The importance of supporting live music

College Majors Music Major
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I was inspired to post this having just come back from a “dive bar” in the middle of Brooklyn where I heard one of the most inspired young jazz saxophonists I could ever imagine. My son told me I had to come out to hear this guy and I’m glad I did.

As a music parent whose son graduated from college a couple of years ago now, I still follow the college application stories of aspiring young musicians (and their parents) with interest. I love hearing about the hopes and dreams of those just starting the journey. But I am also seeing first hand how important it is for the recent music graduates to find an audience for their music. My son just came back from a tour with his trio through the Midwest and Canada and he was so grateful for the people who came out to see them (including a couple of the posters on this board).

I know the highs and lows of the college/music school application journey - I enjoy hearing the successes and empathize with the April Angst of trying to find the right fit and making the money work. But four years from now, when they graduate and (hopefully) embark on a career in music, they’ll be relying on people to come out to hear them play and support them financially.

It’s astounding how much talent is out there. I was so happy that my son made me go out to hear this amazing young saxophonist, who really deserves to be heard. This board is a wonderfully supportive music community. Hopefully I’m preaching to the choir when I say that as important as it is to support our talented young musicians as they run the gauntlet of applications, auditions, financial packages and finding the right fit, it’s equally important to remember them on the other end as they try to find a way to make music their career.

So please go out to concerts and support live music! You’ll be glad you did.

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Good post! My daughter also plays jazz piano. She’s not majoring in it, but she plays in her school’s band. Until she started playing seriously in high school, I never realized how much wonderful live music there is out there.

It’s great your son is touring! I wish him luck.

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My son’s also a jazz pianist, now playing regularly in his school jazz band, and has been joining short summer programs in Canadian and US music schools since junior high. He enjoys playing live music in front of an audience, too. We are from overseas, and I hope he’ll be able to fulfill his music dreams in the US where the jazz music scene is so flourishing.

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I should have acknowledged in my post last night that as music parents, of course, we are all supporting live music by supporting our children’s music endeavors. And I really do believe the world is a better place for that.

I also expect that all of us go to hear lots of live music in the form of performances that our children are involved with. And there’s a limit to time and budget. But my wife and I find it very rewarding to look for ways to incorporate live music into our schedule - whether it’s looking for restaurants or bars that offer live music when we want to go out for a meal or a drink, or going to a concert hall or music performance venue instead of a movie. (Not that the film industry isn’t worthy of support too, but I figure Star Wars will survive without us.)

It’s often even possible to find good live music for free. Some cities have arts foundations or organizations that sponsor free or low cost performances and many colleges, universities or music schools offer free student performances that are open to the public. On their recent tour, my son’s trio did one gig with free admission at the public library in one city as part of a monthly jazz series that’s been running for over a decade and is supported by the local arts foundation. They also did a performance and workshop at a college in another city that was funded by the college and was free and open to the public. For the venues that charge a cover and/or food or drink minimum, they’re usually fairly modest, but free is always great. And I can assure you that the musicians appreciate the audience.

@Compjazzmon, don’t know where you live - I’m happy to say that jazz does seem to have a devoted (albeit niche) following in the US and Canada, but my son and his friends have also played to enthusiastic audiences in Europe and my son has overseas tours lined up in May and July, so he’s looking forward to meeting more jazz fans around the world.

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I completely messed up the tag for @Compojazzmom and it’s too late to edit. Sorry about that. :slight_smile:

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Technology, and more specifically, live streaming, has made live music accessible to a lot more people as they are no longer limited by geographic locations. Oberlin has done a great job by live streaming all their concerts (students and faculty alike) for free. As a performer in the concert hall, isn’t it amazing to know that you are performing for a much bigger audience beyond the building and literally for the whole world?

