash…there is no way to spin that other than say it sucks. “Cottage country bugs in the heart of the city” is not a winning slogan.

Wow nothing since June!!

Wow

I have written, but not here since June. Not like nothing's happened.

In the summer we went to NB and did a coupla impromptu porch concerts.  Got back and I chopped my left hand index finger with a new sharp ax but still had to play a bunch of gigs (solo guitar and duo's with voice) so quite the deal! But I will maybe one day write a piece on MacGyver type solutions for guitarists hands involving crazy glue, sand paper.

At the end of Sept I had my gall bladder out had to bail on 2 gigs and turn one down but that is it. As we live in the age of star trek medicine.

In anticipating the release of  my new CD and the recording of The Burton's CD I have fired up 2 new sites.

For my personal site I have created robertburtonwinnipeg.ca. It is still a work in progress but it has a blahblog, some historical photos, music samples, videos events listings, CD store and will have more of my history, photography and whatever I can't seem to fit onto either riverheightsmusic.com or riverheightsmusicschool.com.

Secondly is theburtonsjazz.ca for the long standing group (15 years and counting) I have maintained with my lovely wife Adelle. It is also a work in progress but has events listed, videos, audio etc.

About the CD

The Left hand Compliment can be read about here and there is a link to buy as well as a sampler.

A brief article in a local paper can be found here.

New Guitar

As well I purchased a new guitar. A Giannini 7 string classical here are a couple of videos with it in used.
First is a single camera take of "A Simple Twist of Fate"

Second is a multi camera (I was trying out Sony Vegas Pro) of "More"

To much camera changing and too short on the fades.
The guitar is not for everything but is pretty mighty.

Ok that is it for now Hopefully I won't take as long next time

2012 Jazz Fest AfterMATH

Well the Fest is over with a whimper. The best and (to my knowledge) the only sold out/non local JAZZ show was Vijay Iyer. At least the early set was sold out I don't know if the second set was as well.

So what else happened?

Phrases in Italic indicate text taken from festival press and ads.

Well Aqua Books bailed on the Fest. Other than slavish loyalty to a business owner who has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, this is not much of a jazz fest issue...stuff happens.

The Bad Bad Not Good, a band of music school drop outs (more famous for slagging their school than their playing) cancelled their entire western 'tour'. Then Rakim was the replacement (a rapper) and he cancelled his entire Canadian tour.

Sure, go ahead, book supposedly trendy, leading edge pop acts, that are so leading edge they have to cancel tours due to poor sales and a lack of interest in general to a JAZZ festival...makes perfect sense.

I talked about this last year in reference to pop acts cancelling mere days after they were announced and the folly of continuing to book here today, gone later today pop acts to a JAZZ festival.

When was the last time a jazz artist cancelled a WPG jazz fest gig?? When the pianist of EST died.

As well right in the middle of Jazz Fest we had MEME. A collection of djs and laptop players (as well as video artists). Not my bag but seems to sound like most of the 135ish BPM dance music that gets run into each other. Either way we clearly have a place for the DJs etc. to get a gig and we have a Jazz fest (with a DJ high up in the organization) booking DJ's and non jazz electronica competing with each other.

That's just stupid.

We have MEME, 2 stations playing 'urban' music 24/7. Year round clubs/festivals/events playing electronica, rock, pop, indie, blues etc. Seriously, it is time to stop competing with other ventures and private business and get back to JAZZ.

Along similar lines we have a new Blues festival  http://winnipegbbqandblues.ca/ Was the need seen because the peg jazz fest (jazz festivals have traditionally had a lot of blues) was light on blues (3 out of 'over 200 artists') I don't know but I'll bet my eye teeth neither the MEME or Blues and BBQ will be booking any jazz.

Only jazz festivals feel the need or insecurity to book other kinds of music and our festival has insecurity to spare.



As anyone trying to pay attention knows; the local fest is not very forth coming with numbers but I do have some.

"They" are already reporting  "more than a dozen sold out performances." Though, with 54 ticketed events, 13 is not a number to brag about. They are also reporting "The Club Series enjoyed its best attendance figures in several years" (like last year that stat is bloated by the 300-500 volunteer/performer free passes).

