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by Shannon West
There's an old saying that when you start pondering a question the answer may come from unexpected places in unexpected ways. While I was thinking about what to write in this column I got an email from a friend, a long time smooth jazz program director who was laid off. Since then he has been thinking of new, creative ways to get the music out there. The old platform got yanked out from under him but he's building and refining some new ones. He sent me a segment of radio consultant Harve Alan's blog - a piece on being thankful and moving forward during difficult times that focused on three words: creativity, optimism, and perseverance. He then said that by using those concepts "it is up to us to create the next story line for radio."
That's not just about radio. You could replace that word with just about any field of endeavor that you wanted to but it especially hits home with us - the smooth jazz community. There is much doom and gloom talk and music business climate in what we have finally acknowledged as recessionary times doesn't seem to offer much in the way of glimmers of light. Then you realize that as Allen said, it is up to us to create that next story.
Creativity. Optimism. Perseverance.
It seems like after I read that piece things started to fall into place. Why not focus our turn-of-the year edition on a group of industry people who embody those traits. People who are being realistic about the challenges we are facing, experiencing the setbacks we all experience, and still bringing a positive attitude and true originality to what they do. And being willing to get down and dirty and do the hard work it takes to make a living and play the music that brings us so much joy.
One time a few years ago I was talking to Richard Smith, bemoaning a series of professional and personal setbacks that covered everything from busted relationships to a busted transmission. He looked at me and said "this is when you start to get really creative." It's no wonder that in his role as a professor he inspires his students to work hard, smart, and without boundaries. It's no wonder that he was able to gather a group of gifted high profile musicians and put together the LA Chillharmonic - one of the finest and most interesting CDs to come out this year. He was already scheduled to be one of our featured artists this month. Then someone suggested Carol Ray, Nick Colionne's manager. We know her here at SmoothViews because she reached out to us. Other website owners, bloggers and Internet radio station programmers know her too. Why? Because she found and cultivated relationships with independent and alternative media. Her client was headed for stardom, he gets airplay and headlines major festivals. They could rest on those laurels and stay afloat for now but neither of them are settling for that. They support everyone from the major radio programmers to the guy running a webcast from his house, from writers for major magazines to the last person standing in a long autograph line. It's work. Hard work. That is about as overwhelming as herding cats but they are doing it, laying a foundation for the future that will keep them high profile even if a few of these elements should fade away like brick and mortar retail did.
This is Will Donato's work ethic: we scheduled an interview then I had to fill in for an instructor at my gym who got sick. Will offered to do the interview after I got home. By then he was on his way to a gig after working all day to complete his holiday CD. So we had our conversation while he was on the road. This is a guy who has the talent and charisma to blast through the ceiling that stands between him and stardom but some things have tripped up. He was the one who was supposed to tour with Richard Marx when Marx's career was peaking but Marx decided to take some time off touring. The guy before Will was Dave Koz. The guy after him was Euge Groove. So it goes. Most of his fans that don't live in range of his local gigs discovered him while he was with the Rippingtons spin off Steve Reid's Bamboo Forest. He left that group to launch his solo career shortly after 2000. Then come the post 9/11 cultural shifts and the complete sea change in the music business. Yet he is constantly working, releasing excellent CDs and supporting his family as a working musician. He dropped a quote from Michael Brecker that I now have posted on my bulletin board about having a bunch of lily pads. If one of them starts to take on water then you can jump to the others and that's how you make a career. You create lots of lily pads.
Another blogger, Jerry Del Colliano, wrote an excellent piece called "The Advantages of Being Fired From Radio." It was about how when you were budget cut or replaced by a computer you still had this whole set of skills and what you needed to do was widen your vision and fine new ways to use those skills. That way you are contributing to change and evolution - creating a future full of opportunities that don't even exist now- rather than looking backward for the a safe, familiar rabbit hole.
This is hard work. The same hard work that Smith, Ray, Donato, my friend who forwarded that inspiring email, and a lot of their peers are starting to do. They multi task and nurture all the facets of the work they do, and they create new lily pads and leap between them to keep their careers moving forward. Talking to them was inspiring. Transcribing their words and then reading them back was energizing. It made me want to really pursue and develop new ideas instead of seeing roadblocks and resistance that might be on the path both in this field and and as a fitness instructor and trainer.
We face 2009 with a lot of discouraging things happening but with a revitalized sense of hope. Be inspired by what you read here then apply it to your own life and career, whether you are in the music business or in a totally unrelated field. Shake off the fear and discouragement because just when you need some inspiration something will come your way from an unexpected place in an unexpected way. The resolution/revolution is too cultivate creativity and imagination, shake off defeatism, and hang in there. All those little glimmers have the potential to turn into a beautiful ray of light.
