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Sure. Whatever.
I think I'll skip the sleazeball performer stories today.
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06-14-2020 01:33 PM
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#4 are much of what I'm talking about when it comes to the actual life of a working musician.
I would like to add that I never was helped by the Musicians Union. Not even when I had a major contract with Target and the Timberwolves Pro Basketball team.
In fact we were fired because we ate up their INDOOR ADVERTISING REVENUE!
Our playing in between breaks of the game felt took away from the Scoreboard Advertisers.
Truly the quote by Hunter S Thompson about a musicians life is spot on! If you are unaware of this, please Google it.
By the way I was one of the lucky ones who actually made an income from Music,albeit a very poor one,lol!
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Weee
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Well, if you're saying that the difference between pro and amateur is the repeated experience of difficulty in collecting your fee, well, why didn't you say that in the first place?
Until you've faced down the demon of uncollected fees, you're an amateur.
I think I'm kidding.
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Originally Posted by Lobomov
Well, L,
I believe there are some who love the virtual world more than the real world. And, it's not surprising since successive generations have been reared on the vicarious experience of 9 million channel TV, videos, computer games, virtual reality, and online universities at the expense of first-hand experience. I don't know their work(Martin/Tom) but if they have made their living on YT and have not played in clubs/toured, they may have made more money but they missed one of the great experiences for a musician: playing live before a crowd and/or on the road. However, for me, the idea of making a living as a performing musician ,for all but the most gifted, is a sad pipe dream, at best. No betting man in his mind would take those odds today. Sad. But, for me, it shows in the mechanical/studied/predictable playing of many contemporary musicians/performers. They play the notes. And, their music is dead as their lives. Good playing . . . Marinero
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It just occurred to me, I think your definition of performer is really closer to that of an entertainer.
And your oddly narrow definition of musician, is really a musician who can read music.
I don't think anyone thinks your definition of musician is demeaning or critical as much as it just arbitrarily narrow.
You can be a musician or an entertainer (read: performer). Or both as they are not mutually exclusive.
There are plenty of musicians who do not entertain, maybe they are more "artistic", or they simply compose music but never perform for an audience or they do play live but are really uningaging to watch.
There are plenty of musicians who perform live and on YouTube. Again, not mutually exclusive. It is another revenue stream. One that requires different skills than playing for a live audience.
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10-12 thousand estimated hrs of stage performance,
never been stiffed, yet I play only exclusively by ear.
Maybe the music readers have got it all backwards?
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Originally Posted by Marinero
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Tom Quayle is a fine player! But he probably hasn't had the chance to actually play with other bands and different musical situations for years on end in a live setting or studio setting. And again this is because of the dynamics of the business.
He's also one the few who has superior skill set as far as technique and harmonic vocabulary as well. When playing solo, or with backing tracks you predetermine your own performance. As opposed to react to unknown improvisation of the other musicians. And again Tom Quayle is one of the few I speak of when saying great inate talent and great time feel.
He eats ,lives and breathes music, and is not an amateur hobbyist!
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hmmmm, marinero , this is one of those things like your organ grinder musician , monkey performer, where in actuality the organ grinder is controling everything anyway.
baby huey ? wasnt ron kaplan the agent at that time ? i went to a semester at the american concervatory also , james duttun . learned a lot of things from him that were invaluble to write some primitive stuff that i would take to unbeleivably talented people to reharmonise . and , tried to tighten up my reading , which i dabbled in before . i left because i was learning a lot more about music playing with top leval black jazz musicians on the west and south sides of chicago . i had played in varius black soul bands on boogaloo congas , in the ghettos of chicago , where i was the only white guy , a reoccuring theme in my life , my last gig i was the only white guy playing in pelorinho with some guys from olodum . but this was real deal older black jazz musicians
that was as much my music education , playing in black bands in black clubs, as any music school , more so . of course my goal to get my reading up was to expand profesional gigs. as much as anything, doing lots and lots of peoples demos , was a great reading chop builder , and its everybodies crazy charts , not perfect academy charts, and you are sight reading each new song. the more you do it over and over, the more accostomed you get to hooking up feeling with what is written out on the page . id get jingles and a few record dates you had to read ,as i went along. chicago , the hights as a profesional seem to be jingles and ramsey lewis or the chicago symphany orchestra. when the upper echolons in chicago started whipering about nashville, i knew i had to get out to the modal bop , clave and hip hop breakdance of new york
of course, the imposable goal was to be like harvey mason or steve gadd , getting called on the top dates as the best in demand side man who could read fly crap . i never got pleasure doing reading dates . i have read a dance concert in the pit every step and you cant watch the dancers and it is so cold compared to performing with a samba dancer in the moment , hooking up with their solo. there is no comparison . the gigs where i had to read a lot , they never had the rush i got from doing a real feeling hard swinging playing gig. never the rush, the after glow that carries into the next day. its like this execution thing you have to pay attention to and not let your intuition take over. i dont care how you slice it, if you are reading, you are not totaly plugged into your intuition . and i entered music to feel it and be in touch with my intuition. the very best readers have mastered the art of the ilusion that they are playing like they are in the moment but are reading
there is reading and then there is more intence reading and then there is fly crap reading. im definitly not a fly crap reader, nor do i aspire to be one. ive been next to them , and the skill is envious . ive lost maybe three gigs from realising the charts were too diificult to undertake and the situation was not worth it to go through the headache and pain of struggling a few nights with bad music.
