Jazz T Shirts, or lack thereof

[Rabshakeh]

I recently bought a great Brotzmann t shirt, white with the cover of Balls reproduced. There has also been talk recently about the Uniqlo Blue Note t shirts. These look great, unsurprisingly, given that jazz is well known for its imagery.

But for whatever reason, there doesn't seem to be much of a jazz clothing merchandise culture.

When one goes to rock concerts, there is always a merchandise stand selling t shirts. As I understand it, it is one of the main ways that bands make money these days. 

You have the same stalls at jazz gigs, but it's just CDs and vinyl. 

I'd love to wander around with a moody Mal Waldron t shirt or a super-colourful Decoding Society thing.

But it's hard to find these things, even on the internet.

Not much a question here. It's more befuddlement as to why jazz artists don't sell t shirts.

[JSngry]

Billy Harper used to sell t-shirts. I had one. 

[Ken Dryden]

It’s been awhile since I have received a promotional t shirt in a cd promotional mailing.

Maybe they will start sending t shirt downloads with the music to save money…

1 hour ago, Rabshakeh said:

I recently bought a great Brotzmann t shirt, white with the cover of Balls reproduced. There has also been talk recently about the Uniqlo Blue Note t shirts. These look great, unsurprisingly, given that jazz is well known for its imagery.

But for whatever reason, there doesn't seem to be much of a jazz clothing merchandise culture.

When one goes to rock concerts, there is always a merchandise stand selling t shirts. As I understand it, it is one of the main ways that bands make money these days. 

You have the same stalls at jazz gigs, but it's just CDs and vinyl. 

I'd love to wander around with a moody Mal Waldron t shirt or a super-colourful Decoding Society thing.

But it's hard to find these things, even on the internet.

Not much a question here. It's more befuddlement as to why jazz artists don't sell t shirts.

Frankly I am surprised that more artists don’t have tables set up with CDs for sale. When the artist doesn’t have an early morning flight the next day, it is worthwhile to sign CDs and chat with concertgoers. In many cases it is worth having some earlier releases for sale as well, I have been known to spend $80 to $100 for titles I missed or occasionally buy gifts for friends with me.

[Dmitry]

There are lots and lots of jazz-related t-shirts on eBay, mostly the icons. I don't have the desire to buy a Bill Evans shirt to make everyone around me know that I'm a fan. 

I see t-shirts sold at gigs sometimes, but it's usually not something I'd wear, although I did buy the Mingus Big Band shirt last year(or was it the year prior) at the centennial. Many, if not most jazz clubs and record stores sell t-shirts with their imagery. I have several. 

I give my old, worn and holed music-related t-shirts to my daughter. She has no interest in the musicians and bands pictured on the shirts (like Floyd, Stones, some alternative stuff from way back), but likes to wear vintage clothing, and regularly shops at Savers, along with her girlfriends. Sometimes she brings home cool things from a long time ago, when I was young.

 

[jazzbo]

I hadn't thought about this. I wonder if it's a case of "demand." I do know some jazz fans who. . .wouldn't wear a t-shirt of a jazz artist. They dress a little bit more. . .refined.

Myself, I appreciate a good t-shirt with printing but so much more often I wear a plain colored t-shirt of which I have a spread of colors available. When I have a really nice printed t-shirt, such as the four Uniquo that I have. . . I worry about harming the printing in use or washing. I find I don't wear them as often as I imagine I would when I buy them.

[JSngry]

I have and wear a Nessa t-shirt. 

[Rabshakeh]

1 hour ago, jazzbo said:

I do know some jazz fans who. . .wouldn't wear a t-shirt of a jazz artist. They dress a little bit more. . .refined.

Very different to some rock concerts, where there is any choice of t shirt as long as it is black and XXXL.

Maybe jazz musicians could sell bow ties.

Edited June 28, 2023 by Rabshakeh

[jazzbo]

My rock concert days were before the heavy merch days. Long ago, far away. Not sure about bow ties.

 

[Dmitry]

The only t-shirt I have that I haven't worn is one I bought ca.1997 at the original Iridium, where Les Paul had his weekly gig in the last years of his life. He signed the t-shirt for me in black marker. It says: HOWDY DMITRY! LES PAUL.

 

 

 

[JSngry]

Bow ties are very NOI!!! 

