Jazz Marketing

Comment

Comment by Vanessa Keeton on March 29, 2010 at 5:19pm

To the statement that not enough musicians pay to hear each other play:

Yes, if they aren't working, it is nice to see them come out. However, they are not the going to make or break the jazz scene. We need new listeners. This will come from word of mouth, advertising and education.

If you don't have the money to advertise for your club outright, get some sponsors. The jazz kitchen does this to help offset the cost. They have nice little ad spaces in the club for local corporations. Sponsors can also help sponsor larger acts and festivals. By partnering with a non-profit like Jazz Alive, you could tap this market by haven't events that these corps. can deduct at tax time.

If you want the local guys to advertise for themselves, you should work out a better split of the door. Why should they spend more advertising than they will make playing. They know if they pack they place they will still make a lower than average scale. If they had the incentive of a minimum pay, plus the door they might feel inclined to try to pack the place and the clubs make out selling drinks. So long as it is no different one way or the other, why should they continue to come up in the red to play. Then pay the club to hear other guys who aren't going to profit from them paying a cover.

Also I have a pet peeve that when I do come out to hear local acts they spend just as much time talking about what tune they plan to play next, as they do playing. This does have the effect of alienating the people who pay to hear a concert and not a jam session. How hard is it to make a set list? I know we want to be all artsy fartsy and "In the moment" but it is the most unprofessional and selfish thing I see when I come out to hear music.

Casual listeners don't know and they don't care that you don't have time and/or don't want to rehearse for a $50 gig, but it is just lazy, that you can't take 5 mins to sit down before the gig and write down 5 to 10 tunes that you want to play.

Obviously this won't get people in the door, but it may get more to come back or stick around for more.

Comment by Joe Gaudio on March 21, 2010 at 3:43pm

Reaching people by advertising is good for promoting individual events, but trying to build audiences will take more than advertising dollars. Education will of necessity become more important and may need, I believe, a concerted effort by all who value the jazz arts to make the inroads necessary to achieve any lasting results.
The jazz arts will probably never be competitive with those only interested in what the pop culture has to offer. We all grow up with that which surrounds us and the music we hear daily becomes our frame of reference for the emotional ties we have to music we like. I think we develop tastes from the gut and then it might develop into awareness of other elements that we initially didn't respond to. This journey from the visceral to the sublime is not one everyone makes. Most are content to let the strong rhythmic drive of contemporary music be the main hook on which they hang their musical tastes. This is not necessarily bad but getting them to another level of listening is not something that can be easily accomplished. Our first response to music is probably a physical one, therefore dance. Most young people are into music that they can feel and dance to. However all young and not so young have emotionally charged musical hooks that they look for in music. If the music we ask them to listen to doesn't have the emotional cues they expect, the response might be polite but lukewarm. This is because jazz music is not in their ears and therefore foreign to their musical experience. The students involved in music studies in one way or another have a greater appreciation for the more subtle aspects of music and therefore more open to a varied musical feast. Bridging the gap between these two points is where the effort must be placed. The audiences must be developed from the young. As the jazz audiences age they are slowly fading from the mix and can't be counted on to always be there. Dollars will be needed to accomplish these goals and hopefully we will be able to secure funding through grants and donations to begin developing programs to meet these needs.

Comment by blue wisp jazz club on March 20, 2010 at 4:30pm

To reach people, you must advertise. It doesn't cost a million a minute for a Super Bowl ad for nothing. The ads often get results. Ads cost money. The more people that view the TV or radio show that presents the ad, the more it costs. The Wisp is limited in its ad budget. We wish we had more cash coming in to invest in more ads. But if more people, including musicians, attended more performances, the club's income increases and we have more to spend on diverse ads to reach audiences that don't know about jazz and just need to be informed and they will try it once. It may not be that simple but then again it may be. Getting the musicians to attend the concerts we present is not the solution but its a reasonable and attainable method of increasing income to reinvest. We have not been able to afford ad venues such as wvxu, wguc, wnku, wnkv let alone reaching out to 92.5 and some of the classic rock stations to find curious potential jazz supporters. baby steps. just get some people to come to the wisp. ed

Comment by Joe Gaudio on March 20, 2010 at 10:07am

The comments about the local jazz musicians showing up or not showing up at local venues will not solve the problem of audience development. Most of the younger audience seem to be the result of students who have participated in some school instrumental programs particularly ones that offer a jazz format. The problem seems to be how to reach the other 95% of students who have grown up with only a pop culture mentality. Programs offered at area colleges do offer music appreciation courses that require attendance at different musical events which allow them to experience different styles of music including Jazz. How much that has sparked new fans is probably very small. It would be helpful to have a radio station that devoted a large chunk of its programming to jazz, however this cannot be accomplished easily because of the costs involved. Businesses are reluctant to spend money advertising if they feel they cannot reach enough people and therefor radio stations won't program jazz. Even the public stations won't make jazz programing readily available because when it is pledge time, jazz supporters have not opened their walnuts enough to make the stations that offered such programming want to continue. This is why I keep coming back to using JAZZ ALIVE as a vehicle to achieve this objective. While this blog has only had one or two people comment, I am hopeful that we can eventually grow large enough to be able to bring awareness of the jazz arts to the community at large. The jazz arts needs to start gaining the status of other arts organizations so that its importance to the creative life of this nation is not lost. We need support from jazz fans, musicians, foundations, and other non profit organizations to help us achieve that goal. It will take an infusion of money, volunteers and perhaps an angel or two to begin to reach this objective.

