Friday, September 7, 2012

Jazz European Style

This is such a perfect illustration of the stark difference between jazz in Europe and jazz in America. From the perspective of an American jazz musician, everything in this video is upside down:



In America, the two attractive young women would be either ignoring or glaring at the band. And the musicians would be competent. And unpretentious. And, for that matter, paid a fraction of what these guys are likely getting.

Note: there are some great, unpretentious jazz musicians in Europe, and some terrible, pretentious ones here (and, somewhere, uninhibitedly dancing young people). But, still...

2 comments:

vhliv said...

Thanks for posting this. You know much more about the pay of Jazz musicians, but given the generally much lower pay everyone else is getting in Ukraine, I find it hard to believe these guys are doing better than they would if they performed at an American jazz festival.

Jim Leff said...

Big jazz biz in America pays only a little less than big jazz biz in Europe.

But this is a little festival in a little town, using local talent. The analog in America pays close to nothing. And I'd bet these guys are making way more than nothing.

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