New York Stories

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Elvin JonesI moved to NYC in January of 2000 and spent 4 incredible years there. I truly believe that I went there as a student and came back to Austin as a master – not of music but of life. It goes without saying that I still have much to learn about being a person and a musician but the life experiences I had there, in a relatively short amount of time, were really profound.

One of the highlights for me was one of the times I saw Elvin Jones perform at the Blue Note. I believe it was in the Fall of 2000. I had seen him play at the same club earlier that year and musically, it was amazing. I’ll never forget the first time he did a press roll and cymbal crash – it sent chills down my spine. But the second time I saw him it wasn’t so much about the music as it was the experience I had actually getting to sit down and speak with him for about 15-20min before the show. The pianist in his band at the time was Eric Lewis, an amazingly gifted pianist who I came to know a little bit while we were both attending the Manhattan School of Music in the Fall of 1992. I re-introduced myself to Eric before the show and he instantly invited me up to the green room and he introduced me to Elvin. What a rush! It was surreal and one of the few times in my life I was truly star struck. Here was the man who I listened to thousands of times on legendary recordings and who I held up as the pinnacle of jazz and jazz drumming.

To say that he was gracious is an understatement. Elvin couldn’t have been a nicer, more generous person. He asked me to sit down next to him and he was interested in the fact that I was also a musician and we talked about rhythm, rag-time, swing and music for the next 15-20 min. It was the quickest 15-20min of my life. What a joy! He even asked about my music and I gave him my CD’s Kicks are for Kids and For the Moment. About that time his wife Keiko came in and she shooed me out and took my CD’s so I’m not sure he ever heard them, unfortunately. I am positive he received thousands of CD’s from aspiring saxophonists over the years but at least he was aware, in that moment, that I was one too. And I am better because of it.

Patronism

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Today, I’m officially announcing my participation on Patronism.com and asking for your support. The idea of a patron of the arts has been around forever. The great composers of Western Classical music were all supported by the church or the ruling government  and this still exists to some degree in our modern society, albeit in a much different form.

I welcome you to the 21st century version and ask that you consider this: subscribe to my ongoing stream of online content and decide what you think it’s worth. For as little as $2 per/mo (or more – you decide), you’ll have a login to Patronism where right now, all of my recorded material lives in digital format. You will be able to download any of my material that has been commercially released plus lots of stuff that hasn’t including radio appearances and out-of-print items like my first release, Standards. Additionally, you’ll find my blog posts about music, videos of live shows, and more. I’m hoping to start a webcast of my performances in the very near future and will soon be hosting a series of concerts which of course, you’ll have VIP access to.

Here’s what I like about this model, if you like my music and subscribe, your money goes directly toward creating more of it. Even though many of the barriers of entry to the music industry have crumbled, one still significant hurdle for an independent artist is getting in the studio and making a great CD, mostly due to cost. The Patronism website has some good detail about the economics of the music industry and I’ll sum it up for you: recording CD’s is a money losing scenario for a lot of artists (and labels, too). Patronism takes only a small (15%) fee for administrative purposes which is much different than the 40%+ that the current iTunes + middleman (CD Baby or the like) takes out of the pocket of the artist. More money directly to the artists means more music for you.

So that’s it. That you’re here and reading this is fantastic – thank you. Are you interested in collaborating to create more art and spread the music word to the community? Then join me at www.Patronism.com/EliasHaslanger

Spotify

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The US launch of Spotify has certainly garnered a lot of attention and has once again stirred the pot on the issue of streaming music, artist royalty payments, the major labels and the state of the music industry. Many pundits and artists are crying foul over the fact that artists get bupkis through Spotify’s free streaming service but Spotify is not alone. Here’s a small sampling of my royalties from different streaming sites:

Last.fm, 22 streams, $0.010010
Spotify, 1 stream, $0.006728
Rhapsody, 3 streams, $0.027300
MySpace, 1 stream, $0.001980

As you can see, I’m getting filthy rich off of music streaming. I made an entire penny off of 22 plays of Watch Your Step on Last.fm. Woo hoo! At this rate, I’ll make $10k after 22 million downloads which of course, I’ll make happen by next month, right?

