How much do you charge?

"How much do you charge?" is a hard question to answer sometimes when it comes to music. Most musicians charge different amounts depending on the nature of the event and sometimes how they perceive the hiring person's ability to pay. The object is to not quote too high of a price for fear of being rejected nor too low of a price. Other musicians, mainly less experienced ones, will sometimes even "play for the experience/exposure," a.k.a. free, in a commercial establishment which really messes things up.

I'd someday like to do a survey of jazz musicians and what they charge for different types of events venues. I would want to find out what people would charge for a 3 hour gig in a restaurant vs. a jazz club vs. a wedding reception vs. a concert hall vs. a school vs. a friend's 2nd cousin's graduation party etc. and ask what area of the country the respondents are located in. I wonder if more transparency and uniformity in what musicians charge would help strengthen the jazz working class when it comes time to talk money. What would the "living wage" for a jazz musician be?

Solar Tax Credit Bill Fails

Senate Republicans managed to scuttle a bill that would extend energy tax credits for companies investing in solar and other renewable energy sources:

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/ecogeek/564/senate-nixes-solar-tax-credits.html

The Republicans were upset that the bill would be offset by closing tax loopholes for hedge fund managers operating offshore funds. Hedge funds, which are basically secretive, unregulated financial playgrounds for the rich, are apparently more important than finding a solution to energy problems which affect poor and middle class people the most. Hopefully technology will advance to a point where a person or community could easily and cheaply generate their own energy and not have to be at the mercy of the oil industry and their political enablers.

Red Garland vs. Wynton Kelly

Here's a quick comparison of the styles of Red Garland vs. Wynton Kelly:

Red Garland	Wynton Kelly
more legato touch	more staccato touch ("pop")
block chords with root-fifth-octave in right hand common	block chords not as common and many times they just have an octave in the right hand
uses more blues devices sometimes repeated over several choruses (see "Soul Junction" for example)	favors b5 more frequently
long phrases a la Bud Powell	uses triad arpeggios frequently sometimes with b5; sometimes with tremolo "fanfare"
eighth notes are a tiny bit straighter than Kelly's	eighth notes have a triplet feel (try playing transcriptions with boogie woogie triplet left hand to get rhythmic feel)
Left hand chords are frequently played on the upbeat of 2 and 4 or with a "Charleston" rhythm	Left hand chords frequently consist only of 3rds and 7ths