A scene from The Goon Show:
Eccles: You can laugh. You can laugh. I’m the famous Eccles.
Seagoon: Famous for what?
Eccles: Well… You’ve seen the Eiffel Tower?
Seagoon: Yes.
Eccles: Well… Let that be a lesson to you. [Applause] See, they’re all on my side.
Seagoon: Wait a minute. How does the Eiffel Tower make you famous?
Eccles: I fell off it, heh-heh.
Seagoon: No man has ever fallen off the Eiffel Tower and lived.
Eccles: You call this living?

Every time I go to a jazz gig, I spend my time just luxuriating in the music, and going with the directions it leads me in, usually taking a moment or two to reflect on the extraordinary artistic prowess of the musicians. But, as I leave the gig and head home, my thoughts turn to what these musicians might be doing when they are not in front of the audience, and from there  my thoughts turn, with just a few exceptions, to this one question:

Is jazz any way to make a living?

Classical musicians study long and hard but can look forward to a relatively structured career, with large numbers of players employed in orchestras, for example, and their business supported by agents and arts management to ensure fair pay for their expertise.

It’s a business developed over centuries, and public funding of classical music is well established and accepted by the establishment.

Pop musicians might have to play for free before they are “discovered” and without support from the public purse, but their educational debts are likely to be considerably less than those of classical or jazz musicians, and the rewards, if they are successful, can bring them untold wealth long with the fame.

The jazz musician might have accrued as large an educational debt as the classical player, but faces a career that is tenuous at best. While jazz was once a popular music, with considerable financial rewards for its star players, it has transformed into more of an “art” music, but without the concomitant increase in support from public funds and the establishment, and without the support of agents and arts management to ensure adequate pay.

I know from personal experience as an arts festival manager that it is possible to get a very good jazz quartet to play at your festival for less than a quarter of what a good classical string quartet would charge.

A conservatoire jazz course leader told me the story of a student who had switched to study jazz after starting a career in contemporary classical music.

This musician formed a band of jazz players but was concerned at not being able to afford to pay them to rehearse. The man who told me this, said he had to offer the reassurance that the jazz players would give their professional all in practice without expecting money in return. There might be increasing interaction between the classical and jazz genres, but they are clearly like different countries when it comes to reimbursement for one’s artistry.

So how does the jazz musician pay the rent and put food on the table?

What can the young musician just starting out having completed their studies expect in the big, bad world out there? And let’s be clear here: Just now there are loads of new graduates out there in jobs market, just as there are loads of fresh-faced and bright-eyed new jazz students getting to grips with college study.

Can he get paying jazz gigs? Does he have connections in the studio world? Does he teach? Will he have to supplement his jazz income with non-jazz work? How does he see his career developing?

And what of the player a bit further along the career path? Have they made sufficient good contacts out there? Have they done a few sessions with rock bands? Or found regular work in theatre pit bands? Are they applying for grants in order to compose new music, or take a band round the country?

Move forward ten more years in a career. Can a jazz musician afford to have children? Is he or she the major breadwinner in their household, or do they have to rely heavily on a partner with a “proper job”?

There are loads of good jazz courses these days at colleges all round the country, and they are all turning out accomplished young players. But is there work for these players? And are there audiences out there wanting to pay money to hear them?

Now, I don’t know the answers to these questions but I want you to help me to understand what the real situation is for jazz musicians in the British Isles in the 21^st century.

If you are a musician, whether just starting out or a veteran, whether you have been able to put together a career playing jazz or not, please get in touch. If you teach in the jazz colleges, if you promote jazz gigs and pay the musicians, if you are a fan and buy your ticket or contribute to the collection or interval raffle, if you are a career advisor or a personal finance guru… whatever your interest, please contribute to this discussion.

If you are happy to comment publically, just leave a comment on this post.

However, I am aware that some financial details of how artists make a living might be of a sensitive nature, so if you would prefer to preserve your anonymity, just email me at peterbacon@me.com

I certainly won’t make any comments public if you instruct me not to, but at the same time I would like to be able to relate stories and experiences in order to give a rounded picture of just how jazz can put bread on the table – or not…

There is a lot on this site about the art and the music and the joy it brings. Let’s explore in the next few weeks and months the practical side of the music. The £ and P of it. The tough reality.

Do join in.