Jazz for aficionados

I would like to add one thing about musicians and money - the vast majority of musicians do not make very much at all from album sales.  Only the very top artists who sell millions of albums make good money from sales - the record labels kept just about all of those profits.  This is also true of the studio musicians in Hollywood - there are only about 300 or so musicians total in LA who make a lot of money from royalties from films they played on.  And for orchestral musicians, while we often get small payments from making a recording, this is insignificant compared to our regular income.  Some of the top soloists will make some nice royalties, but even for them, the majority of their income is from the actual live performances.   

So many of those jazz musicians O-10 is asking about would indeed have made more money touring and performing than they did from recordings, again only excepting the very top names.  

There are actually many battles going on right now for musicians to get paid fairly in this digital day and age.  I would encourage everyone on this board who loves music and musicians to write their congressman in support of the Fair Play Fair Pay Act.  I'm bad at providing links, but this can be googled for those curious, which I hope would be all of you, or I can speak more about it in another post if people want. 

There is Leon Thomas the musician, and Leon my childhood friend; when they had the funeral for Leon the famous musician (famous in St. Louis) I had to close on the very same house I'm living in right now, and I couldn't attend both. In hindsight I wish I had canceled, and scheduled the closing for another day.

After Leon's funeral, I was sorry I didn't attend, but I got over it. Now it's hitting me that wasn't just Leon the musician's funeral, that was also Leon my childhood friend; we use to catch grasshoppers together in the field behind our houses. Me, him, and his brother went swimming together. You are never supposed to eat anything before going swimming, but he ate a half a chicken with lettuce and tomatoes every time before we went swimming, and never got a cramp, or gained weight; those are some of my memories.

The eerie part of this is, now I hear Leon my childhood friend, as opposed to Leon the musician. He sounds better than ever on these new CD's, and I'm enough of an "audiophile"to consider that an objective statement. I admit it would take a psychiatrist to sort this out, but I'm reconciling with those two people; soon I will have them focused into one person.

I think I have resolved my quite personal "Leon Thomas dilemma", now we can go on to other things.





Enjoy the music.

Lost childhood, lost friends and regrets - certainly not unique to you alone, O. Thanks for sharing those memories.

I hope the words in this song are true...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdtAfUtOEWA

I don’t believe it’s all for nothing
It’s not just written in the sand
Sometimes I thought you felt too much
And you crossed into the shadow land

And the river was overflowing
And the sky was fiery red
You gotta play the hand that’s dealt ya
That’s what the old man always said

Fallen angel
Casts a shadow up against the sun
If my eyes could see
The spirit of the chosen one

In my dream the pipes were playing
In my dream I lost a friend
Come down Gabriel and blow your horn
’Cause some day we will meet again

Hang in there Orpheus10-

as above, our next Jazz Bassist is Mingus. Discuss...

Ghosthouse, I really appreciated your thoughtful post. When you get to be an old man, there is nothing more precious than childhood memories; this was at a time when everyday revealed something new and magical, that you shared with "a childhood friend".

Thank you.




Enjoy the music.