Moving to New York as a Jazz Musician

[pamosmusic]

Also, here's one that might come as a surprise: In 2004 we moved out of Brooklyn and into Manhattan...because real estate was more affordable in Manhattan. Take a look at apartments in Washington Heights or Inwood, the northernmost parts of Manhattan island. People forget that there's more to Manhattan if you go north of Harlem, and since the A train runs express all the way up there, you can get to your gig in a Broadway theater or a Greenwich Village jazz club in <45 minutes.

Preach.

Upper upper upper Manhattan rules.

Honorary Outer borough

[MarkL]

...Take a look at apartments in Washington Heights or Inwood, the northernmost parts of Manhattan island. People forget that there's more to Manhattan if you go north of Harlem, and since the A train runs express all the way up there, you can get to your gig in a Broadway theater or a Greenwich Village jazz club in <45 minutes.

Housing costs have risen considerably in upper Manhattan. It's less expensive than south of Harlem, but no longer relatively undiscovered.

[wolflen]

Start somewhere more reasonable like new Orleans or Nashville, work your way up.

Nashville..a guitarist in Nashville..think about that for a bit.

[Freddels]

If you can sight read really well, you can try to network and get sub gigs for Broadway shows. I know two guys who do that and do very well. It's all about networking.

[Hep To The Jive]

I lived in NYC from 2000 through 2023, and before that from 1987 through 1992.
It would be disingenuous to say I was a "jazz musician" ...as a working fulltime professional musician I took any gig I could get, which means Top 40, musical theater, society orchestra/general business, weird original alternative rock, rap/hip-hop, recording sessions for all sorts of commercials and PSAs, you name it. But I also managed to play some jazz, and get paid for it.

For most of these last ~50 years when I wasn't living in NYC I was living in Boston MA, and tbh I sometimes think the gigging opportunities in Boston were as good if not better than those in NYC. You're less likely there to hook up with musicians whose names you recognize from your LP liner notes, but the music was no less challenging or artisitically gratifying. I suspect the rents might be a little lower than NYC currently...but so are the paychecks.

Also, here's one that might come as a surprise: In 2004 we moved out of Brooklyn and into Manhattan...because real estate was more affordable in Manhattan. Take a look at apartments in Washington Heights or Inwood, the northernmost parts of Manhattan island. People forget that there's more to Manhattan if you go north of Harlem, and since the A train runs express all the way up there, you can get to your gig in a Broadway theater or a Greenwich Village jazz club in <45 minutes.

Washington Heights are pretty expensive and has been for many years to my knowledge. Then again, like evrything in NYC it goes from block to block. Broadway divides two territories, and it shows in rent prices. You wanna live on the good side pay premium, or you end up in on the other side where you'll enjoy merengue blasting from big speakers from your neighbors all night long.

I can't recomend enough Queens, especially Astoria or Jackson Heights, where I lived for many years and the commute to downtown is actually faster than from Uptown. The rent is definetely lower too.

[Christian Miller]

I mean there’s literally a musical about the gentrification of Washington Heights lol. Written quite some time ago.


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[RLetson]

I'm told (by a NY upstater familiar with who-lives-where) that Frank Vignola now lives outside of NYC. Just sayin'.

On a more solidly-based note: If you show up in the US with a guitar in hand, you're going to get some probing questions from the immigration people. Visitors on tourist visas who engage in any kind of non-tourist activity (say, taking a paying gig or even babysitting in return for a homestay) have been quite badly treated. And getting a visa that actually allows performing is a lengthy and expensive proposition--this I know from the Canadian and UK musicians our Folk Society books. Or used to book, before the costs exceeded what they could earn on a US tour. (The bureaucratic overhead is also nontrivial.)

A European-based musician looking for new experiences might better look to Canada--Toronto and Vancouver are both big, sophisticated towns, though again it's worth looking into the tourist/working status situation. Bumming around with a guitar isn't as easy as it was when I was a kid. I wish visiting the US were less fraught than it has become.

[DawgBone]

I'd at least consider some other places where the cost of living will be lower, regulation and oversight will be less, and your Irish accent will give you a bigger identity. New Orleans or South Florida. Consider that half of New York lives in south Florida already. I know Canadians without a work visa who have gigged illegally in central/south Florida for going on 20 years, LOL, they just used a handle instead of their actual name.

[DawgBone]

Nashville..a guitarist in Nashville..think about that for a bit.

Been there, done that. Even got told at my first jam "another guitarist, just what Nashville needs" LOL but I still got a warm welcome as IME there aren't really any more friendly large cities than Nashville. There is also no other better city in the world for honing guitar chops than Nashville TN, where even the dude changing your oil who refers to himself as a couch picker will burn you to ashes at an area jam. On the flip side there is also no worse city in the world for trying to make a buck playing guitar. For a short 3-6 month stay in the states it might actually be OP's best option. There aren't many qualms about letting players sit in at gigs that don't pay shit to begin with and you can find country, blues, rock, and jazz there as well as capable fingerstyle and fingerpicking players.

[AllanAllen]

Just to give OP another reality check.

If you do decide on Nashville, here’s a short list of tunes you’ll need to be able to play in whatever key the singer asks.

Nashville'&#39;'s Broadway - playlist by Jack Thomas Ankenbruck | Spotify

[wolflen]

[QUOTE=AllanAllen;1436502]Just to give OP another reality check.

If you do decide on Nashville, here’s a short list of tunes you’ll need to be able to play in whatever key the singer asks.

Always like these guys..

[DawgBone]

Just to give OP another reality check.

