Your art has value, and it matters.
Reflecting on 1067, Coastal Jazz and the Vancouver scene in the 2000's.
Happy to say I’m working with Joseph at the CMC - starting a new series “Second Fridays @ CMC” that will focus on presenting experimental jazz and improvised music. The goal is to build community in the scene, help grow and develop the scene, grow the audience for this music, and document (thanks CMC!) all the amazing experimental music happening in Toronto.
Sept 13 is Splendide Abysse + Malaby/Fraser/Cole/Clutton
Oct 11 is Leah Reavie & Omar Yazaw's "French Onion Soup", Adrian Russouw's "C'est la Fete", and The Allison Cameron Band
gigs this month:
Sept 4 - Holy Oak Family Singers plays Yo La Tango @ Tranzac
Sept 10 - Josh Cole presents: double duo :: COLE/CLUTTON/OSWALD/WEST @ Tranzac
Sept 11 - Brodie West Quintet @ Tranzac
Sept 13 - Malaby/Fraser/Cole/Clutton @ CMC
Sept 14 - Luka Kuplowsky & The Ryōkan Band @ Guelph Jazz Festival
Sept 27 - Luka Kuplowsky & The Ryōkan Band @ Pop Montreal
I believe in placing value, monetary value in fact, on your art. I think its a slippery slope (its not slippery, we are at the bottom of the slope now, nowhere to slip down to) to continue to undervalue your art under the guise of accessibility for all/affordability/exposure. I am talking about the “tip jar/PWYC culture” prevalent in Toronto (the gig I played last night had 60 people at it, packed room, the tip jar made $300 - a common occurrence, that aint right) . But I also think it extends to many other aspects of art making (I wont get into streaming, its been covered so much, feel free to read someone else's blog on that). But I want to talk about playing live which is still my bread and butter, both financially and a lynchpin of my artistic practice.
I’m going to compare Vancouver to Toronto here, as someone who is uniquely situated to comment on both scenes there are things I witnessed, was privileged to benefit from that I don’t think people who have only visited Vancouver but are in the Toronto scene are aware of. So let's talk about the Vancouver experimental scene of the 2000’s. I showed up just after the Sugar Refinery closed, but I was very aware of 1067, hung out there a lot (played there a bit, was at the time still a very jazzy person, so i wasn't ready to totally engage in the improv scene), and was also very privileged to benefit from the support of Coastal Jazz, Tony Reif at Songlines, and Diane Kadota at DKAM. So lets contrast 1067 with what the loft scene at “somewhere there” was, or the Tranzac is now. There was always a cover at 1067, PWYC was not a thing at any show that I attended. $10 (in 2006!), sometimes more. I’m not sure who was responsible for setting this standard (ron? Jp? Gord?), but I suspect it was a byproduct of the sense of value that Coastal Jazz, Tony Reif and others instilled in the artists in Vancouver. Coastal Jazz made the Vancouver experimental scene realize their art was world class and had value - nobody has really done that for the Toronto scene over the last 30 years from what I can see. Lets also contrast Coastal Jazz with the Music Gallery (walking past the line of critique here, inside baseball) - when Dun-Dun band played X-advant in 2016, we made I think $75 (maybe it was even $50) each (7 person band - and yes its crazy that I remember that, but I was shocked having been under the perception that the Music Gallery would operate similarly to Coastal Jazz, paying union scale). That never happens with Coastal Jazz, local bands always got paid really really well (union scale) - and local bands don’t exist only to help support touring acts which is often the structure here in Toronto - in fact, Coastal Jazz uses international touring acts as a way to hi-light local acts (opening for Dave Holland in 2008 was a spring board for international press and touring for my old band the October Trio) and help raise the local profile of the Vancouver musicians in turn helping develop the local audience for the scene.
I think I’ll circle back to my first post - about how part of what I do is encourage people around me to take their art seriously - I think this is part of it, to place monetary value on their art. Everything around us in Toronto tells us we have no value, the music industry constantly tells us our art isn't worth anything, that it doesn't matter. But I learned from Coastal Jazz (Ken & Rainbow) and Tony Reif that my art is worth something, it has value and is worth celebrating, it matters.
I wish Toronto realized that its art is worth something, it has (monetary) value, but i suspect over the last 20-30 years the lack of support has slowly eroded any sense of monetary value we’ve placed on this scene. I know everyone knows what we do has cultural value, I don’t doubt that, and thats important, to believe in what we do, but it shouldn’t stop there. I was really sad when, with a sense of pride in their voice a highly respected Toronto musician and internationally celebrated composer said to me “you can do anything here, because it doesn't matter” as if to say “well, if art were to matter here, then you wouldn't be able to make art the way we do here”. I disagree with this narrative mostly because the history of art making in Europe and the US tells us that the model of multi-genre, multi-disciplinary art making is valued and matters. Everyone in New York plays free jazz, new music and with folk acts. Its common and celebrated, it matters and they get paid.
So a critique of Toronto PWYC culture. First, if someone comes to a show, they can afford to pay $10, if poor punk kinds in 2007 can pay $10 to see Fond of Tigers at 1067, they can afford $10 now. When we devalue our art monetarily (play for $40/the tip jar) it greatly contributes to our art not being taken seriously. If you want your art to not be valued then don’t place a value on it. I think this mentality, intentional or unintentional, in the Toronto experimental music scene greatly contributes to the reason why the scene is not recognized at the same level as Vancouver or Montreal. Yes, their is no festival here working hard to raise our international profile, yes, no label championing our music, yes, Toronto is expensive, lots of other excuses sure sure sure etc… But it starts with the mentality of knowing that our art has value. I really do believe the Toronto scene has value, but I don’t think it believes anyone else will value it and that mentality undermines us constantly.
I am curious though, it seems there was a generation of Toronto experimental artists/musicians who do/did take their art seriously and are still taken seriously, the CCMC generation, Oswald and Snow etc… I don’t know enough about the history of how they developed this sense of value. I will have to do some more digging.
So look, I hope you know that what you do has value, and that your music, your art can reach people outside of our little scene. I know all the energy around us, the city of Toronto tells us that our art has no value. But that narrative is wrong.
Your art has value. (and yes, it has $$ value too)