dailystream.mondoville.com

An all call to Toronto Media written by Tim Shia.
http://ppfhouse.com/music/wpbe/

Letter to the Editor or someone who cares about the Arts and basic respect

I was performing with a jazz group at the main jazz club in Toronto on Wednesday night at dinner time, when a party of City Councilors and members of the Toronto Star, Toronto Sun and Globe and Mail came out to celebrate the retirement of a Globe writer [Jennifer Lewington]. There’s no fixed cover, but it’s a Pay-What- You-Can policy in order to encourage passerbys to come in have a meal/drink and listen to music. The suggested donation is $5 and this was announced. This is how the bands get paid and this generally works better than having a set cover charge given the time of day, the amount of walk in traffic on Queen Street and the general apathy towards jazz. It also encourages people and especially students to come out and see local talent without having to break the bank as they would for clubs in other major cities like New York, London or Tokyo. This policy itself is a commentary on the music scene in the city, but that’s another debate.

Being the premier jazz club in the city, the players on the stage included Juno winners that have performed with everyone from Chantal Kreviazuk, Blue Rodeo and Wynton Marsalis, performing original music that’s been commissioned by The National Film Board, the Governor General Awards and even the UN. However, the assembled masses talked through the whole performance, commandeered the stage without a word to the band during the set break and about half the assembled party begrudgingly gave $2 or less in change when the tip jar went around to collect the pay-what- you-CAN cover . A few even disdainfully refused to pay (these journalists and politicians were obviously facing hard times despite their spiffy business suits and dresses). Oddly enough, those that weren’t there for the retirement party and were there for the music gave between $5 and $10, including an enthusiastic group of high school music students from Israel.

Now, jazz musicians are used to people not getting the music but if one doesn’t appreciate the music or the musicianship, don’t stay, it’s not like they paid a lot to be there. Don’t talk over the performance. That just seems rude to those trying to listen to the performance and those trying to perform. Would the aforementioned do the same thing at the Canadian Opera Company or even a movie theatre? Probably not, they paid good money for tickets, even if they didn’t like what they saw. Granted, the club has no formal listening policy, but a little common sense and decency would dictate not trying to drown out the performance. I talk in clubs too sometimes, but I at very least try to do it at the back of the club and not in front of the stage. It’s curious why they chose to congregate at a jazz club in the first place, were they wanting to show their support for the Arts?

In all fairness, there was a good portion of the party that did ante up and show a little bit of appreciation for the band, but overall it was quite disappointing when the Mayor himself tipped a looney. He obviously didn’t remember that I performed at a party for him after he was reelected for a second term. Or maybe he did and felt someone paid me too much. Maybe he used up his per diem. I even voted for him. Too bad my property tax wasn’t Pay-What-I-Want or Pay-Something- to-Get-Rid-Of-The-Tax-Collector. At least he gave me something, Councilor Giambrone couldn’t be bothered.

I’m curious to see if any of the assembled members of the press at the party are also responsible for editorials and if this little blurb will ever see the light of day. There are obviously more important matters like the tragedy in Haiti, or detainee torture in Afghanistan but there is always the interweb, maybe I can start a facebook group.

Tim Shia of the Worst Pop Band Ever.

http://www.facebook.com/notes/leo-shia/toronto-city-councilors-and-newspaper-journalists-disrespect-of-music/253564130682

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Hi Tim,

My name's David Nickle - I'm president of the Toronto City Hall Press Gallery and, I guess, ringleader responsible for the unfortunate evening at the (club) Wednesday night. Vanessa Lu forwarded me the letter you wrote to the Star, the Globe and various others; I wanted to take the opportunity to apologize, and maybe explain a couple of things.

First, the apology: I'm sorry your music didn't get the attention it deserved, and that our guests didn't honor the PWC cover as they might have. I certainly enjoyed the performance - and personally contributed to the jar. But others didn't contribute, and if they enjoyed your performance, sure kept it to themselves.

Now, the explanation: Frankly, we were taken a bit by surprise. We'd organized the goodbye party for Globe reporter _____________ the same as we've done other retirement/exit parties at the Rex, which in addition to being a first-class jazz venu is also a popular after-work bar among the city hall set. The usual M.O. is to show up early, usually inhabit the back of the room so as not to interfere with the show when it starts up later on... and usually, we show up with far fewer people.

