Scott Henderson Discussion

[dizzy]

This email conversation is with "One of the premier jazz clubs on the central coast" according to the club website.
I put x's on the names:

Me:

Hi xxxx

I am a guitar player from xxxxx I just released a CD.

xxxx host of the Tuesday Lunch radio program xxxx suggested your venue may be a good fit for an upcoming tour I am organizing.
Can I send you a package?


Club owner:


Hi xxx, we only book bands that play covers for dancing and play for the door.

[Scott Henderson]

The truth is that any club in the US would make more money on any given night with a top 40 band or wet t-shirt contest than with a jazz band, unless they're hiring the ghost of Miles Davis, and even then the audience would be mostly fans of the paranormal.

Tribal Tech, in our 10 years of touring, never made more than 1500 dollars for a US gig, and rooms were not usually included. Most of our gigs paid between 500 and 1000. We made 5 albums before being able to get an agent to book us. Good luck trying to tour in the states Dizzy - you're gonna need it.

My advice - keep making great albums like the one you just made and concentrate on getting an agent for Europe.

[Thanasis]

Haha wet t-shirt contest. Who are you Dizzy? Send us some links so us in Europe can find out, please. You must be really good by the looks of it...

[dizzy]

[quote="Thanasis"]Haha wet t-shirt contest. Who are you Dizzy? Send us some links so us in Europe can find out, please. You must be really good by the looks of it...[/quote]

Thanks for asking Thanasis. I am Dan Zimmerman. I recorded an album called Drifting Home. You can find me on iTunes and Facebook. I definitely don’t want to use Scott’s forum for self promotion. In fact, one of the ways I made a good sounding album was from all the advice I have gotten over the years from Scott on this forum.

Scott:
I remember when I was in my 20s I saw tribal tech in Boston. You guys were probably staying at motel 6 but I didn’t know about the jazz buisiness in the USA then so I thought you had a tour buss and rodies:).

[Scott Henderson]

I've heard stories from some European guys who were going to Berklee at the time - they were shocked when they saw us tearing down our gear after the show and loading it into a Ford 150 Econoline van. We didn't stay at Motel 6 in Boston because it was too expensive - our dump was much worse.

Things haven't changed much since then, which is why I don't tour in the US. I do one-offs occasionally, like Baked Potato during NAMM, and a gig in Vegas after NAMM. My guys will be in town in Jan/Feb to record the new album.

[Kevin Thomas]

After thinking about it for a few seconds, I think I found out the way it works :

A : You're playing good music, and you're known by a few crazy lovers. --> You stay in crappy motels, you take care of your gear, you probably need a real job to make a living

B : You 're playing good music, but somehow you became famous. The whole world knows you, and some people like your music, some even buy it or want to see it live. --> You can make a living with your music (hallelujah!!)

C: You're famous, but, cherry on the cake..... You have the talent of playing shit. You know what? You can play and stay were you want in the world. We even built stadiums and palaces for you!

(it's not a 100% rule, but it works pretty well)

Now, from the audience's prospective :
- Since guys like you can't do world tours with 50 gigs per country, it's harder to see you live (in Europe, and even more in the States, not to mention Syria or North-Korea)
- but when it happens, it's in a good venue, and it's not 200$ to see you on a screen because you're 500m away

[fusion58]