Musicians’ Endorsements Help Ease the Cost of Gear

They aren’t earning big bucks like Joe Montana with L.A. Gear or Bo Jackson with Nike, but several San Diego jazz musicians enjoy the benefit of endorsement agreements.

In exchange for equipment, the musicians show off the products to students and fans, give clinics on behalf of their sponsors, treat company reps to backstage passes and appear in ads.

Guitarist Peter Sprague’s deal with Gibson, the guitar company, began six years ago when a Gibson rep gave him a guitar synthesizer. The relationship warmed, and Gibson eventually supplied him with guitars, including the Chet Atkins solid-body Sprague uses when he gives lessons.

“I think over the last three or four years, I’ve seen five or six people buy them because I’m playing them,” he said. Taylor Guitars in Santee also hopes to benefit from Sprague’s rising reputation. The company built a custom acoustic guitar to his specs, including abalone inlays and the wider-than-usual neck Sprague prefers, and let him have it at cost.

Showcasing the instruments doesn’t make him uneasy, he added. He would use the same guitars even without endorsement deals.

Braziljazz, a trio that includes Sprague, has an endorsement deal with Shure microphones. The company donated three mikes, and the band can buy more at half price.

Percussionist Tommy Aros of Fattburger cut a deal with XL Specialty Cases of Indiana this month.

“They’re giving me cases for my congas, timbales and percussion equipment,” Aros said. “We’ve been traveling so much, my cases were getting beat up. The airlines have ruined about four conga cases. This XL case I picked up seems to hold up, so I called them and told them how much I like it and we made a deal.

“Endorsements get your name around, and that’s helpful. I’ll be doing some print ads for XL fairly soon with Tony Williams and a couple of other percussionists. They’ll use our names, but I don’t know if they’ll be taking a picture.”

Fattburger bassist Mark Hunter gets free strings from Dean Markley in Santa Clara, which sounds like small potatoes, but turns out to be a major plus for a working musician.

“Lots of times, I couldn’t get these strings. I had to wait for months. Now, I just call up the factory and they send them down factory-fresh. When you buy strings from stores, the quality is not consistent. They may have been sitting there for months.”

Hunter also struck a deal for his SWR Engineering bass amp. The Los Angeles company gave him a wholesale price, $800, half the retail cost.

“Their product is the best. I like to be associated with the best, so I contacted them,” Hunter said.

So far, Hunter hasn’t done much to promote SWR or Dean Markley, other than use the products. But he may soon give clinics at music stores in cities where he appears with Fattburger.

San Diego drummer Chuck McPherson landed a deal with Vic Firth, a drumstick manufacturer, in January, getting 24 pairs for free and the option to buy more at cost. McPherson has also been prospecting for a drum endorsement deal.

But such deals are difficult to land. McPherson has written more than 100 letters in search of the right drum deal.

“Unless you’re really in the spotlight, you have to dig to get the deals, but it’s worth it,” Hunter said.

Contrary to some pro athletes, who have been known to use different products than the ones they advertise, the jazz musicians say they won’t endorse anything that’s not up to their standards.

“You can kind of pretend for a bit, but when it really comes down to making music, you have to have everything the way you want it, regardless of whether you got it for free or not,” Sprague said. “You have to really love the instrument to make the deal work out so that you use it and the company will benefit through sales.”

Since moving to Tierrasanta from Los Angeles a year and a half ago, guitarist Mundell Lowe has fallen head over heels for San Diego.

Unlike a few other prestige players (James Moody, Barney Kessel, Charles McPherson) who live here, Lowe is highly visible in local clubs, appearing several times each month.

“I like the musicians here, the people here,” said Lowe, who plays the Horton Grand Hotel downtown Friday and Saturday at 8:30 p.m.. “I spent 25 years in Los Angeles, and none of it was really happy, but this last year and a half has been wonderful.”

Lowe has given up the busy agenda of studio work he kept in Los Angeles. One of his latest projects is a collaboration with pianist Andre Previn. The two musicians have a lot in common--Previn used to be married to Lowe’s wife, singer Betty Bennett.

Last year’s “Uptown” album placed Lowe’s restrained, clean, melodic guitar work alongside Previn and bassist Ray Brown on a variety of American standards--the music of Ellington, Gershwin and others. In May, Lowe heads to New York to record another album with Previn, this one featuring New Zealand opera singer Kiri Te Kanawa in her jazz debut.

Lowe, Previn and Brown will play a concert somewhere in San Diego in August. This weekend, Lowe is appearing with longtime musical allies Monty Budwig on bass and Sherman Ferguson on drums, plus Bennett on vocals.

RIFFS: Every Thursday during April, pianist Harry Pickens, who has a knack for demystifying the workings of jazz through a combination of talking and playing, will present educational concerts on “Great Jazz Composers” at the Athenaeum School of the Arts in La Jolla. Pickens opens the series next week with the music of Duke Ellington, followed by sessions on Thelonious Monk and on the relationship between jazz and the American popular music of such composers as Jerome Kern and Alec Wilder. Among the local musicians scheduled to appear with Pickens are pianist Mike Wofford, guitarist Mundell Lowe and bassists Marshall Hawkins and Bob Magnusson. . . .

Sol E Mar plays Brazilian and Afro-Cuban jazz at the Ruse’s “Jazz Tuesdays” series tonight at 8:30 at the Marquis Public Theater. . . .

Bassist Glen Fisher and his band play Croce’s downtown April 1 from 8 to midnight. No fooling. . . .

Guitarist Peter Sprague and vocalist Kevyn Lettau team up this Friday and Saturday night at 8:30 at All That Jazz in Rancho Bernardo.