On February 27, 2010, J4JA! musicians and supporters leafleted (view flyer here) the Blue Note during a performance by Ron Carter, Paul Motian and Bill Frisell. We were able to speak with almost every audience member who went into the club, and we were thrilled to discover that everyone on line for the second set applauded our efforts and agreed to take our literature  into the club.

At no time did we ever discourage audience members from patronizing the establishment, and our cause was helped by the fact that all three of the featured performers had seen our literature in advance and signed off on it!

Before the informational leafleting, J4JA! made sure to contact the Blue Note in an attempt to restart talks around the pension issue. Thus far the management of the Blue Note has not made themselves available to discuss this issue, even for off the record conversations. At this stage, J4JA! remains open to the idea of off the record talks.

Absent substantive progress at the negotiating table, J4JA! expects that there will be more of these activities to occur this spring.

If you are appearing any of the following clubs this year, and support our peaceful efforts to bring benefits to working jazz artists, please contact us at 212 245 4802 X185.

• Blue Note
• Birdland
• Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola
• Iridium
• Jazz Standard
• Kitano
• Lenox Lounge
• Minton’s Playhouse
• Poisson Rouge
• Smoke
• Village Vanguard

Likewise if you would like to volunteer and participate in one of our demonstrations advocating for retirement benefits for jazz artists, email us at [email hidden; JavaScript is required].

Thanks!

J4JA!

Our press release for Tuesday’s J4JA! Rally and March to the Clubs (9/29, 2pm) is below the fold… and here’s a printable copy.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 24, 2009

CONTACT: PAUL MOLLOY

[w] 212.245.4802, ext. 176
[c] 631.965.3324

Local 802 AFM and the Jazz Community Kick Off the Justice for Jazz Artists! Campaign at Judson Memorial Church

On Tuesday, September 29, 2009, The Associated Musicians of Greater New York, Local 802 AFM and members of the New York City Jazz community will launch “Justice for Jazz Artists!”, a campaign addressing the plight of New York City’s Jazz musicians, who receive no benefits from the clubs they perform in. A rally and press conference kicks off the event at Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South (West 4th Street) at 2:00 pm.

The world’s greatest jazz musicians live and work in New York City. However, many are forced to retire with no income to fall back on in their later years. Some are forced to go on public assistance. The mission of “Justice for Jazz Artists!” is to persuade New York City’s jazz club owners to provide pension benefits to Jazz musicians who perform in their venues.

Since 2006, the Justice for Jazz Artists! campaign has attempted repeatedly to engage New York City’s Jazz clubs in constructive dialogue to secure retirement benefits for the Jazz musicians they employ. Some have agreed to meet with Local 802. Most however, have been unresponsive.

In 2007, Local 802 in partnership with some club owners, successfully lobbied the State Legislature to forgive the sales tax on tickets for Jazz club. That was done in order to allow the sums formerly collected as admission sales tax to go toward Jazz musicians’ benefits especially for retirement, at no cost to the clubs. However, since the law’s passage, no club has volunteered to make any pension fund contributions.

“I don’t think to be a jazz musician you should have to swear an oath of poverty”, says Sean Lyons, tenor saxophonist and jazz recording artist. John Cusick, President of Metropolitan Washington DC Federation of Musicians, Local 161-710, says “Club owners need to act responsibly and realize that paying pension on musicians is not only the right thing to do, but helps perpetuate the art form which keeps them in business. I urge New York club owners to do the right thing and take pride in raising the bar for the treatment of jazz musicians everywhere.”

After the rally, there will be a march to the clubs to deliver a petition bearing signatures of nearly 2,000 professional musicians, urging the clubs to use the forgiven tax dollars for its original intent: to provide pension benefits to their jazz musicians.

Justice for Jazz Artists! enjoys the support of the New York City Central Labor Council, New School Jazz Department Faculty Committee, Jazz Foundation of America, former Mayor David Dinkins and over twenty  elected officials, including William C. Thompson, David Yassky, John Liu and Speaker Christine Quinn.

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The play button is at the bottom of the page. Thank you Jazz Session!

We need you to be there.

Since 2006, the Justice for Jazz Artists! campaign has repeatedly tried to engage NYC jazz clubs in constructive dialog to secure retirement benefits for working jazz musicians, to no avail.

We successfully lobbied for a tax break that would go to jazz musicians’ retirement payments, at no cost the clubs; and yet none almost none of the top NYC jazz clubs will even discuss the issue with us — these clubs include the Village Vanguard, the Jazz Standard, the Iridium, Birdland, the Blue Note, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, and (le) Poisson Rouge.