Read Harve Alan posts inspiring and thought provoking content on his blog almost daily. Click here to read the piece quoted here is at.
Del Colliano's piece is a must for anyone experiencing or facing cutbacks and layoffs. That would be most of us. Read it here.
That's not just about radio. You could replace that word with just about any field of endeavor that you wanted to but it especially hits home with us - the smooth jazz community. There is much doom and gloom talk and music business climate in what we have finally acknowledged as recessionary times doesn't seem to offer much in the way of glimmers of light. Then you realize that as Allen said, it is up to us to create that next story.
Creativity. Optimism. Perseverance.
It seems like after I read that piece things started to fall into place. Why not focus our turn-of-the year edition on a group of industry people who embody those traits. People who are being realistic about the challenges we are facing, experiencing the setbacks we all experience, and still bringing a positive attitude and true originality to what they do. And being willing to get down and dirty and do the hard work it takes to make a living and play the music that brings us so much joy.
One time a few years ago I was talking to Richard Smith, bemoaning a series of professional and personal setbacks that covered everything from busted relationships to a busted transmission. He looked at me and said "this is when you start to get really creative." It's no wonder that in his role as a professor he inspires his students to work hard, smart, and without boundaries. It's no wonder that he was able to gather a group of gifted high profile musicians and put together the LA Chillharmonic - one of the finest and most interesting CDs to come out this year. He was already scheduled to be one of our featured artists this month. Then someone suggested Carol Ray, Nick Colionne's manager. We know her here at SmoothViews because she reached out to us. Other website owners, bloggers and Internet radio station programmers know her too. Why? Because she found and cultivated relationships with independent and alternative media. Her client was headed for stardom, he gets airplay and headlines major festivals. They could rest on those laurels and stay afloat for now but neither of them are settling for that. They support everyone from the major radio programmers to the guy running a webcast from his house, from writers for major magazines to the last person standing in a long autograph line. It's work. Hard work. That is about as overwhelming as herding cats but they are doing it, laying a foundation for the future that will keep them high profile even if a few of these elements should fade away like brick and mortar retail did.
This is Will Donato's work ethic: we scheduled an interview then I had to fill in for an instructor at my gym who got sick. Will offered to do the interview after I got home. By then he was on his way to a gig after working all day to complete his holiday CD. So we had our conversation while he was on the road. This is a guy who has the talent and charisma to blast through the ceiling that stands between him and stardom but some things have tripped up. He was the one who was supposed to tour with Richard Marx when Marx's career was peaking but Marx decided to take some time off touring. The guy before Will was Dave Koz. The guy after him was Euge Groove. So it goes. Most of his fans that don't live in range of his local gigs discovered him while he was with the Rippingtons spin off Steve Reid's Bamboo Forest. He left that group to launch his solo career shortly after 2000. Then come the post 9/11 cultural shifts and the complete sea change in the music business. Yet he is constantly working, releasing excellent CDs and supporting his family as a working musician. He dropped a quote from Michael Brecker that I now have posted on my bulletin board about having a bunch of lily pads. If one of them starts to take on water then you can jump to the others and that's how you make a career. You create lots of lily pads.
Another blogger, Jerry Del Colliano, wrote an excellent piece called "The Advantages of Being Fired From Radio." It was about how when you were budget cut or replaced by a computer you still had this whole set of skills and what you needed to do was widen your vision and fine new ways to use those skills. That way you are contributing to change and evolution - creating a future full of opportunities that don't even exist now- rather than looking backward for the a safe, familiar rabbit hole.
This is hard work. The same hard work that Smith, Ray, Donato, my friend who forwarded that inspiring email, and a lot of their peers are starting to do. They multi task and nurture all the facets of the work they do, and they create new lily pads and leap between them to keep their careers moving forward. Talking to them was inspiring. Transcribing their words and then reading them back was energizing. It made me want to really pursue and develop new ideas instead of seeing roadblocks and resistance that might be on the path both in this field and and as a fitness instructor and trainer.
We face 2009 with a lot of discouraging things happening but with a revitalized sense of hope. Be inspired by what you read here then apply it to your own life and career, whether you are in the music business or in a totally unrelated field. Shake off the fear and discouragement because just when you need some inspiration something will come your way from an unexpected place in an unexpected way. The resolution/revolution is too cultivate creativity and imagination, shake off defeatism, and hang in there. All those little glimmers have the potential to turn into a beautiful ray of light.
Read Harve Alan posts inspiring and thought provoking content on his blog almost daily. Click here to read the piece quoted here is at.
Del Colliano's piece is a must for anyone experiencing or facing cutbacks and layoffs. That would be most of us. Read it here.
