WYNC:
Ask trumpeter Joey Morant who he’s worked with, and he’ll reel off a list of jazz legends including Lionel Hampton, George Benson and Dizzy Gillespie. Those musicians were big draws for New York’s jazz clubs at one time, attracting tourists and paying customers in droves, but some of them retired with paltry pensions — or with no pensions at all.
Morant doesn’t want history to repeat itself. He said that as long as clubs in the city continue to draw customers with live music, they should share the wealth, and start contributing to a pension fund for performers.
“They make money off of it, they got to give back,” Morant said plainly. “You take out, give back.”
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Some performers in the city have had access to pensions and other benefits for a long time. The city issued an exception in the 1960s that allowed Broadway theaters to sell tickets tax-free, with the understanding that owners would direct the savings into pension funds for performers. Two years ago, musicians and club owners successfully lobbied the state to forgive sales tax on tickets for jazz clubs, too. But according to the union, not a single jazz club so far has used the savings to contribute to artist benefits.
