That dude on the left is not really Greek.
With rehearsals finished, we're down to the final prep for our show this Friday. Black House performances are typically pretty low-maintenence by design, but the opportunity to use the La Esquina art gallery comes with a few more logistical concerns; moving to the gallery has been a little intimidating. As Marlo from the "The Wire" says: "Sounds like one of them good problems." This Sunday's rehearsal was easily the best final rehearsal we've ever had, which is a big confidence boost.
The show will begin at 7:00 p.m. with a performance by Russell Thorpe's Phonologotronic. Speaking as his friend and collaborator, I have to say that it's been really gratifying to see him step out and put together a group with such a clear artistic vision. Following that will be Ryan Heinlein's Project H. I invite everyone to check out our previous interview with Ryan for more info about him and the band. I've enjoyed the recordings I've heard and am excited to see them live. At around 8:00 p.m. will be my project, Hominid, which will include a film collaboration with Sean Church. I've never worked with video before and it's been fun to work with the differences in medium and process. This will be our second performance as a group and as Russell put it, I've been "patient" in my development of the group, which really means I've been super slow. For those of you saw our first performance, this Friday will be all new material.
I attended a dinner party with a few local musicians last week and we broached the topic of the business of music fairly quickly. The news that the premier jazz club in town has dropped their pay has made the entire jazz musician community take a hard look at their business model. A lot of musicians feel differently about this issue and it seems that age plays a big role in perspective. Older, more established players are concerned with younger players playing for little or no money which drives down the pay for everyone. The younger players are simply trying to find places to play and taking whatever they can find.
There are a lot of factors that have created this situation but the solution is simply to grow the audience. We as musicians have to take responsibility for bringing people to the music so it can have a chance. We have to stop acting like it's the club's job to provide us with an audience or that the government needs to have educated them 15 years ago so that they think we're relevent. We need to BE relevant.
Obviously if I had already figured this out I wouldn't spend 40 hours a week in a call center, but I want to challenge my fellow musicians and let them know that BHIC is committed to helping all of us meet this challenge.
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