All That Jazz Hardly Pays for Groceries

Asked about making a living in San Diego, local jazz musicians don’t mince words.

“Short story, huh?” joked Mark Hunter, the bass player for the group Fattburger.

“You can do it if you’re 22 years old with no responsibilities and you live at home where food is good and rent is cheap,” said jazz pianist Shep Meyers, 52.

“Right now, the scene is very bad,” said jazz vocalist Coral Thuet. “There aren’t any clubs to play in. The only ones for locals are Croce’s and the Loft. It’s really a drag.”

“It’s getting desperate for these guys,” said David Fargo, general manager at Vic’s in La Jolla, which books jazz. “I get more calls than I ever had before about playing our restaurant.”

The weak local scene has caused players like pianist Art Resnick and bass man Dave Marr to leave for greener pastures in Europe and elsewhere. That probably wouldn’t include Los Angeles.

“On the whole, it’s worse up there,” said bass player Bob Magnusson. “I lived there for a while. The reason is, you have that whole group of guys who are fine studio players. They want to come out and play, and they aren’t concerned with money, because they make six figures in the studios. Many nights their bar tabs at places like Donte’s and the Baked Potato are more than their pay. Guys make $28 or $32 to play for three or four hours. It’s ridiculous.”

The tendency in San Diego is to peg club owners as penny pinchers, and blame them for the low pay. But they aren’t entirely at fault. After all, they have their own financial realities, and San Diegans just don’t seem as interested in hearing live jazz as they are in Top 40 or rock ‘n’ roll.

Some of the clubs can’t afford to pay any more than they do.

Local 325, the musicians union, might be expected to act as a go-between, helping to improve wages for members. The union classifies clubs as A, B or C, according to their size and what they can afford to pay. Croce’s is a B, for example, Diego’s Loft, an A. But the union doesn’t seem forceful when it comes to money.

“Fifty dollars for four hours is the going rate in the clubs,” said Edward Arias, the union’s local business representative.

“The union has kind of faded here,” said bass man Magnusson. “Most everyone’s a member, but the union doesn’t seem able to do much.”

The demise of key local jazz clubs, and format changes at other night spots that previously featured jazz have made the situation worse. When Our Place in Hillcrest closed two years ago, San Diego jazz musicians lost a good friend.

“That was a club that everyone could play without restrictions,” Thuet said. “It was sort of a neighborhood bar, kind of a dive, but in a good sense. That was where all the musicians hung out. They always had great bands. Even though the money wasn’t good, they made up for it because you could play whatever you wanted to play.”

More recently, the Bella Via in Cardiff was sold and, under the new name Pastels, no longer offers jazz. Musicians once viewed the Bella Via as the prime local venue, with its second-story bar offering white-water views and a great sound system. PAX in La Jolla, a restaurant which booked jazz, went out of business. Presto, which replaced it, features mostly rock and reggae.

Actually, Croce’s in downtown San Diego and Diego’s Loft in Pacific Beach aren’t the only local clubs regularly booking jazz, just the most active when it comes to “straight ahead” jazz, with its roots in the jazz of the ‘40s and ‘50s. The Horton Grand Hotel downtown features jazz in its Palace Bar. Vic’s in La Jolla offers jazz several nights a week. The Jazz Mine record store in La Jolla holds occasional concerts. Several clubs host KIFM’s brand of “Lites Out Jazz,” hybrid music scornfully dubbed by purists as “elevator” or “Valium” jazz.

And there is Elario’s, which features big-name national jazz talents, often backed by local musicians. But only a few locals get to play; the house rhythm section generally consists of pianist Mike Wofford, drummer Jim Plank and bass player Magnusson.

The pay for the “name” acts is surprisingly modest. Steve Satkowski, who does the booking, declined to give specific figures, but said name players earn more than $150 per night. Many earn an additional $230 if they tape a half-hour KPBS-TV “Club Date” show when they’re in town. Other sources said the pay at Elario’s has been as little as $400 per week for five nights. The local backup musicians get $70 or $80 for a four-hour gig.