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Live streaming really is a wonderful technology. My son has live streamed a few of his shows when the venue has been okay with it and they are fun to watch. And you’re right that it can make music accessible to a broader geographic reach. My one worry, however, is the risk of cannibalizing the in-person audience. While expanding one’s reach as a musician via live streaming can certainly have its benefits, it’s not a substitute, either spiritually or financially, for an appreciative audience in person at the concert. So by all means enjoy the increased access to performances around the world that live-streaming enables. But don’t forget to go out and attend live music performances in person when the opportunity presents itself! :slight_smile:

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No doubt that live performances should by all means be supported! To the audience, seeing a live performance is certainly different from watching it online, the latter being much less overwhelming considering the sound quality. Yet I was grateful to be able to see my son’s composed work performed in Boston last summer through live streaming, as otherwise I couldn’t have witnessed it, and it’s a touching moment for the whole family on the other side of the globe :slight_smile:

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I hear you on that! My son’s trio is heading to the other side of the globe from where we are in May, and I’m hoping they’ll be able to live stream a show or two while they’re there.

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Love this thread @jazzpianodad ! Just finished buying tickets to three different local live music events here in town!

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@dramasopranomom, that’s great to hear - both figuratively and literally! :slight_smile:

With my son back in town, we’ve been going to hear a lot of live music this month. Not only a few of my son’s gigs (including gigs in the last week at two of the better known NYC jazz venues, which were pretty cool), but also other groups and musicians that my son has wanted to hear. My son is still very much into classical music (he was pretty serious about classical piano as well as jazz before deciding he had to choose one to focus on) and he enjoys going to classical concerts, so we found a break in his schedule to go to a classical recital he had heard about this weekend. The first half of the program was solo piano and then the second half was a piano-clarinet duo. It was really an interesting combination - I don’t think I’d ever heard a piano-clarinet classical duo before - and it worked really well. They drew a very good audience and were very appreciative. I was quite happy I went out to hear it.

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I love this post and agree 100%! I’d love to have recommendations for lesser known jazz venues in NYC! We tend to visit Birdland and Blue Note, but were just talking the other day about the up-and-coming musicians and where we might find them. I spend a fair amount of time driving to hear good live music, especially if it’s a student I know. Actually, @jazzpianodad, I’m very eager to send you a private message with a few questions, but I have to build up to 15 posts first, and am not very good at posting on this site! :slight_smile:

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@EverAfter, good to hear from another live music (and live jazz) fan. Birdland and the Blue Note are both “top-tier” venues that offer reliably good jazz, though as I’m sure you’ve experienced, the Blue Note tends to squash you in. (The Blue Note was one of the venues where I saw my son play last week, as part of the backing band for an established jazz singer who has decided she likes his playing.) I think the other top NYC jazz venues would include the Village Vanguard (old school, great jazz vibe, great music, but no food and another place that packs people in), Dizzy’s (part of Jazz at Lincoln Center, very pretty and spacious venue, great views, really nice sound system, usually very good music, more of a corporate vibe), and the Jazz Standard (probably my favorite of the “top” venues, a good mix of jazz vibe, great music, great food and drink and not quite as cramped quarters, though not as spacious as Dizzy’s).

There are many other terrific jazz venues in NYC where you can find some less established but really wonderful musicians (and these venues also often have very well established musicians too). These would include Mezzrow, Smalls, Smoke, Kitano, Minton’s, 55 Bar, Shapeshifter, Club Bonafide, Cornelia Street Cafe, Fat Cat and the Jazz Gallery (my son has played at all of these other than the last one). And then there are the “hole in the wall” type places throughout the city, particularly in Brooklyn, where you can hear some amazing jazz from relative unknowns, if you know what you’re looking for, like the place where my son took my wife and me last week, which I mentioned in my first post. For any of these, it helps to have a guide who can pick the best shows for you. (Actually, I think that’s true even at the top-tier places.)

I sent you a PM - hopefully you can receive and respond, even if you don’t have the ability to initiate. Otherwise, I can try to answer some questions on the board if it’s something you can ask (and I can answer) publicly.

