Article by Todd Matthews

In an artist loft on historic Old Ballard Avenue, across the street from the Tractor Tavern, and a few blocks away from two independent record stores, Seattle musician and record label owner John Bishop is doing the unthinkable.

He's promoting jazz music.

Promoting music may not seem like such a daring thing to do. But if you ask most local musicians about the economics of presenting jazz in Seattle, they will most likely tell you about the industry's minimal pay . . . its small audiences . . . its marginalized claim on the larger music categories, such as rock, pop, rap, etc. Moreover, if you speak with club owners hosting jazz, the concerns may be similar. Often, jazz does not draw enough audience members to pay for the costs of hosting live events (see 'Farming The Land' In Seattle's Music Scene / Jazz Steps Vol. 1, Issue 6 and Seattle Club Owners Strive To 'Create The Right Vibe' / Jazz Steps Vol. 1, Issue 7). Yet, promoters like Bishop actively work in the industry, book gigs, promote records, and network with artists.

How does someone in Seattle promote such a marginalized music?

"Trying to line up airplay and make a concert happen is a lot like auditioning . . . re-auditioning . . . starting from scratch," Bishop told me. "It's a very demeaning and hideous feeling. It's pretty pathetic." Bishop invited me to his Ballard studio—an eclectic space with a view of downtown's Old Ballard. His space is home to a pair of curious cats, and the headquarters of Origin Records. Bishop started the label four years ago, releasing three CDs. Presently, he has eighteen artists and a catalog of nearly four-dozen records. The veteran drummer started the label because he thought Seattle lacked a central conduit through which musicians could record and sell their records. "Everyone was doing their own thing, putting out their own little projects," Bishop explained. "Three months later, a musician's record would be gone. All the press was done, and it would just be a guy sitting on a thousand CDs in his basement." Origin Records is evidence of how robust Seattle's jazz talent is, and brings to the forefront many of the records and artists actively involved in the local circle of jazz performers.

Bishop is no up-and-coming music mogul. His means are stunted, his approach to business steeped in reality. "I mostly work with people who have been doing this for a long time, and know the realities of the business," Bishop explained. "They know the realities of selling jazz. They're not going to sell 15,000 records; they're going to sell a few hundred and it's going to take some work. I think what Origin Records provides is a place where you can put your record out, and it can get exposure somewhere."

Bishop is humble about his business acumen. He knows his limitations ("I'm not a good businessman. I'm not a good Type A salesperson"). However, he does have many qualities that make for a good music promoter. He's a journeyman drummer with an enviable working relationship with some of the most important and legendary musicians in the Pacific Northwest. "Anybody who wants to be a promoter would already have to be in the scene," Bishop said. "Most promoters are really in tune to what's going on. They know the people, they know the musicians, and they know what to expect. If they don't, they're not around very long."

In addition to his storied career in jazz, Bishop has a great deal of experience as a graphic designer—a skill that is quite handy for designing album covers. He does all the graphic art for Origin Records on his own, rather than contracting it out to other companies and incurring additional costs. "I know what the market is," Bishop explained. "People can afford to make a project, where maybe in the past a musician may have had to fork over so much money."

Promoting jazz through Origin Records is not a hobby, according to Bishop. Nor is it an aggressive, corporate enterprise. "It's more of a life," he explained. "It's not like I'm ever going to make a lot of money. What we can hope for is if we can all break even on these projects. Everyone ends up making a few bucks here and there. I think that's what we can mostly hope out of all this. It just feels good to be able to get this music out there, and have it noticed."

"I'm a big fan, player and promoter of jazz," Tacoma-based saxophonist Kareem Kandi told me. In January 2001, his trio began performing three Thursdays per month at the Hopvine—a Capitol Hill pub where the owner appreciates Kandi (and the subsequent crowds) as much as Kandi appreciates the venue. "When you are promoting music, you are bettering the music scene by getting people to come out and listen to jazz."

Kandi is an important figure when looking at the business of promoting jazz. Most musicians cannot afford to hire a promoter or pay for some of the costs associated with producing a record with a small label like Bishop's Origin Records. Simply put, musicians must promote and market on their own—finding gigs, gathering a fan base, and actively pursuing one's music.

Kandi is doing all those things, yet with a slightly different approach; much of his focus is on studying music. Three years ago, the gifted young saxophonist earned a full scholarship to study at Cornish College of Fine Arts in Seattle. Kandi, who graduates next spring, divides his time between studying, instructing, and performing as the jazz house band at the Hopvine.