one gig i didnt get, it was with an idol , i got an audition , got to play stella by starlight with my idol and he was sick , and then struggled a little with a chart. their manager called to say they really liked me and to be ready if they called but they went with someone else. sure, maybe my moment with the chart hampered somewhat, but, they had me on standby , so it didnt seem to be an issue. and, for sure, maybe never having a fly crap reading reputation , other gigs would have escaped me. but some of my top gigs were auditions i got and got the gig. the best gigs i have had , reading wasnt the most important thing if an issue at all.
now, i do expect people i hire to play my shows, to be able to read my charts, how is that for dichotomy ? or , i bend with their limitations. i also cant do up bop if they cant do it
its funny too, lots of really good readers coming out of academy , cant cut basic bandstand tricks and listening . they have good time , but cant groove. they know how to read but cant listen. they can trascribe but cant hold the form. i hired one guy to play a gig and he could play the solo of miles davis on so what he learned transcribing, had a bachelors in music from the academy, but couldnt hold the form. but, he could read, play flamenco really well, play some classical guitar, knew jazz standards and brazilian music , but, didnt get that holding the form in a song like so what is about as important as anything. i actualy find i have to retrain peopel coming out of music school
you mention these names, marinero , rachmaninoff , the others, like they are on another leval, but , none of them could play rebirth with mccoy tyner, and mccoy can read and play classical music, not on the leval of them though. im not sure why you are convinced any educated reader can swing, just like reading, there are various degrees of swing . a lounge band or vegas big band is not the same as with a top leval killer player calling off a ridiculously fast up tempo, and i was very well trained to deal with that , and it was because i wanted that . yes, there are vegas bands where there are great players who can cut up tempo modal bop, but, out of the studios i worked in with lots of people like at a marty rubinstein jingle , where you better be on the chart or you will stick out, most of them couldnt cut an up with dr lonnie smith
ive been in the union too, two countries and four cities , and, they didnt do anything for me. sure the jingles i did with ken nordine, an incredble guy, or marty rubinststein , were union scale , and some other jobs, but, mostly they dont do anything. as a matter of fact, twice in my life in two differant countries , at gigs i got that were off the door , doing my original music, the sobs vamped on me to get money they didnt have one thing to do with getting me paid.
now , i do sympathise with the profesional ethic, because i truly lived it. if i start naming the names, and experiances, this is going to be a very very long post. the music business is the worst business, it isnt even good capitalism , its more cronyism , monopolies, who owns the ball , rip offs rip offs rip offs. its deeply deeply competitive and more hiarcial than anything , even small cities and hobbiests , get hiarcial , sometimes more than the heavy real deal. talent doent get you the gig, hustling and luck gets you the gig. on the big time leval, there are hundreds of really talented people in line
but, very early on, i realised, more than just work as a pro, which i did, the whole bit , 6 nights , 6 sets, national international tours , studio etc that what i wanted most was to put my vision out there. i beleived i was as good as anyone out there , not better, which may be the differance from somebody getting the brass ring, but, i knew the business was bs and hiarcial and wasnt open so i knew i would be doing it myself , parallel to working for other people .
this point where you take your material and vision and do it and then the most important part, put it into the arena to compete, is at my 70 years, the reason i entered this business. each step, making my first record, going to new york , distributing the product, getting airplay for the product , a serious hustle and hard nut to crack but i got airplay , and a fair amount and have heard my music on the radio. then booking my vision, yes, hating the club owners and festival promoters and their utter bs, and renting my own space and doing my own promotion...etc this is where i jetison my self away from being a profesional sideman . i watched all those jingle people in chicago, and they made huge checks , who did it full time in the higher echolon, and, they never wanted to do their music. they had psyched themselves into thinking that if it didnt pay them , it wasnt worth it. or you hear some studio ace , putting out their record and it isnt playing , its comercial because they hope to hit it big as the people they work for , but they never do get it.