At least one nationally known jazz man reportedly turned down an Elario’s invitation because of the money. Other musicians, though, like playing the La Jolla club. They view a two-week gig there, with meals and an ocean-view room, as a vacation from the craziness of Los Angeles or New York.

By contrast, name acts earn thousands when they do one-night stands in San Diego, according to San Diego Jazz Festival promoter Rob Hagey. The San Diego Jazz Festival is a foundation set up by Hagey to offset losses when jazz dates fail to cover expenses, as it did recently when drummer Art Blakey made an appearance at Bacchanal in Kearney Mesa. Hagey said the show cost about $5,000.

Salaries for one-night dates by comparable luminaries range from $4,500 for pianist McCoy Tyner to $12,000 to $15,000 for trumpeter Miles Davis.

The money for local musicians is especially slim for those who play traditional, or “straight ahead” jazz, rather than the more lucrative, light jazz often heard on KIFM (98.1) and KSWV-FM (102.9). Straight ahead players’ pay ranges from $30 for a three-hour afternoon gig at Croce’s to $75 to $100 for four hours at Diego’s Loft, where local musicians play about two-thirds of the dates, with the rest taken by national acts.

Bands playing on KIFM’s “Lites Out Jazz” circuit, which hits a different San Diego club every night of the week, can make $400 to $700 a night playing such spots as the Rusty Pelican, Humphrey’s, the B St. Cafe and City Colors.

“The circuit is really good,” said David Ochs, the guitarist in Most Valuable Players, which appears often in the “Lites Out” clubs. Ochs, married with kids, works as a plumber to make ends meet.

Chuck’s Steak House, which is not a “Lites Out” participant but a place where that kind of jazz is often heard, is reportedly one of the lowest paying rooms in town. Sources say that bands at Chuck’s Steak House get $150 plus 10% of the bar, which can amount to about $200 total.

San Diego jazz musicians often turn to “casuals” to make ends meet. Such occasions as weddings and corporate parties actually pay better than club dates.

Piano man Meyers said a casual performance can easily earn him $150. Jazz pianist Joe Azarello said the range for a three-hour casual by a solo piano player is $75 to $250.

To make it financially, musicians find themselves expanding their repertoires to meet a variety of requests--not necessarily jazz.

Pianist and bass player Richard James, who plays piano three nights a week at the U.S. Grant Hotel downtown, and three days a week inside the La Jolla Village Square shopping mall, said that he knows between 500 and 1,000 songs, ranging from “Hello Dolly” to obscure Delta blues numbers. He’d rather play pure jazz, he said, but there is the matter of earning a living. Even so, he doesn’t seem bitter.

“What I’m doing is working on a lot of things,” he said. “The notion is what I was last year and what I am today are related. The notion of growth, of learning, is extremely important to a musician. Trying to keep up with the marketplace, to keep the money rolling in, forces you to be perceptive.”

Commercial work is even more lucrative for the lucky few musicians who get the jobs.

“This afternoon, I was in the studio doing jingles,” Fattburger’s Hunter said recently. “We taped a theme for the ‘Attitudes’ show on the Lifetime channel. I made $300 in six hours.”

Hunter also played on radio and TV commercials for American Savings, fruitful jobs because they offer musicians royalty payments every 90 days as long as the commercial is in use. Royalties amount to 75% of the original fee, Hunter said.

No matter how they scrape a living together, life is hectic for the jazz musicians. Meyers recently went two weeks without a day off. During a particularly hectic week, he played as many as three gigs a day.

“That was the best week I ever had,” Meyers said, adding that he had made $700 to $800. “You don’t want to be 50 years old and playing clubs all your life. I’m always going to play, but it would be nice just to be recognized for your own material. I think every artist in town feels the same way. You play other material as a springboard for your own, to show off your talent. I’m one of the more successful musicians in town, and I can’t imagine I’m living beyond the poverty level.”