Comment by Al Roll on March 19, 2010 at 12:34am

I have lived in this area all of my life, so far 67 years. I have been a hard core jazz fan since I was 14 years old. I was underage when I went to Babe Bakers, Mothers and other places to hear live jazz. The most devastating thing to happen in this market was the loss of Jazz Radio, WNOP and the old WVXU. If jazz is not openly available to a free public market via radio, it makes it much more difficult for clubs to attract new people to the music. The jazz scene in Cincinnati is just barely hanging on. We must all face the fact that jazz will never be considered a popular medium. This is not New York, and never will be. Right now, rather than trying to swim up-stream against pop culture, maybe now would be a good time to look to the young players and make sure that we can continue the tradition of Cincinnati producing good, and sometimes, great players. The great players got that way by hanging out with the old players and soaking up every piece of information they could pick-up. The young have to be our focus, if we can't get into the schools with jazz, then bring the young players to the Wisp. Saturday and Sunday afternoons are available for labs and instruction. I think a non-profit could be established to fund such a program. If we lose the young, we lose the future of jazz.

Eddy knows which jazz musicians attend shows at the Wisp on a regular basis, I have always been surprised by the lack of local musicians in attendance when name acts are brought to the club. I'm sure the same thing occurs when name acts are booked at the Redmoor.

So let us all work together to do whatever we can to make sure we can always hear live jazz in Cincinnati.

Comment by Joe Gaudio on March 18, 2010 at 10:21pm

As stated in an earlier reply perhaps we need to find ways to develop audiences for what we consider to be a dynamic and vital art form. I hear in the replies that perhaps musicians aren't doing enough to help the situation by their absence at jam sessions or other events. I don't believe jazz musicians playing in jam sessions will of itself create a better audience base for jazz. If we can find a way to get the ear of a portion of the public at large we might be able to make some progress in achieving this. Fresh creative ideas are needed to accomplish this and it is the reason I made the initial statement about "Jazz Marketing". Jazz Alive's main thrust is to promote the Jazz Arts and give it fertile ground in which to thrive. To promote quality jazz performances and to provide venues where they can be heard requires effort and time, not to mention money. By marketing and promoting the efforts of the jazz community we may be able to win over some of the public and make a start toward developing audiences.Perhaps even a Jazz Festival in the future. Education also must play a major role in this development and is an area we are trying to make progress in. Any thoughts on this subject will be welcomed.

Comment by eddie felson on March 18, 2010 at 8:34pm

The Monday night jam session at the Wisp is now over as of this Monday. We had a 2-year run but in the last few months attendance was poor. We had a few musicians and patrons, other than the paid band, that showed up every single week. I must apologize to them but I couldn't justify losing money every Monday. We had great nights where, for example, professional players from all over the world happened to be in town playing a show at the Aronoff or Playhouse in the Park. Or sometimes the local pros did show up and play. It was also very satisfying to me to see the regulars getting better and better as the weeks went on.
Instead of closing Mondays, I am giving Wade Baker a steady night for his band followed by a jam session the last set. Unlike the old session, unknown musicians will not be invited up. If I get enough interest i can start the jam session again but Al Roll was correct-most local pros never came out. But neither did most of the 2d and 3d tier players that Dave Mackey referred to.
I am open to any and all ideas about how to breathe new life into this great music. But please come to me with an idea. Don't just tell me, like many do, that my ideas aren't good without having a better idea. Write me at admin@thebluewisp.com.
Ed Felson, music director, Blue Wisp Jazz Club

Comment by Joe Gaudio on February 15, 2010 at 6:38pm

The Jams in the past were usually a job for one of the established groups with maybe a few of the other pros showing up for a couple of tunes and a lot of aspiring and eager younger talent lined up to play. There was a built in audience and there was a feeling that something interesting was going to happen.
Are you implying that the local pros are not doing their fair share to help keep jazz alive? If so perhaps we need to hear from them as to why that might be and ways we could make it a win win situation. While I don't feel this is why jazz is in need of help. I do believe this could be part of a formula to develop and stimulate interest in the jazz arts if packaged properly.

Comment by Al Roll on February 15, 2010 at 5:51pm

Joe, I think you may have stated one of the problems when you said re: Blue Wisp Monday Jam, the audiences are poorly attended. Exactly, where are the under- employed local jazz artists who should be there to encourage the young students? The venues are indeed fewer, but the quality musicians are still here. Just not out on Monday nights?

Comment by Joe Gaudio on February 15, 2010 at 5:35pm

I would encourage development and support for all who show the interest, ability and desire to play jazz. It used to be that young and upcoming talent could find sessions where the established players would encourage and challenge those talents and thereby expose them to the audience who would come to know them as credible performers or perhaps in need of further development. Unfortunately this situation does not exist today because there are so few venues where you can perform. Because the supply is greater than the demand those waiting in line for their opportunity can become disillusioned and frustrated. Those who have established their reputations and skills find it increasingly difficult to find work as jazz musicians on a regular basis. They often work gigs that have little to do with their main interest. The Blue Wisp Jazz Club does offer Monday nights for jam sessions but the audiences are often poorly attended. This shows the need for developing appreciative audiences as a primary objective to reach this goal. The question becomes how can this best accomplished?

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