[clifford_thornton]

I have a ton of indie rock t shirts kicking around. 

Ben Hall made some neat Coltrane & Ornette t's recently, the latter a mashup of Ornette & the Misfits' Fiend Club design.

I used to have a pretty nice ESP-Disk' shirt but it became more hole than fabric over the years.

[jlhoots]

I had a McCoy Tyner world tour t-shirt many years ago.

 

[Justin V]

Steve Turre was selling shirts at a recent gig.

[Rooster_Ties]

I have several from DJTees in the UK, specifically these four (4) -- all of them surprisingly outstanding quality...

https://www.djtees.com/products/grant-green-green-street-t-shirt

https://www.djtees.com/products/donald-byrd-electric-byrd-t-shirt

https://www.djtees.com/products/miles-davis-birth-of-the-cool-t-shirt

https://www.djtees.com/products/theloneus-monk-genius-of-modern-music-t-shirt

NOTE:  You might notice they have "Thelonious" spelled wrong in the URL for the "Genius of Modern Music" shirt (as "Theloneus") -- but it's correct on the shirt (and that's the correct and only URL for the shirt).  So if you are searching for Monk shirts, just put "Monk" only in the search bar (otherwise "Genius" won't come back in your search results).  And they do have a few other Monk shirts, and another Grant Green, a few more Miles, and also one (or two?) Herbie Hancock shirts.  Also Gil Evans "Individualism".

They don't have a lot of jazz stuff, but what they do have is really, REALLY nice -- particularly the album covers that have a lot of black on them to begin with... if you get them on a black shirt, then they ONLY print the non-black parts of the album cover on the shirt (so you DON'T get one big square of ink/transfer -- you only get the non-black parts of the cover).  The Monk "Genius", Miles "BotC" and Grant Green "Green Street" shirts in particular are about as nice as anything I've ever seen.

https://www.djtees.com/collections/blues-soul-folk-jazz

I'm not 100% sure all their jazz shirts come up under this blues-soul-folk-jazz subcategory, so you might also do some searching on a few names too in their search engine.

I've bought 2 orders from them -- with 3 shirts on each order both times.  Searching for "DJTees Coupon Code" on Google, and you'll probably find a 20% or even 25% off coupon -- I did both(!!) times.  AND, the sweet spot for shipping is three (3) shirts (also, that was the minimum I could buy in order to use the coupon code) -- but with the coupon code, I ended up paying like $59 for three shirts (including shipping) -- both times.  In other words, just a hair under $20 per shirt.

If anyone gets serious about buying from them, and can't find a coupon code, lemme know and I'll see if I have any luck finding another one.  I'm pretty sure it ended up saving me almost $20 both times -- enough that I basically got 2 free shirts out of it.  And, also shockingly, their shipping charges from the UK to the US were dirt cheap.  Like $7 for 3 shirts, iirc.  I think(?) I worked it out to the penny in the Uniqlo thread.

EDIT: To say I would definitely buy more from them in the future, even without an online coupon code. For being (presumably?) unlicensed product, I was half blown away by the quality, which I would rate as being a solid 8/10 (the Uniqlo shirts might be just slightly better, 9/10).

And the sizes ran ‘true’ too — I got XL, and they fit comfortably while not being overly large (fwiw, I’m 5’10” and weigh about 220 lbs). Decently heavy fabric too, excellent quality. Should last 20 years if (as I do) you only dry them on low 20 minutes, and then hang them on a drying rack until completely dry.

Edited June 28, 2023 by Rooster_Ties

[Gheorghe]

I have a black Miles Davis sweater from the early 80´s and I still wear it.

And I have a black long-arm shirt SUN RA which I often wear, but not on gigs, where I prefer casual business, but when I go to a club just to listen....

[ghost of miles]

I have a black version of this t-shirt, which came from the Coltrane church in San Francisco:

 

I still have a Great Day in Harlem t-shirt and a Lester Young one as well that date back to the late 1990s. There was a company that used to run ads in DownBeat and JazzTimes selling lots of t-shirts featuring various jazz icons, but I haven’t seen those ads in quite a few years. 

[Jason Bivins]

Currently wearing a Monk at the Blackhawk shirt, courtesy of (as RT sez) DJTees. Got a Mahavishnu one from Etsy too.