If you do decide on Nashville, here’s a short list of tunes you’ll need to be able to play in whatever key the singer asks.

Nashville'''s Broadway - playlist by Jack Thomas Ankenbruck | Spotify

Lol, that's like a master list of songs I never want to hear again.

[AllanAllen]

Lol, that's like a master list of songs I never want to hear again.

Yeah, professional musician is pretty far from playing what you want, when you want to do it.

[joe2758]

Just to give OP another reality check.

If you do decide on Nashville, here’s a short list of tunes you’ll need to be able to play in whatever key the singer asks.

Nashville'''s Broadway - playlist by Jack Thomas Ankenbruck | Spotify

So Hell is what you're saying then?

[pamosmusic]

So Hell is what you're saying then?

I don't know man. Ditch the Morgan Wallen and that's a pretty solid party playlist for me.

[joe2758]

I don't know man. Ditch the Morgan Wallen and that's a pretty solid party playlist for me.

red solo cup it is then

[JGinNJ]

Here's a really good resource for who's playing the clubs, etc.
https://nycjazzrecord.com/

The OP hasn't been seen since, but maybe this will clue him in what the scene is.

[Fusionshred]

Dude you could live in Paris, you're in the EU, literally zero work issues, it's fucking Paris, women are beautiful and charming, food is cheap and amazing, it's fucking PARIS, the standards of guitar playing are as high there as anywhere, living afaik is much cheaper than the US, players get paid for gigs it seems.

Not saying it's easy to be a musician in Paris but if I could choose between Paris and NYC it would be Paris in 2 seconds.

In the US we live like rats, and not the good kind.

Yeah, the Good Rats were from Long Island!

[sgcim]

Forget about jazz musicians, even my Urologist told me the other day that this would be my last appt. with him, because he can't afford to live in NY anymore, and he's moving back to someplace just outside Philly!

[MarkL]

I haven't practiced urology, but that seems much less fun than playing jazz. Nothing against urologists, but I'd need to live much more comfortably to justify doing that all day.

[Jimmy Mack]

Our bass-layer lives on the Upper Upper West Side, Inwood I believe.
He hates the commute to get just to midtown Manhattan.
One Express train that is often "out of service" esp on weekends. The Local train is slow slow slow (when it's running).
Undesirable people on the trains usually.

"Best city in the world". Yeah right!

Ah but to live in Paris !!!!!!!!!!!

[Hep To The Jive]

Our bass-layer lives on the Upper Upper West Side, Inwood I believe.
He hates the commute to get just to midtown Manhattan.
One Express train that is often "out of service" esp on weekends. The Local train is slow slow slow (when it's running).
Undesirable people on the trains usually.

"Best city in the world". Yeah right!

Ah but to live in Paris !!!!!!!!!!!

Yea, Take The A Train sounded like a joke on weekends, good luck with that lol. Also the stinkiest. In 2000's I remember a commuter made a joke, when the doors opened and there was only one homeless guy in a car with unbearable stench, he said you need to send that one in Iraq we'll win the war in a second haha.

That's why Queens is so much better.

[John A.]

I lived in NYC from 2000 through 2023, and before that from 1987 through 1992.
It would be disingenuous to say I was a "jazz musician" ...as a working fulltime professional musician I took any gig I could get, which means Top 40, musical theater, society orchestra/general business, weird original alternative rock, rap/hip-hop, recording sessions for all sorts of commercials and PSAs, you name it. But I also managed to play some jazz, and get paid for it.

For most of these last ~50 years when I wasn't living in NYC I was living in Boston MA, and tbh I sometimes think the gigging opportunities in Boston were as good if not better than those in NYC. You're less likely there to hook up with musicians whose names you recognize from your LP liner notes, but the music was no less challenging or artisitically gratifying. I suspect the rents might be a little lower than NYC currently...but so are the paychecks.

Also, here's one that might come as a surprise: In 2004 we moved out of Brooklyn and into Manhattan...because real estate was more affordable in Manhattan. Take a look at apartments in Washington Heights or Inwood, the northernmost parts of Manhattan island. People forget that there's more to Manhattan if you go north of Harlem, and since the A train runs express all the way up there, you can get to your gig in a Broadway theater or a Greenwich Village jazz club in <45 minutes.

I live in Washington Heights, been here for 23 years. The cat’s out of the bag as far as housing costs go. Still the cheapest nabe in Manhattan, but not by much anymore.

[DawgBone]

I live in Washington Heights, been here for 23 years. The cat’s out of the bag as far as housing costs go. Still the cheapest nabe in Manhattan, but not by much anymore.

Just out of curiosity I looked at real estate around NYC. The cheapest place I could find in Washington Heights was just under 500k. Wow. I looked at Queens and Harlem. Most of the places in my price range were apartments that are a little larger than my shed, lol. I guess it's a different way of life there. Probably not one I could acclimate very well to but I suppose it has it's upsides, like decent pizza within walking distance. I'd have to leave the state of Texas to find that.

[pamosmusic]

Just out of curiosity I looked at real estate around NYC. The cheapest place I could find in Washington Heights was just under 500k. Wow. I looked at Queens and Harlem. Most of the places in my price range were apartments that are a little larger than my shed, lol. I guess it's a different way of life there. Probably not one I could acclimate very well to but I suppose it has it's upsides, like decent pizza within walking distance. I'd have to leave the state of Texas to find that.

Yeah … I mean the deal is live in the outer boroughs or way upper Manhattan where it’s very expensive but at least plausibly affordable. Because most (not all, but most) jobs in New York pay WAY more than comparable jobs in other places.

Its getting harder and harder to make that math work these days though.