We’re holding this rally to put public pressure on the clubs, so that they do the right thing. After the rally, we will march to the clubs and deliver our petition with 1500 2000+ signatures of professional musicians, demanding that the clubs direct the forgiven tax dollars to musicians’ pension payments — a tax break that we lobbied for, and that the clubs are now enjoying.

J4JA! Rally and March on the Clubs
Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2pm
Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South (West 4th Street)
Greenwich Village, New York City

Musicians: Bring your instruments for our march to the clubs!

Email us at [email hidden; JavaScript is required] or call (212) 245-4802 X 185 for more information. Here’s our Facebook event.

The Justice for Jazz Artists! Jam Session on August 17^th was a grand success.  A hearty congratulations to all who took part!

Two Mondays ago, Local 802, the Jazz Foundation of America and the 802 Jazz Advisory Committee hosted a Justice for Jazz Artists! Jam Session and Kickoff Event to raise awareness around the current campaign to bring benefits to musicians who work in NYC area jazz clubs.

The award winning filmmaker/musician Ron Grunhut created a splendid high definition video of the event, which features interview clips of Randy Weston, Dr. Billy Taylor, Benny Powell, Bernard Purdie, Junior Mance, Reggie Workman, Bob Cranshaw, Sean Lyons and Jimmy Owens, among others.

Featured in the J4JA! video are snippets of performances by Jimmy Owens, Benny Powell, Sean Lyons, Danny Mixon, Kenny Davis, Bernard Purdie, Guadencio Thiago de Mello, Vinnie Knight, Keisha St. Joan, Wade Barnes, Reggie Workman, Bertha Hope, Fran McIntyre and about 2o other performers.

The soundtrack for the video selected by filmmaker Grunhut, was, appropriately, the bluesy “Justice for Jazz Artists,” composed by trumpeter Owens.

The video is about 5 minutes in length, and will be posted on YouTube on or around September 14, 2009.

The Justice for Jazz Artists! campaign is gearing up for future events as we move our campaign into the public sphere this fall.

Local 802 and J4JA! have already been in contact with club owners and NYC political leaders in an effort to resolve issues surrounding the redirection of forgiven NY State tax dollars towards the American Federation of Musicians and Employers’ Pension Fund.

The tax dollars can be painlessly redirected from door admission charges towards benefits for performers who work in the club on any given night. The tax money is about .84 cents of every $10 collected at the door.

Club owners must comply with the intentions of state lawmakers, who passed a law forgiving the door sales tax in 2007, and allowing it to go to performers’ benefits.

Thus far, the clubs have refused to do so.

The Justice for Jazz Artists! campaign seeks to change that!

To volunteer in this important effort to help jazz artists in NY State, please email us or call the Local 802 Jazz Department at 212 245 4802 X185.

Monday, August 17th 6-10PM
322 West 48th Street (8th/9th)
NY, NY

This is a FREE Kick-Off Event for the Justice for Jazz Artists Campaign to get benefits for jazz musicians who work in NYC clubs.

Fans Welcome!

All Musicians and Audience Members will required to sign a release upon entry, as this session is being filmed. No partcipation without RSVP!!

RSVP: 212 245 4802 X 158 (Claudia) or email us

See You There!

Best,
Todd Bryant Weeks

J4JA! Petitioners have now reached over 900 concerned professional musicians and fans from all over! Here are some recent signers:

Dave Liebman
Helen Merrill
Bernice Watkins
Sean Gough
Gail Hightower
Ayodele Maakheru
Bob Blumenthal
Regina Carter
Laurence Donohue-Greene

We are building steam!

Keep up the good work!

Best,

Jimmy Owens
Bob Cranshaw
J4JA!

by Todd Bryant Weeks

When we regard our AFM local with an unclouded eye, one of the things with which we must come to terms is the notion that despite our shared vision of a democratic, unbiased body that serves all of its members equally; despite the fact that Local 802 has always been an integrated local; despite the fact that over the years 802 has bucked societal trends by having integrated governing boards; and despite the fact that in recent decades the local has reached out to jazz artists with the formation of a Jazz Advisory Committee – despite all this, the local is still learning how best to advocate for those who play vernacular music, and for our members of color.

One way 802 can achieve greater advocacy for these performers is by providing access to meaningful benefits.

For those older members who are not vested in the AFM pension fund, getting retirement benefits is an unlikely scenario, even for those who are still working.

Still, most elders I’ve spoken with are in favor of our Justice for Jazz Artists campaign, which seeks to provide a pension for jazz performers where no benefits have been previously available: the New York City clubs. The campaign has begun to gather momentum this summer and we expect to really ramp it up this fall.