I jest but the point I’m making is that as an artist, I’ve chosen to opt-in to this scheme by saying ok to digital download and digital stream services through my aggregator, CD Baby. I am not a victim – I gave my permission to CD Baby to allow my music on these sites and if you are an artist and sign a deal with a record label or distributor, chances are you are allowing it as well unless you didn’t pay attention to the deal you signed. That’s still a you problem and not a Spotify problem. Does it suck, yes, but it’s the system as we know it. You either play the game or you don’t and some artists choose not to participate. Coming from my view, I see the stream delivery as pure marketing. People who otherwise would not have known about my music can now listen and if they really like it, chances are they will purchase my music. Now when someone does actually want to pay the artist for music, I still would like more choices over iTunes, Amazon and other download sites (eMusic, etc.) and I would like a larger chunk of that revenue but that’s a different blog entry.

Will I opt-in to digital streaming for my next release? Probably not right away — I’d like to make as much money as possible off of the new release — but eventually, sure. And in the meantime, I’ve installed Spotify and am using it to discover new artists that I previously would not have known about.

Studio session recap

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Elias in the studio

Was lucky enough to get into the recording studio, thanks to Mark Sarisky and the Art Institute of Austin, and lay down 13 tracks of original music (minus one Monk and one Shorter tune) in two days. We got over 3 hours in the can which is really great. It was an amazing experience thanks to Bruce Saunders, Steve Schwelling and Daniel Durham, not to mention Mark and his crew who made it very easy. The next step will be to critically evaluate what we got and see if we have enough to put out the next CD. My gut tells me yes but the ears don’t lie. We’ll keep you posted on how it turned out. Regardless, the experience of rehearsing and recording my original stuff, some of which I wrote way back in ’98-’99 (!), is invaluable and I vow to do this at least once a year if I can pull it off. Balancing the family, a challenging (but fun) job, and music is not easy but it is so worth it.

Recording jazz this week

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Going into the studio on Monday and Tuesday with Bruce Saunders, Steve Schwelling, and Daniel Durham. We’ll be tracking a bunch of new original tunes and I’m hoping we’ll get enough down for the next CD. If all goes well, we should have something ready by the fall. You can still stream all of my last CD, Dream Story, by clicking >> here

Wednesday night, I’m back at Swan Dive with SERPENTINE. We start at 10:30pm.

Jazz/Rock tonight with SERPENTINE

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Playing tonight @8:30pm with SERPENTINE at the Continental Club Gallery. SERPENTINE features Gaute Solaas, Sam Lipman, and myself on tenor saxes, Carter Arrington on el-guitar/bass, and D-Madness on drums. If you are looking for something completely different, this band is for you. Incorporating rock, jazz, hip-hop, elements of free music, and more, SERPENTINE defies musical boundaries yet is rooted in groove and improvisation.

Birthday jazz show this Friday, July 8

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Hey friends – come on out to the Elephant Room this Friday, July 8 and celebrate my birthday with some music from my electric band Palladium. Bruce Saunders (gtr), Ben Irom (keys), Daniel Durham (bs), and David Sierra (d) are my special guests for a night of Weather Report-inspired music. We’ll do some originals, too. We play 3 sets of music at 9:30pm, 11pm and 12:30am. Hope to see you out at Austin’s premiere, smoke-free jazz club.

July shows added

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I’ll be playing jazz saxophone with 3Jazz Collective at 7:30pm this Friday, June 24th at Sao Paulo’s Restaurant. Additionally, I’ve posted my July shows which include gigs with Serpentine, 3Jazz Collective and the Elias Haslanger Quintet, on the Shows tab.

While you are here, please sign up for the email list (top right-hand section of the site). I only email when I’ve got something to let you know about like shows, new music, radio appearances, etc. so you can usually expect one or two emails a month from me. You can also “like” the Facebook band page (just underneath the email signup and featured video widget) which gives you access to photos, videos and my entire CD Dream Story which you can stream directly from the site. More info on the band page by clicking –> here.