PLAYING JAZZ AND MAKING A LIVING

[randissimo]

Did any of you catch this program Thursday on Talk Of The Nation? It deals with some interesting issues, especially for the veteran jazz musicians...

Here's the link for the program:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4632126

Edited May 6, 2005 by randissimo

[SGUD missile]

Theres some really scary stuff there ..I've sent this to every musician I know ( and everyone teaching in a jazz program to make their sudents read this ).

Not that very many jazz guys get rich ( or even manage to keep scoring a livable wage ) but the fact that there is NO safety net back there for most players should provoke all of ya'll yo do something about security issues sooner .. rather than later.

I consider myself lucky, because like many of the guys of my generation, I have some money coming in from the AFM pension program in addition to their Social Security ..however, it should be noted that the AFM pension contributions basically came from the NON JAZZ gigs we did: shows, recording, jingles, film dates, etc.

The other interesting ( scary ) points made here are about the intellectual property aspects of the wholesale ripping off of the jazz musician commmunity by the early "jazz" labels.