Jazz Office Hours

Making a jazz album, from demo to distribution to performance, is a game of expectations. Whether artistic, financial, or personal, expectations keep you on track and help you remember why you're in the game.

Topics:

• First question: How to release a jazz album (01:17),
• What are realistic financial expectations for making an album? Taking entrepreneurial risk, investing up-front in production, and building a music career over time (11:44),
• Cory takes an honest look at the growth of Rhythm Changes and of his radio show, Condition Blue (17:41),
• Best-of-2022 highlight: establishing a level of care (24:44),
• Next question: How to get gigs by sending demo recordings to booking agents (25:54),
• Choosing the right live music venues for your band (29:45),
• Making a personal connection with venue booking agents (36:16),
• Storytime: the early-2000s distribution deals that established Cellar Music (39:47),
• New Cellar Music releases by Sheila Jordan & Brian Charette on July 15, 2022 (48:06).

Links:

• YouTube - All Things Must Pass (Tower Records documentary) - Cory said he enjoyed this movie about the famous record store business so much, he watched it three times.
• Bloomberg - CD sales in Japan (2020) - CD sales have still been a huge part (over 70%) of the recorded music market in Japan, even as recently as 2020.

Here we go! Stay tuned for Jazz Office Hours.

It's summer! We're on vacation, so please enjoy this top highlight clip from episode one.

In this answer, Will & Cory discuss the secret to connecting with local music venues and booking agents: know what you want to do!

It breaks down into three steps:

1. Clearly define what you think your band is.
2. Look at venues and figure out which ones you could potentially fit into.
3. Make your best demo, and make a statement of how you feel you should be treated by the venues.

After that, you can shift your focus to getting known for what you do, which is as simple as spending time at the venues you want in your musical life.

This clip originally appeared in episode 1: Making Albums, Expectations, Demo Recordings, Distribution.

Fear. It shows up throughout our musical lives as we book gigs and work to bring people out. But too often the attention drifts to numbers like, 'What's your draw?' while the meaning rests in the music's impact.

Maybe promoters aren't as cynical as you think. And it's not all about results from one show; you can always get the promoter excited for next time, too.

• First question: Fear of playing badly, and of not drawing enough people to your gig (2:24),
• Will breaks down how much easier it is to tour in this era than it was decades ago, but also how much harder it's gotten in the past few years (19:43),
• Playing too many local gigs in a short period of time (29:31),
• Best-of-2022 highlight: Comparing venues (31:23),
• Next question: Presenting workshops for students but getting low turnout (43:44),
• Getting past attendance numbers to focus on impact (54:06).

In this episode:

• Cory uploaded never-before-seen footage of Hank Mobley and Dexter Gordon to YouTube (0:49),
• First topic: "I once booked an amazing pianist at a club in the UK where the promoter told me 'I honestly don't think I can sell more than 30 tickets for him but I love it and I can book on that occasionally.'" (4:28),
• Cory shared a pitch gone wrong and received over 150 comments back on Facebook (9:42),
• What do I need to know about how to present myself on stage? (15:09),
• I'm in jazz school, but I want to learn about audio production, recording, and mixing. How can I go about this, without having to go to audio school? (20:37),
• Best-of-2022 highlight: Cory didn't have any recording experience (21:41),
• How do you learn to hear what makes a good mix or master recording? (25:00),
• The Fraser MacPherson Jazz Fund is offering scholarships now to instrumentalist students in BC (30:59).

Links:

• Fraser MacPherson Jazz Fund - Apply for scholarships if you're an instrumentalist student in BC
• New Jazz Underground - YouTube channel of three people just going for it and having fun recording themselves
• How to approach a jazz bar or club owner as a musician - written by Cory from our website
• Hank Mobley video - Cory's YouTube channel
• Dexter Gordon footage - Cory's YouTube channel
• These 110 words just went 4-for-4 on local gig bookings - Will's Rhythm Changes Update on his local gig pitches