Reprinted
from Practice Magazine
As a
management strategist and project developer for over 45 years, it has always
been my methodology to plan for both a best-case and worst-case scenario,
knowing that reality will fall somewhere in between. With that approach
in mind regarding our current Covid-inflicted crisis, I believe that we have to
be prepared for the possibility that we may not emerge from under its scourge.
If we do, great, but if we don’t … we need to be ready for that reality. And
what are some of the worst-case scenarios we may be facing? In simplest terms
that in the foreseeable future:
- Music may not be performed in front of live
audiences.
- Earning money through live musical performance may
not be possible.
- Getting together with groups of musicians in person
may no longer be viable.
I’m
not writing this to establish a definitive position. To do so this essay would
need to be far longer to support and explain everything I’m saying. Rather, my
purpose is to stimulate consideration and discourse as we all struggle to come
to terms with a dilemma that twelve months ago was inconceivable. That said…
As we
all confront variations on the theme of WTF now? – let’s pause, pull
back, and take a wide-angle view to consider the inception of our personal
journeys in the pursuit of music. What is it that brings a musician to that
decision – and even more than that, what is their ultimate goal?
To
help answer this difficult question, let’s pose other questions. Why does one
practice yoga? Or meditate; watch a meaningful film; read an impactful book;
study an interesting subject; work out at the gym … and so on and so on? The
common answer to all of these things is the pursuit of self-improvement and
personal growth. In some cases, there is a simple goal – lose weight, build
muscle, equip oneself with the knowledge to interact with someone or something
that means something to you. But on the higher level, the goal is to pursue
transcendence and the profound … to uplift the soul and improve one’s being in
pursuit of the miraculous.
So who
the hell decided that a primary purpose of pursuing music is to make money?
Since
the development of artists’ careers and opportunities has been the focus of my
professional work for well over 40 years, let’s just accept that purpose as a
given – for the moment.
I read
a very perceptive comment a few years back by someone who suggested that rather
than lament the fact that people aren’t paying for music any longer, we should
appreciate how fortunate we were to get away with it for almost 100 years,
because prior to that nobody ever paid for music. While that is not entirely
accurate, and he was primarily referring to sale of product, the statement is
meaningful in a more general way.
Prior
to its commercialization, music was generally heard in parks, town squares,
royal courts, places of worship, and so on. I don’t know how much it cost to go
to concerts, but considering what I was paying when I came up in the ‘60s and
well into the ‘70s, it couldn’t have cost too much. Part of this was due to the
exploitation of the artists, and I did my part to level the playing field in
the ‘80s while still keeping the costs to the consumers quite reasonable. Our
policy was always whatever the market will bear. But then came the
Reagan years and what I generally have referred to ever since then as The
Republicanization of the Performing Arts, leading to an
artificial economy that would inevitably collapse. However, that’s a
different piece for another time.
In
truth, the business of jazz has been disintegrating steadily for at least
thirty years. Since my focus here is particularly upon the jazz form – the butt
end of the arts economy – it would seem that there wasn’t a lot of room for
things to get much worse, but they really did. I’ve written extensively about
the economic plummet for over twenty years – the monolithic institutions,
joined at the hip to the misguided invasion of the performing arts funding
world; the emergence of the promoter/venue as star; the anointment of
“influential” artists by institutions rather than emerging organically from the
artists themselves; the post-Reagan perversion of the profit concept – have all
led to a dysfunctional economy with a polarization of fees parallel to the same
1% vs. 99% imbalance that is crippling our society.
A
simple question: is the Covid crisis essentially a disastrous disruption of a
viable business for the jazz artist? Let’s consider what I wrote to all my
clients and many colleagues early last year…
… we
should view the current reality not as a stumbling block to overcome in order
to get back into the antiquated, ineffective and user-unfriendly realm that has
now been shut off, but rather as an opportunity for a more viable, productive,
and rewarding new reality that may now be within our reach.
Think
of this: prior to the crisis, how many artists were even close to supporting
themselves through performing – either live or through recorded product? And
then, how much work is entailed in doing a small tour, or even a solitary gig,
where the primary goal is often just to not lose money. Consider the work that
goes into:
- Getting the interest of a presenter (or agent)
- Securing the gig
- Making sure it can be viable (support gigs,
overhead, etc.)
