One of my neighbors offered me a couple of free tickets to a Tim McGraw/Faith Hill concert in the Congress Center here the other day. They had an unexpected emergency and couldn't go. I politely declined for several reasons, the primary one being that I wasn't interested and secondly, I thought the tickets should go to someone that actually wanted to see that concert and would feel comfortable being a part of that audience. But my point is:

She paid $250.00 for those tickets (and I don't even know if they were good seats). I remember so vividly people grumbling about paying a $5.00 cover charge to see us at a Jazz club. But even in a concert setting, I only paid $40.00 to see McCoy Tyner (a jazz gaint) in concert at Georgia Tech (at least the place was packed). Obviously public tastes are what determines your worth (at least your monetary worth). It's no wonder so many accomplished musicians are seduced into playing beneath their musical capabilities. On the other hand, artists of the stature of a Tim McGraw certainly deserve to have the very best musicians available, no matter how simple the music. After all, music is a matter of taste (and accessibility), not complexity of form. MacDonalds will always grossly outsell a small gourmet restaurant every day of the week.

chas

Chas, Good post!

I think $40 is what I paid to hear McCoy back in the 70s here in RI at a small concert venue. It was about 5 years ago we paid only $25 per ticket to see John Pizzarelli at Phillips Exeter Academy in NH, yes it was a fund raiser. The icing on the cake was his wife Jessica Molaskey joined in for a few tunes.

We paid about $50 each to hear the late Groove Holmes at the Regatta bar in Boston. Pianist James Williams was about the same price. The best days were in the ‘80s when James Williams was on the staff of Berkeley School of Music. I don’t’ remember what we paid the 3 or 4 times we went but he played at a place called the Starlight Roof lounge in a Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge in Boston. One of the performances an unkown female singer to us at the time Dianna Reeves showed up to sing a few tunes with James. For jazz lovers those were the days my friends, we thought they’d never end.

The year before he recorded "Masquerade", George Benson, arguably
the best new jazz guitarist at the time, earned about $2,000 less than I did as a brand new Masters Degree graduate.

He got lots of criticism from purists for "selling out".

The album "Breezing" sold over 17 million copies, compared to the 450,000 (that is a lot in the jazz business) most of his previous works sold.

His attitude showed a lot of class. He said the music was material of integrity, arranged, produced and played with lots of feeling in a jazz tradition. The result? a lot of people were exposed to very high quality fusion jazz, and George secured the lifetime career he so rightly deserved.

He probably, in his best year didn't make 1/2 of what McGraw does.

To me, that's a damn shame, but there are thousands of great players on welfare, in treatment facilities, etc.

How sad and unfair!


Russ