Historically, musicians have rarely enjoyed union benefits while working in clubs. Even when union contacts exist, no artist works at any one club with enough frequency to secure eligibility in either the Local 802 Health Benefits Plan or the AFM pension fund from that employment alone.

Club owners have also found various ways to get around agreements, especially if they are conducting a cash business, which is typical for many.

In order for jazz musicians to have access to benefits, more of their work from different sources of employment and from a wider number of venues needs to be organized. The union has successfully organized some resident jazz orchestras, several tours and bandleaders, as well as teaching employment. For those receiving some contributions already, adding benefits from the clubs would be another important step towards a meaningful retirement package. For those who have no benefits, this could be a solid first step towards vesting in a strong and healthy national pension plan.

JAZZ TAKES BACK SEAT

When the AFM was at its peak membership in the 1950’s, vernacular music like jazz took a back seat to the concert field and Broadway, and the union’s neglect of the jazz field was often perceived by musicians as being anti-black.

The bassist and educator Dr. Larry Ridley recalls, “I’ve been in the union since 1960. As African-American musicians, we always had to fight to get the respect we deserved, even within our own union. Black musicians back then looked at the union as being insensitive to our needs – even as locals in every town, big and small, still demanded dues on every gig we played.”

This climate of indifference began to change in the 1980’s, as then 802 President John Glasel, who was a Broadway musician, worked to repeal the daunting cabaret laws that hamstrung musicians by prohibiting small venues and restaurants from hiring more than three performers at a time, and by excluding percussion and horn players from many gigs.

In the early 1990’s, Jimmy Owens, Benny Powell, Bob Cranshaw and Jamil Nasser formed the Local 802 Jazz Advisory Committee to address the inequities that had plagued jazz performers who were unionized – and those who weren’t but who wanted to take advantage of collective bargaining agreements and benefits programs.

Jimmy Owens remembers it this way. “It was a case of benign neglect,” Owens said. “That’s a nice way of putting it. The union and the musicians didn’t really look to secure the kinds of protections that should have been made available to all musicians. And, what was worse, the pension fund was kept a closely guarded secret.”

As the clubs foundered in the 1960’s, some jazz artists were able to make a living by working in studio bands, recording jingles, or playing in pit orchestras. Others sought refuge in Europe, where state-funded venues and a healthy appreciation for American vernacular music had created a vibrant, and expanding, jazz scene. Many musicians felt that both the country and the union had turned away from them.

A decade later, in an attempt to bring some equity to the New York club scene, the Jazz Advisory Committee, with the enormous help and support of New York City Assemblyman Herman “Denny” Farrell Jr. as well as upstate legislators George Maziarz and Joseph Morrelle, succeeded in getting a bill passed in Albany that allowed for an abatement of the sales tax normally charged on admission to small venues.

Like the earlier Turkus Award (the forgiven 1963 Broadway ticket tax utilized for Broadway employee benefits and still in effect today) the door tax dollars were now free to be contributed to the AFM Pension Fund.

The clubs, especially Birdland, the Blue Note, Iridium and the Jazz Standard, all agreed to support the 2007 lobbying effort by the union, but when the law was passed, the club owners balked.

Some felt that they would be deemed “employers” through their association with the fund, and thus would be liable for state statutory benefits like unemployment, workers’ comp, and disability insurance.

Others simply refused to participate, stonewalling any attempts by Local 802 to seek their co-operation.

Since the law as written did not actually compel the owners to do anything, the club owners were not violating any laws by refusing to redirect the tax. Even after the union successfully addressed the statutory benefits piece of the puzzle, allowing for a scenario where contributions could be made even as business in the clubs went on as usual, owners have yet to agree to sit down and discuss a resolution with the union.

Again, the jazz musicians found themselves on the outside looking in.

This summer, Local 802 hopes to move hearts and minds on this issue with two simple words – “Justice” and “Jazz.”

At this writing, the Jazz Advisory Committee has gathered over 800 signatures of prominent jazz artists in support of the campaign, and has put together a growing coalition of endorsers including the Jazz Ministry at St. Peter’s Church, New York City Central Labor Council, Jazz Foundation of America, New School Jazz Department Faculty Committee, Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition and prominent music writers, including Nat Hentoff, Dan Morgenstern and Gary Giddins.

WE HAVE AN OBLIGATION

For some artists for whom these efforts may be too little, too late, there must be continued advocacy.

If they are unable to access basic benefits programs due to past inequities, then we all have an obligation to these senior members of our musical community; at the very least we should do what we can to promote their music and their legacy and ensure their comfort and security in their later years.

For those younger musicians who work night after night in local clubs with no benefits, Justice for Jazz Artists will have a real and lasting impact.