Trouble was, this particular night the back of the room was reserved. And this particular night there was a band playing early (you). And ______ is very popular, and a lot more people came than usually do.

So we did what we could. We spoke with the management, and figured that we'd say a few words during the set break so as not to compete with the music. When that break came, the manager asked me if we wanted to use the stage. This is an important distinction. I didn't actually ask to use the stage, certainly didn't commandeer it, and having been offered it by the (club's) manager, assumed everything was cool vis-a-vis me getting on the stage and using a microphone during your set break.

With that said, I agree with you: we were a crappy, talkative audience. Some of us could have paid, and others paid more (for the record, I chipped in $15). And at the end of it all, really good jazz didn't get the appreciation it needs and deserves.

So please accept my apology on behalf of everybody.

David Nickle
Reporter
Toronto Community News City Hall Bureau

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Thank you for responding. I know you're probably a busy man and have more important things to do, so I appreciate the time you took to write.
I also do remember that you gave twice, thank you for that. I believe the second time was when one of your colleagues ignored my donation requests in front of you.

Thanks also for apologizing on behalf of your colleagues but I’m afraid that by the tone of your letter you may mistakenly believe that the issue is that we took personal offense because people weren’t listening to our music.
My editorial was in response to the hypocrisy and lack of respect for the other patrons and music in general by the elected officials and distinguished members of the press that were in attendance.

While it’s great when people like what we do, like the patrons who were buying CDs and cheering at the end of solos, as experienced performers, most of us are very use to having our music ignored or dismissed at times and we usually just play through it. What’s bothersome to me, is that some of the patrons were from a high school big band visiting from Israel and were set to perform at the same time at the club in a few days. I hope that your party would have acted much differently had it been this inexperienced group of bright eyed and enthusiastic kids on stage. That would have been an interesting message our young visitors would have taken home with regards to how the leaders of the largest city in Canada treat the Arts and other human beings.

I mean, had we been a no name cover band playing bad music at a dive bar for a guarantee and a bunch of patrons out to party, we would have been ok with the behaviour we witnessed. Instead, we had award winning musicians playing complex original music for paying customers being spit upon, not by all, but by a good portion of political journalists who are quick to write about the faulty decisions and actions of elected officials that lead to indignities being heaped upon the common man; as well as those same elected officials, who often campaigned as patrons of the arts. I’m sure you can appreciate my frustration and incredulity, especially since I’ve been in the former situation and most of the time, the often inebriated patrons show far more respect than these bastions of community.

Please be assured that I harbour no ill will towards you or the event itself. I'm all for parties. I think it’s great that folk from City Hall like to hang out at music venues and strongly encourage it. Retirement parties, birthday parties, bachelor parties, it’s all good. The better the club does the better for the artists that play there. We all need to eat.

By the same token, Ms. _________ seemed quite accomplished and deserving of a celebration. That's why we respectfully dedicated a song to her, despite your party’s general behavior. Oddly enough, when I mentioned the lack of support on stage, she yelled out something to the effect of "try harder". I'm sure that can be taken any number of ways and I didn't ask for clarification. Afterwards she thanked us for the dedication and gave me $2 for our efforts. I didn't bother mentioning her in the editorial out of respect for the event and her contributions to her craft, but I have to say that I would be hard pressed to find someone who didn't find her actions patronizing or down right insulting. This I took personally even though I suspect it was more out of ignorance than spite. I can't say the same for some of the others. I also singled out Mayor Miller and Mr. Giambrone in the letter because they are elected officials who should be held accountable. It’s too bad that neither of them felt compelled to respond.

Thank you for clarifying about how you wound up taking the stage. I apologize for having said you commandeered it. No one I talked to knew how you got on stage. You were probably talking to the owner because the manager was on vacation and the acting manager had no idea that you were going to be there. But at least now I know why you didn’t bother saying anything to us.

Here’s the thing though, even if you had you called ahead and alerted the staff and booked the back area for smaller numbers, the disrespect of the music would probably have been about the same. It just would have been quieter and not directly in front of the musicians.

To reiterate, my issue isn’t with noise, bad tippers or people ignoring us in general, it’s about who was being disrespectful. To that end, if you respect music and musicians, why have disruptive events at places where people go specifically to hear live music if you’re not there to listen to the music?

I suspect none of this will amount to anything but I thank you for letting me vent.