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S is back from a successful tour in Asia (alas, no live streaming), and is in NY for a couple of weeks before heading to the west coast, so my wife and I have been able to catch a few of his gigs. Also treated him, and myself, to Evgeny Kissin’s recital at Carnegie Hall this afternoon. Truly extraordinary. Live music can be inspiring.

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Jazzpianodad I hear you LOUD and CLEAR. And I totally 100% agree with what you wrote. Interestingly my musician son’s older sister got married last fall. I desperately wanted live music at the party. I thought it was important to support an aspiring wedding band. But it was my musician son who told my budget conscious daughter to not waste money on the band and hire a DJ. Having played many weddings he felt that having a live band was a luxury that was not necessarily worth it. I was sad but this wedding was entirely my daughter and her now husband’s event, not mine and so they had DJ and our son was right it didn’t really matter. And our son did play live music for the ceremony. And yes if we had a lot of money to throw at the event I probably would have splurged on a live band and additional musicians at the event. But given our budget it would not have been possible to pay them a decent amount and so that was one of the things that got cut.

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I always wish more people would attend contemporary classical concerts, meaning living (and often emerging) composers.

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@compmom, definitely agree with you on supporting new composition as well. Of course, the risk with new music is that it hasn’t withstood the test of time, so it can be hit or miss. But it’s an adventure and can be very rewarding. My wife and I went to see a 12-piece chamber group last weekend led by a young Brazilian composer and conductor, who is in his mid-30’s and has already won numerous awards. The concert featured a number of his own compositions, as well as his arrangements of Brazilian music. Our son was subbing in with the group for the performance and told us the music was extraordinary, and he was right. A thoroughly enjoyable evening. And last night I went to a recital of operatic songs by several different living composers, ranging in age from 30’s to 60’s. Some of the music was wonderful and some of it was, well let’s just say, not my cup of tea. Still well worth it.

@StacJip, I understand the budget constraints of a wedding, and honestly if you’re talking about a typical wedding band that’s going to play covers of pop songs while the guests dance and drink, I would tend to agree that a DJ is fine for that purpose. But there are still ways to work in live music on a more cost-conscious basis. For example, having a string quartet or a jazz trio play for an hour before the ceremony while guests are arriving and gathering. Of course, having a musician in the family, like yours, helps too. My jazz pianist son played at our older son’s wedding and it was a wonderful expression of brotherly love!

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jazzpianodad,
As did our son. He played for the ceremony…which was outdoors and threatening to rain. Fortunately the boyfriend of one of the Bridesmaids is also tall and was willing to stand ready with a golf umbrella in case it did. Our son actually arranged and composed some music for the ceremony to which was very special.

As for new music…some of it might be old ears. When our son was at NEC he was in a group that wrote all their own music collectively. The faculty and other musicians were super excited about. One faculty/musician even invited the group to Brooklyn to his studio so they could record their album, which they did. Now I have to say I STRUGGLED with the music a lot. I got that it referenced “Stravinsky and hip hop and poetry and alternative art.” But I didn’t exactly enjoy listening to it. My father, who adores Jazz and Classical music, actually threatened to turn his hearing aid off during one of the concerts this group did. It was challenging even when the group performed in Jordan Hall. Once the album was recorded I forced myself to listen to it as I was walking to do errands and over time I found myself actually finding and discovering ways into it and was able to enjoy it. But it took time and I have a feeling it is that older ears adjust more slowly to newer sounds.

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Not all “new music” is hard to listen to. Some of it is quite beautiful, even when original or avant-garde, if you will.

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As a fan of music including that which is hard to listen to, I’m not of the view that new music is fine as long as it sounds like the old stuff. The Music Director Designate of the Dallas Symphony Fabio Luisi has committed the orchestra to commissioning 20 new works in the next decade with at least half of these by women. Given the taste of most of the Dallas Symphony’s audience, most of these pieces will likely be easy to listen to. But there is hope for a broadening of the spectrum.