So we have some of the 'pay to get in' event numbers. Other than set 1 of the aforementioned show it seems NONE of the supposed big draw acts had a sell out and most of jazz acts weren't even close.

Trombone Shorty more R&B than jazz, considered a big draw because they sold out at the WECC  last year.  And typical of the organisers lack of imagination as he was just here last year. This year at the Burton Cummings? 638 tickets short of a sell out (not including the usual freebie give aways)
Gretchen Parlato, At the much smaller WECC, 190 shy of a sellout (not including the give aways)
Shine On also at the WECC 145 short
Delfeayo Marsalis 105 short
Even "the festival’s poster girl, Janelle Monáe, descend (sic) upon the Burt and wow (sic) the near-capacity crowd" was not a sell out. Got close though but she played the MTS center just last year opening for teeny bopper idol Katy Perry you'd think you could get a sellout with that.

Ramsey Lewis and Booker T numbers have not been released and I suspect they never will. If it was a sell out or near enough...we would have been told. The crowd for Lewis were referred to as 'enthusiastic' which is usually code for small.

I have no idea about the numbers for the indiebands, dj's etc. No one in the Winnipeg press community (not even the small indie papers) saw fit to attend and/or review these events.

So what is a sell out to the organisers? Maybe they only intended to sell 2/3rds of the available seats  for Trombone Shorty. Maybe they only needed to sell just over half of the capacity of the WECC for Gretchen Parlato.

My definition of a sellout is the stated capacity of the venue.

Which brings us back to Iyer. Why was this the only sold out, touring, remotely jazz, offering and one of the few sold out shows of any musical stripe?

Perhaps because the venue is small at a capacity of 250. On the other hand the attendance was better in bums in the seats, SRO and percentage than Gretchen Parlato (cross over jazz/funk) Shine On (pop done jazzy) or Delfaeyo Marsalis (real jazz but yet another Marsalis). And if the second set did nearly as well that number might reach 500!

Real, new, original, uncompromising jazz does better than most of the other acts. In a festival that is too big and too lacking in jazz, the jazz fans flocked to the leading edge up and comer. Jazz fans have a knack for rooting out this sort of thing and WPG jazz fans know they need to see something like this because he will still be awe some in years to come but in too much demand internationally to come to our jazz lite fest. (also he will be too jazz for our festival).

Or (yawn) they will book him this winter or next year, put him in a bigger venue, take a bath like they did with JATLC last year or Trombone Shorty this year and then sit back and claim jazz won't sell.

Vijay did well despite flying under the jazz fest's radar.

So for the bazzilionth time in a row they set up the jazz to fail through intent or incompetence.

 The formula

1. have a jazz festival
2. under promote the jazz
3. hype up and over promote the non jazz like putting the main pop act on your main poster
4. watch as most jazz events get under attended and the non jazz do slightly better
5. claim the jazz doesn't sell so they have to have more pop than jazz
6. ignore what works for jazz (like Vijay this year, Gary Burton or SRO Kelly Lee Evans last year)
7. keep up the mantra that we can't support a jazz festival focused on jazz
8. repeat from item 1

insert appropriate Einstein quote here......

On the bright side:

Local jazz singer Jodie Borle needed an extra set added to her night because she actually sold out in advance. A few other locals with devoted followings did well also.

Didn't see any of the dj's, rappers, indie or rock bands needing more time.

Juss Jazz (nick-named Jusst about anything but Jazz) may have seen they can have jazz and some kind of crowds. Not likely but a guy can hope.

And just let you see how comparable cities doing it this year.


In Saskatoon they have taken a step to the dark side with their ticketed events. 17 jazz and 25 non jazz but the scale does tip in their favour as they have 25 jazz appropriate (Jazz Blues Latin) to 17 pop acts (only 2 djs and zero rap hip hop) and they have Wayne Shorter, Benny Green, Dianne Reeves, Bill Frissell. (along with many of the artists we had)

But their free stages (made up of mostly locals) is dominated by jazz groups.


You know the bazillion posters some you might see around the city ( the ones not buried under homemade missing cats and indie or heavy metal concerts? You know, one for every touring performer, mostly of a non jazz nature.

Here is the Edmonton one.

Weird eh?? One poster, only jazz acts promoted.