- Locking in the personnel
- Rehearsing the group
- Getting there and back
- Making sure you get your money
It’s
an exhausting process … is it really worth it? And is the real
fulfillment in playing the music, or is it the response of the audience? And in
all honesty, are either of those two goals achieved to a really satisfactory
level. In any case, an important consideration: can you achieve the purpose of
expression without an audience response? If you can, that would eliminate five
of the seven bullet points above. It would also mean that making the music as
an ensemble would be done for the love of it. And if you have the spiritual
substance for it within yourselves – in the pursuit of Transcendence. If
you don’t, then in pursuit of joy. You can still share it with an audience,
just not in real time. Considering the array of challenges that real-time
music-sharing can pose … would that really be such a bad thing?
After
all, we all do things that are deeply meaningful and essential to us without
the added element of doing it for commercial purposes. Can’t music fall into
that same domain?
Which
brings us back to the yoga comparison, along with the added element of how
musicians actually make their living – outside the somewhat questionable, but
not terribly uncommon, approach of having your life partner work to support
your artistry.
Doesn’t
teaching – privately or institutionally – occupy a lot of that terrain? For some
of you, that is a calling. For others, it is a necessary application to allow
you to pursue the music of your heart’s desire. For many, it may be both. Why
are you teaching? Is it to produce more professionals to further glut an
already overburdened economic environment? Or is it more for the love of music
and the positive growth and development of the student?
So …
consider the yoga industry. How many facilities, teachers, and students are
involved in that pursuit? Isn’t there a common purpose – a set of values that
every student essentially shares? Isn’t it also clear that the private teacher
and/or institution is motivated by the combined purpose of enhancing the
student’s experience and making money while doing it?
Get
where I’m going here? Not fully? OK, I understand.
Music
isn’t yoga. It can’t be done by anyone with a mat and the proper apparel. Who
says? Music can be done by anyone with a voice, a bucket and stick, or lips
that can whistle. With a minimal investment, it can be a harmonica, a recorder
or a cheap electronic keyboard. But will it be of a worthwhile quality?
It’s probably best for me not to offer an opinion about what is or isn’t good
music here … and that really isn’t the point.
Let’s
just go with this: Music in its highest form is a spiritual quest, which if
achieved successfully is an incredibly enriching, life-affirming and profound
contribution to the world and every individual in it. While yoga is … well …
pretty much the same, no? And it might make sense to check in with a true
yogi about that, as I assume that there may be a good deal more of them than
musicians who can properly claim that same level of mastery.
Some
of the most transcendent music I’ve ever heard has been made without commercial
intent and where an audience was somewhat incidental: a shehnai player with
drummers at a Sufi shrine in India; Pygmy music; Gospel choirs; a Senufo
trumpet choir. I often enjoyed a trombone choir that used to play in midtown
NYC – they were spectacular! One day during a break I spoke to the leader and
told him that I would like to bring a certain record exec with a very open mind
to hear them. He thanked me but said that this wasn’t why they played music …
it was just for God.
So …
imagine a world in which you have a large number of minds and souls who can
benefit by exposure to your teaching and who can be connected to the incredible
legacy of the music’s past immortals; where you can create music with
like-minded artists for the sheer pursuit of the miraculous (or on a less
ambitious level, for a delightfully good time). Where your own pursuit of
mastery is for the perfection of your own being rather than a competition for
the meager rewards that await most professional musicians – or the lottery of
becoming one of the anointed and/or a recipient of the occasional grant or one
of the bigger (and highly arbitrary) awards.
Who
loses by this shift in emphasis?
- The world of absurdly priced higher education that
sells students on a six-figure investment that is highly unlikely to ever
be recouped as a professional
- Bloated monolithic institutions with ridiculous
overheads fueled by millions of dollars of squandered contributions
- Self-important presenters who consider themselves
stars of equal magnitude to the artists upon whom they bestow the rare gig
- Arts funding professionals whose bloated salaries
far outweigh the artist recipients as they foster trickle-down economics
and combat self-empowerment in order to remain the new plantation
- Instrument companies charging incredibly high prices
for their products while thousands upon thousands of instruments remain
locked up in the storerooms of public schools all over the country
This
all may seem a bit simplistic, but it’s all in the quest for a certain brevity.
There’s far more to say … and I will. That includes an answer to those who may
say that I can’t address this because I’m not a musician.
I’ll
wrap this up by re-stating something I say above: We should view the current
reality not as a stumbling block to overcome in order to get back into the
antiquated, ineffective, and user-unfriendly realm that has now been shut off,
but rather as an opportunity for a more viable, productive, and rewarding new
reality that may now be within our reach.
Peace
& A Love Supreme!
Marty
Khan, arts management consultant, strategist, producer. problem solver, writer,
educator and more than occasional pain in the ass to fools.
Executive Director of Outward Visions. Inc. www.outwardvisions.com