my most important legacy isnt the sideman gigs i did, but , i love them and have documented a few of them and they are really killing , its my music and vision that i documented and entered into the market and competed. its the two records i charted on the world music billboard charts with the biggest pay checks i ever got in my time in the business. its a string of records and youtubes that really puts my vision out there and the four records i did that were picked up by other lablels and re released , that i get occaisional pay checks for. i didnt get rich from any of this, i live a modest life , no car, i dont do lots of partying and spending except for my lable and production company . these are some of the things i am most gratified about as being a musician , and i feel as alive and in the competition fighting for my vision as ever in my life, im not hanging up the spurs and watching from a distance , and yeah, maybe im a crazy old fool legend in my own mind, just dont wake me up, because what a way to go out...but for all intensive purposes in the radar of the "music business" i am off the radar and irrelevant.but another thing i learned in all my sideman days, while there are huge amonts of bad musicians, there are also huge amounts of great musicians , who are skinning the cat in a lot of ways.
it just seems there are more complex dynamics in this theory you put out here , but i hear what you are saying, and jad and the other pros and not pros. i envy the people who dont do this for a business and have the innocent new freshness of just playing what they want , i am actualy trying to play what i want now, but, im entering it into the arena , so , its going to get knocked on the ground and get dirty
yes, i saw my thread about officer daivid dorn taken down, when i had no bad words or attitudes but was pointing out the truth, and just for pointing out the truth and just like the pandemic truth i pointed out that just became reality , it just get belittled and eventualy censored , because there are people who cant handle the truth. you all let me know when we can have the real discusion of what is going on out here, with out having to grunt at me or run away or censure me, and you might find out things you didnt know were going on......what a drag to censure me, you cant shame me on that shit, i dont do guilt well , and i dont cowtow to the moment where you better get on our knee or you just dont count...but, i can see this thread deserves various insights to make some sence
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Originally Posted by Littlemark
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Originally Posted by pauln
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:For you Marinero .. Rumor has it that Tom suffers from bad nerves .. so 30 years ago a talent like his would have gone unnoticed. Luckily these days he can put himself out there from the comfort of his own home and still get recognition." Lobomov
Hi, L,
Do you mean what we used to call "stage fright" during the Pleistocene? Good playing . . . Marinero
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Good or Bad the Old Days you had to preform in the moment! And improvisation was much more abundant in Pop live performances as well. This is another problem with the newer generation that absolutely drives me crazy!
Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Police,etc couldn't perform the same exact studio versions of their songs. So they would embellish certain things like leaving the frosting out and replace it with solos etc.
This is very much in keeping with the Jazz Improvisation Spirit. And we always looked forward to seeing the live versions because of it. Why would you go to see something with no excitement or chance taking? How boring, like going to a pre ordained car race,
But nowadays it's replaced with Visual Experiences that supposedly enhance the Backing Tracks,YUCK! I don't even care if it's Brittany Spears or Bruce Springsteen. It SUCKS!
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Originally Posted by Marinero
What's your dealio?
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I'm having a hard time understanding this sentence:
Originally Posted by Marinero
Ritmo: nice to see you back. I was starting to worry what with the news coming out of Brazil these days.
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Sting not using Jazz Improvisation ? Heavy, I say! Why on earth would he hire the best Jazz Musicians of his era to play live or on records with him then?
Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland, Omar Hakim, Darryl Jones, Vinnie Caliuta, David Sancious, etc! Why not save the money and hire non credentialed musicians who who work for way less?
Not saying they didn't follow a script of sorts, but no improv? Really?
A freind of mine who played with Johnny Lang some years ago was a supporting act for Sting for a tour. I'LL ask him and get his opinion and report back.
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Originally Posted by Lobomov
It bothers me tbh that his gig seems to be to sell gear and jam along with bland fusion backing tracks. But maybe that’s what guitar playing is now.
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Originally Posted by Lobomov
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Special dedication to Jads and Marinero;
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Originally Posted by Marinero
Someone who can't read music reading music?
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Two men in a room playing How Insensitive without a trace of emotion, as if it were a duty; filmed by two others, who in turn are filmed; I found it rather sinister.
Compare and contrast:
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Learn standards in all 12 keys. Play at 300 BPM.
Go play smooth jazz..
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Originally Posted by Stevebol
What a way to start my morning! I'm heading now to get my black cabretta leather jacket and black wool beret from the closet. . . on second thought, it's 90 degrees today and I'll have to wait until Fall. Thanks, S . . . nothing like some Funk. Good playing . . . MarineroLast edited by Marinero; 06-15-2020 at 09:57 AM. Reason: spelling
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"Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Police,etc couldn't perform the same exact studio versions of their songs. So they would embellish certain things like leaving the frosting out and replace it with solos etc." Jads
Hi, J,
That's because they were performers and had thousands of gigs under their belt. It's what you have to do when you play live unless your reading charts. When I soloed in my bands, I always tried to bring something fresh . .. however, the reality is that you usually played the same basic solo with some new embellishments. Good playing . . . Marinero
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