A conversation with Luis

After a sound check this past week I got involved in a conversation with Luis, our guitar player, about making a living as a musician these days. Luis, who is 52 years old, is from Argentina and has worked on ships for 8 years. He also has worked as a musician on land. In addition, for several years, he took time off the guitar and just worked a day job. He pointed out that being a working musician different these days than in the past. That made me think that maybe I was born in the wrong time. 

Ideally, I want to play jazz. Small group jazz. Sextets and quintets, hard bop style, like the Curtis Fuller recordings I've been listening to non stop for the past 3 weeks or so. This is the music I most want to do and that I'm passionate about. Also, this is generally not the music that the people or audience generally want to hear. The market for this type of music is so small and limited, it's almost impossible to do this on a regular basis.

To hone my skills in this musical area it is imperative to be playing this type of music on a regular basis with other people. Only so much solo practice or practice with play alongs (Aebersold's, etc) can be done. They are a wonderful tool for polishing jazz vocabulary, but, that is their limitation as well. One of the most enjoyable and unique parts of music is the collaborative effort with others. Communicating and responding to one another musically. This is impossible with computer recordings, or, at best it's a one way street. 

The point is to play with other musicians who are not only skilled at this type of music, but, those that want to play it. Those who respect the music and play for the music's sake alone. This is hard to come by on this ship, I'm finding. And almost just as hard to come by on land as well. At least in the real world outside of the college environment.

It also came up in my conversation with Luis that the musical skill set is different than it was back when Curtis Fuller was playing gigs. Back then it was normal, in fact probably required, for musicians to have an extensive library of standard tunes memorized to call upon for gigs. The gig I have now does not require that. Experience, music literacy, and versatility are of prime importance here. On any given night I may play a jazz standard, several different variations of latin music, rock tunes, pop tunes, ballads, a march, solo classical style fanfares, circus songs, and many others. I am required to read all of this music correctly and properly the first time I see it. It is also important for me to be able to play an arranged production show exactly the same way time and time again. I must be consistent and accurate night in and night out. 

Very rarely on this gig (or even on land) am I asked to call and perform a standard of my choosing from memory. In fact, while I play with many good musicians on the ship, there is no guarantee that everyone would know (by know it, I mean have the melody and chords memorized and be able to improvise over it) the tune that I call. This is not due to lack of talent or musical accomplishment. I think it's the nature of the gig. Our skill sets are different now. It's kind of a "use it or lose it" thing. Basically, on this gig, if it's not available in the Real Book, we don't play it.

Luis brought up the point that this might be the "norm" for musicians nowadays. Curtis and his contemporaries mastered a particular skill set (that I not only admire, but, try to emulate) possibly because that's what the gig called for. "The gig" calls for something different these days. One of the best jazz musicians I know plays gigs 5 - 6 nights per week. Works all the time. However, he doesn't play jazz most of the time. He almost exclusively plays other types of music (pop, country, lead playing, etc) instead. That's what the gigs call for. In fact, when he does play jazz it's usually of his own design and for much less money than other gigs. 

The ship is temporary for me. It serves a purpose right now, and when that purpose is done, I'll move on. In terms of life after the ship for me I would like to, ideally:

1) make a living playing music

2) play jazz

3) play jazz trombone

Is this even possible right now in this culture unless...I'm Wycliffe Gordon? I'm just not sure that's a realistic goal for me.

What will I do after ship life? What kind of education should I pursue if any? Jazz performance education would be fun and feed the soul, but, most likely not very practical. Pop music/music business education would be fun and possibly more practical, but, on trombone? Is any jazz/pop music pursuit really practical for me as a trombone player? Is teaching the only real option? Do I need more education to pursue this (I already have 2 degrees and 9 years of experience teaching)? Surely, I have something that I could offer a college jazz department without requiring more schooling (of course I do, and don't call me Shirley). Although, a collegiate environment might be the only place where I could play the music I most want to on a regular basis. Assuming i was in the right environment, that sounds like a blast to me.

Luis is thinking about opening a coffee shop back home in Argentina and playing music there just for fun. That doesn't sound too bad. Except that I don't like coffee. At this point, I plan to continue what I'm doing and work on figuring these answers out on my own time table. I'll be on ships for the next year, so, I'll have plenty of time to work it out.