Another wonderful thing Edmonton does is, rather than be insecure about jazz and pander to non jazz fans,  they try to educate them.

They have a page called Jazz 101 where they give an overview on the wide world of jazz.

On their performing artist list they tell you the type of jazz the artists are playing so if you have never heard of them you can still get an idea of what you are in for.

The huge diversity from Fusion to Dixie should be an eye opener for the local collective.  We  tend to get a lot of the same type of jazz. Lots of standards played standard, lots of cross over jazz/pop and this year, 3 brass based bands doing 5 shows.

Now Edmonton is a slightly bigger city (752,412) vs. our 684,100 but both cities share a sparse population outside the perimeter (look at a map of Edmonton and the layout looks almost like the 'Peg) with the edge going to Edmonton

But their festival is 11 days (1 day longer than ours) but with a mere 47 performers  (VS our 80 ish) at 9 venues (1 less than us) almost all jazz and 100% jazz fest appropriate.

Ya, no way you can have a jazz festival focused on jazz in central Canada.

Winnipeg 2012 Jazz Fest (yawn)

I won't repeat everything I wrote last year about the jazz festival we have this year (so much of it still applies). You can read about it in an earlier post about the jazz fest.

Bluntly I just don't have the time or the energy to do as in depth analysis as last year. I opened a music school , I have 45-50 of my own students and I have 13 gigs (a whack by my standards) between May long weekend and July 1st.

I did promise after the last post not to speak about it until now and that was hard. Why? Because at the end of last year, after deeming the 2011 fest 'one of the best ever', they did something they have never done before. They sent out an email pleading for year end donations to cover the year's losses!!

So, after we are forced to accept our jazz festival as an artistic failure so it can stay afloat financially, we then are forced to accept it is a financial failure??

Seriously, what gall!

Another thing that happened is a local jazz columnist for a major newspaper, printed an article after the fest was over. He asked readers to write in with their thoughts about the amount/lack of jazz at the festival. Well I do not know if anyone but me responded. Or if the response was mostly positive or negative but I do know that there was no follow up article. No story there? Maybe, but maybe the paper that gets ad money and is also a host venue isn't likely to allow a negative article about a festival they generate revenue from.

Lastly, when our festival did published this years schedule; the online version had the wrong dates!...if you can't get that right...

Again, I am not judging the quality of music or musical styles, but how much actual jazz is at the festival.

We can also look at the obvious marketing, social networking and booking blunders they continue to make on the way to creating a financial and artistic failure.

I will no longer be offering ways to improve the festival as I am tired of seeing my ideas implemented (coincidence or not) w/o credit and to the continued benefit of the non jazz acts.

And I promise to stay away from all those analogies!

On with the show

On some days there is no jazz (4) including the first Saturday of the opening weekend. On all but 1 day there is less jazz that any other music (that's 9 out of 10 days with little or no jazz) and that one day (Wednesday...now there's a hot night for jazz!) it is an even split between jazz (if we are generous) and  non jazz.

Even the avowed jazz fest apologists are shaking their heads at this one.

To me it smells of austerity or entropy.

Out of 90 or so events with quite a bit of recycling acts 2 or 3 times (their press release claimed 100 Artists but that is just more snake oil as they took individuals from groups to pad this number...if you can't get that right...) only 23 are firmly jazz. If you include the  stuff the fest is trying to push off as jazz, you might get to 27. Either way it is a JAZZ festival with less than 1/3 jazzish content! Sadly, the same ratio as last year. Again there is more pop music than jazz appropriate events (jazz/latin/blues)

There is no serious international jazz entry. The list of profound jazz artists we could have had (playing at jazz fests in Canada before and after ours) is staggering and depressing.

We were told by the festival director that; he tried to get Wayne Shorter but couldn't get the band together for our fest.  Really?? Wayne Shorter is playing in Saskatoon on Saturday June 23rd. You know the last day of our festival when only 3 out of 11 acts are remotely jazz.

"They" always say they need a big draw pop act to make ends meet but this year they don't have that. (unless you want to pay $46 to hear that Chevy Cruz theme song). It will be interesting to see if that pans out as a lot of the real jazz fests are also having this artist.

