Opportunity Knockers

The floor of the music industry is littered with toys. They are strewn everywhere. They have been thrown out of prams across all the genres for as long as there has been an industry, but lately it seems things are reaching new heights of disquiet.

These observations arose from a simple, but, I like to think, pithy and incisive Facebook status update I posted a little earlier.
Here it is in case you missed it:

'Opportunities come and go. Everything and everybody has their time. Be as prepared as you can be in order to maximise your opportunity to do something lasting when the time comes, which it will if you try hard enough for long enough. Style changes, but substance sticks'.

There has been enough hot air spouted on the internet of late to make a serious and lasting impact on climate change. Dangerous levels of methane from the collective back passage of the UK dairy herd are as nothing compared to the clouds of flatus that have taken to the air just recently. This leads me back to some of the points I made in an earlier but largely unrelated post.

Nobody is compelled to pursue music as a profession. Other career options are available.

Having chosen music as a profession entitles you to nothing. There are no points to be scored for 'suffering for your art'. It is entirely your choice. Some of the greatest artists in history have understood the importance of diversification in order to survive, whether it be Michelangelo designing the tomb of Pope Julius II or Benny Carter writing a movie score.
Talent alone is insufficient, in fact it could be said that to lack the ability to understand the pressures of the big bad world outside of the practice room is to be deficient in a specific and necessary talent.

Personally I never bought into that 'I'll only play jazz' argument; it makes about as much sense as limiting yourself to a specific tempo or key signature if you stop to think about it. I've played all manner of styles and genres with musicians of every stripe. I like to think that having done this has given me a breadth of experience and hopefully a nominal amount of wisdom and insight that informs what I do. In short, I play good music with good musicians. It's a privilege to be able to do so.
Having said that I'd rather play jazz than pretty much anything else but the simple truth is that there are not, and never have been any fortunes to be made from playing jazz. One of the best and most visible British jazz drummers of recent times was the late, great Martin Drew. There seemed to be a period back in the late 70s and early 80s when the Oscar Peterson trio, with Martin on drums were on every show on television. Rumour has it that they even made a guest appearance in an episode of 'Crossroads' although I am unable to verify this at the time of writing. Some years later I was fortunate enough to become friends with Martin, and he invited me to his house to hang out. I was astounded. I had expected a six bedroom detached with an in and out driveway! Far from it.

Jazz has a long history in the UK, even predating the factional years of the 1940s with Ken Colyer and his revivalist acolytes on one side of the fence and the young turks of the Club 11 on the other. Jazz flourished in the pre rock and roll era in the UK as never before or since. Whilst this was by no means the birth of jazz in the UK, this era defined and shaped the British scene. There is a direct lineage between the boom time of 55-60 years ago and the British jazz scene of today. Trendy media darlings will try to blind you with their revisionist smokescreen and their naive quasi political agenda but don't be deceived. Case in point. A three hour documentary tracing the development of British jazz completely ignored Dick Morrissey. In case you've forgotten or never knew Dick was one of the best, most prolific and popular jazz musicians this country has ever produced, but oddly in this particular instance he was erased from history in favour of those who are perhaps deemed by some to be more 'edgy'. So when the tyros and the wannabes and a few of the 'never weres' who have taken more than they have contributed talk about being overlooked I frankly fail to see their point. Perhaps it is a desperate attempt at attention seeking (what they would call 'raising awareness' of course), or purporting to pursue a moral crusade which actually boils down to "why don't I get more gigs?"

There are many answers to the above question. First among which is that the audience for jazz is diminishing. We mostly play to an ageing demographic, a good many of whom lived through the boom time of six decades ago. This audience is not being replaced or replenished. Mostly this is because of the marginalisation of jazz in print and broadcast media, but who is to blame for that? If your set consists of original compositions lasting 15 minutes each which have no resonance with a general audience then don't be surprised to find yourself marginalised. And please don't blame it on somebody else! The audience is waiting for you to communicate with them, to create some rapport. There was only one Miles Davis and even he didn't always get it right.

Never stop developing your craft. Recognition should not be the barometer by which you measure your achievement. Jazz is about being in it for the long haul. I'm a better musician than I was ten years ago. I hope you are too.

If you have embarked on a career in jazz hoping for money, fame or overnight success, stop immediately and do something else.

Compromise. It's not a dirty word. See it as an astute business move. A very wise promoter told me years ago when we first took the big band out on the road;
"Play one for you and one for them".
He was right. Back in those days we used to play a great arrangement of 'A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square'. It was a sophisticated, angular and deeply left-field chart, but even the most mainstream punters loved it because they knew the tune. Some of them were even able to recognise it. In 2007 when I first put a 'tribute' formula in front of an audience our attendances doubled overnight. One of the outcomes of this is that sales of our three albums of original music have increased to unprecedented levels.

Be patient. Apart from a little bit of very fleeting attention in my middle teens I got practically nowhere in the jazz industry until 1995. In the space of a couple of weeks I embarked on a near full time road gig with a well-known British jazz artist and the first London edition of my big band came together and played for the first time. I was already 32 by this point.

Be mindful of how you deal with people. It's a business. Treating people with respect will enable you to stay in business. Or flourish, maybe. It doesn't mean you need to be obsequious, that's just as unappealing. While you're at it never forget who might be watching you. An internationally acclaimed British musician said some years ago,
"Play so well that people just can't ignore you".

So if you're feeling down because your current musical circumstance doesn't exactly tick your boxes, take a moment  and be thankful for what you have. Opportunities are there for the taking. If you blow it, don't blame somebody else. Being a good musician is only the start of it, and don't ever forget that somebody out there somewhere doesn't have a gig tonight, and they play better than you!