How does Kandi draw a crowd to each performance? Hard work, really. He is candid when talking about his strategy. According to Kandi, promoting jazz is equally as important as performing jazz. "You could be the best artist in the world," said Kandi, "but if you can't produce a crowd that's going to buy things, you might as well go home. That's what many people just don't understand. They think, 'If I practice really hard and get really good, people will just start calling.' That might be the case for recording companies, but if you want to play clubs and pay the bills, you have to get people to come out. That's hard, especially playing jazz—which is such a small percentage of the music industry."

Kandi learned the business of music promoting firsthand. When his brother bought the Habana Lounge Café and Casino in Tacoma several years ago, Kandi saw his sibling struggle with hiring and promoting music. According to Kandi, the casino was spending $10,000 per month on entertainment, and receiving little financial return. Kandi was soon hired to book and promote music. Kandi told his brother, 'Give me a couple months and let me see if I can turn it around.' He went around to all the colleges (the Habana was an all-ages casino and club) and started collecting names for an e-mail list. His strategy was to build an e-mail list through which he would promote music at the casino. The strategy worked. "As I started getting more people on the list," explained Kandi, "more people would start showing up. That's what clued me in that e-mail lists were showing results." Moreover, according to Kandi, people were more likely to read their e-mail than pick up a newspaper or weekly calendar in order to find live music.

Kandi learned something about the music business that not many other musicians have had the good fortune or opportunity to experience. Booking live music, while being a musician himself, allowed him the insight to understand what club owners and musicians must do in order to promote their music and draw an audience. "I learned a ton about the other side of the music industry," Kandi said. "The club owner doesn't care how good the band is, or what the band plays. The club owner just cares about how many people are in the bar, and how many drinks those people are buying."

Does that mean that jazz musicians must sell themselves out in order to promote their music? Not necessarily, according to Kandi, and he bristles at the thought. "That's one of the things that irritates me about jazz musicians," Kandi explained. "Some musicians think, 'Oh, it's an art form. I am an artist.' They put all the pressure on the club owners to do all the booking and promoting. Why do Blues, R & B, and Hip Hop always do so well, and club owners always want that? Because the artists promote themselves more than anybody else. Just as much as they are working on their music, they are out there hustling the business side of things. That's why they do so well. I think that if jazz musicians spent fifty percent of their time promoting themselves, jazz would be a more popular music than it is. It's just under promoted because everyone is on this kick that it's an art form: 'It's not my job to promote.' It's every bit a jazz musician's job to promote. It's a business. You need to take care of business."

Bishop promotes jazz through his record label.

Kandi is on the cusp of breaking out in the jazz scene, and confidently looking forward to promoting his music after college

Anna Doak's involvement promoting Seattle jazz is entirely different. "I am out of that business," she told me via e-mail. "I did it for ten years and it sapped me of my creative energy." Indeed, Doak's experiences with promoting jazz in Seattle are telling and frank—and characterize some of the unfavorable aspects of this business. Today she finds much more satisfaction as a professional symphony musician, music teacher, and arranger.

How does one promote jazz successfully? "Have a good promo package," according to Doak, "lower your musical standards, kiss butts, let people with money treat you like a servant, and you may be able to eke out an existence."

Doak cited the marginalized genre that is jazz as being the promoter's greatest challenge. Not enough people are interested in going out to hear live jazz, according to Doak. Those that do are interested in pop jazz or new age styles. "Many musicians are not able to be true to their creative souls for fear of losing what little audience there is," Daok explained.

Doak's comments are in line with many of the other promoters, club owners, and musicians with whom I spoke.

Working professionally in Seattle's jazz scene is one of the most difficult challenges a musician faces. Promoters, as with musicians and club owners, face similar challenges. Yet the key to surviving in Seattle's jazz scene, according to the majority of people interviewed for this series, is diversification. The musician has a much better chance of making a living at music if one diversifies his or her career (performing at gigs, teaching music to students, etc.). Similarly, club owners have found success by not relying solely on jazz music to carry their business (e.g., jazz one or two nights a week).

The situation is no different for the jazz promoter.

A successful jazz promoter knows the realty of the situation, according to Bishop. "It's a matter of knowing you may not make a living at this, so you better have a nice, well-rounded promotion company," Bishop said. "It's the same sort of thing for musicians. 'OK, I'm not going to make a good living playing jazz in clubs. I better be able to do a jingle session. I better be able to play a Broadway show. I better be able to teach.' It's the same for a club. 'If I'm going to have jazz seven nights a week, I better have really good food.' You've got to have your balance. It's the only real way to make a living at this."

Part One | 'Farming The Land' In Seattle's Jazz Scene
Part Two | Creating A Vibe' At Seattle's Jazz Clubs
Part Three | 'Taking Care of Business': Promoting Jazz In Seattle

This article originally appeared in Jazz Steps and All About Jazz