In the continuing saga of marketing blunders we still see a heavy reliance on telephone pole posters. Lost your dog or cat sure put up a poster. Trying to advertise a million dollar music festival...get with the times

Winnipeg Jazz Fest's Idea of 21st Century Marketing

We also have the pointless twitter hash tags talking to the choir and the less than useless Facebook event invites. So far I have been invited to 4 jazz events and 10 pop shows. And thanks to the new faceboook event format I am informed every time someone scratches their butt (posts a picture etc.) on an event. So one day I login and I have that red balloon with double digit notifications, all from a handful of (non jazz of course) events. Cripes I can't be the only one totally annoyed by this can I??

I don't know about you, but I got tired of reading the jazz fest site list of performers

Aside for 65-70% of them not being jazz (aren't used to that now?) I tired of the mostly amateurishly written bios, with no website  beyond a myspace, bandcamp, reverbnation or Facebook page (it is the 21st century and you are serious about your music right???). The lame resume padding ('shared the stage with', 'opened for', 'studied with', 'compared to') and bush league promo shots (even one obviously from their parent's basement).

I tired of the pop act bios that read 'genre bending', 'jazz as an influence', 'style blurring', 'defies description'. Especially galling is, that when you go to their respective websites (those that had one) and the acts themselves don't mention that crap. They call it like it is; we're a rock band, we're a soul act, we play R&B, etc.

It is the festival organizers who feel the need to play the snake oil salesmen.


The usual head scratcher of having local acts, of all stripes, you can see for free year round (including the week before, of and after) costing money that week.

We have the same handful of people playing most of the gigs under different leader names. The complete lack of imagination or just plain laziness in booking the local acts. They seem to mostly be the same people over and over in established groups or in thrown together groups with no website and for whom this will be only their 2nd gig in a year! Last year they had 2 local acts for whom the jazz fest was their only gig. If you only went to the jazz fest you'd think Winnipeg had only a handful of musicians. Which, of course, leads to the dearth of talented veteran locals not even having a sideman gig let alone a leader gig. Some of them have put out Cd's this year and, of course, have a real website. I can think of a few people who have 8-9 gigs each at this year's fest while their older wiser teachers have 1 or less.

Sure, the people they seem to favour are good but by no means does this festival represent the depth and variety that is the Winnipeg jazz scene. It's like they have no idea who all the jazz players in this town are.

There's this blunder of having the same acts multiple times! Sometimes for free, sometimes for a fee and sometimes opening for another. This cash strapped festival has to pay these acts multiple times. Seriously, is the plan to give something away for free and then expect people to pay for it?

As well the 'outreach person' spends almost all his time promoting the supposedly money making pop acts and doing a fine job of making people forget there is any jazz at all. Talk about your self fulfilling prophecy!

He also spends a bit of his time being disrespectful online, sometimes during office hours.

Last year there was at least one incident where someone (OK me) asked if the Folk Fest was going to start booking jazz (in response to Jazz Winnipeg booking a Bluegrass group for Feb and announcing and promoting it heavily in June when they should have been promoting their money losing festival) the outreach person logged out of the Jazz Winnipeg Facebook account, logged in with their personal account to offer a rude response. This year one of the performers started a facebook thread decrying BBNG. Not their inclusion to the fest (now cancelled) but their musical validity. This same Jazz Fest employee, during business hours, took the time to slag opinions that didn't mirror his own, put down an established jazz icon and slag Humber college and their graduates. Many who are playing at the festival.

Is this in his job description?

Seriously if I had an employee who was flaming/disrespecting people on behalf of or in the name of my business, during working hours (or anytime)...I would fire his ass.

A real social networking specialist's job is to attract people not piss them off.

As a hold over from previous years I will note that my friends who go to the blatantly non-jazz events have no idea why the jazz fest is having them and the artists themselves will, during their shows, make fun of the jazz festival for having them. If you look at the touring non jazz acts websites they do not have another jazz festival date on their calendar and, in all cases, do not refer to our jazz festival  other than the venue name and date...it's like they are embarrassed.

So am I.

On Becoming a Better Guitar Player

As Barney Kessel said in his video. Music has 3 elements melody, harmony and rhythm. Which ever you are weakest at work on it!
http://www.riverheightsmusicschool.com/Be_a_Better_Guitar_Player.php