Council Member,
My name is Laurence and I live in the Gramercy/Union Square area and I am a Music Educator (high school music teacher in the Bronx) and I also own my own Talent Management company developing, managing, encouraging, supporting and helping NYC talented music artists find new opportunities to further their career in the music industry. To name a few, some of the artists I currently work with are singer-songwriters, a Motown and Doowop Soul act, a Classic Rock band and yes, an 11 piece Salsa Band.
As you know, our beloved NYC is getting harder for everyone to survive as each year passes. Even harder for musicians, who are typically at the bottom of the economic ladder risking everything to “make it here”.
It saddens me that so many of the music artists I have worked with in the past simply couldn’t handle the demands of this big city with increasing rent and fewer and fewer places to create and perform music and moved on to smaller towns and/or major music hubs like Nashville and Austin. I find it difficult to even encourage my music students to follow their dreams of becoming a musician here as our culture just doesn’t seem to support it anymore.
When Mayor DiBlasio first became mayor, I brought this to his attention in a letter I wrote him, similar to this one, with some ideas of mine about this issue of what NYC can do to support the live music scene again, and was surprised when I received a call a few months later from his team telling me I have the Mayor loved the letter that I have his Honor’s full support, but would need to get some grass roots initiative going with “local” politicians first. I never followed with getting some grass roots support back then as I got married and worked hard with the demands of a NYC public school teacher.
I am 52 years young now and have always regarded NYC as the “musical capital of the world”. That’s why so many use to come here to make it. But sadly, not many anymore. It’s too expensive here and there are fewer jobs for live musicians than ever before.
My favorite live music venues (that used to be everywhere in NYC) have become Sports Bars or simply closed down all together due to high rents and a city that seems to promote the culture that the arts are ONLY for the wealthy (and well-connected and funded Arts organizations).
Look at how cities like Nashville, Austin, Memphis, and others have used live music to bring in tourism and create a city and culture friendly to the Arts. Yet, NYC is the city that has the greatest music halls ever built (Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Apollo Theatre, The Kings Theater) and greatest music venues (The Blue Note, Village Vanguard, The Iridium) that every young and old musician dreams of playing one day. And who can forget Broadway (which you can spend half your month’s rent on Hamilton tickets if you want).
Solution:
We can bring NYC back to the day when it was revered as the “musical capital of the world” by offering “tax incentives” and other incentives to restaurants and bars who will hire and feature live local music again. We can look into if old cabaret laws from the 1920s might still be restricting some businesses from having the license to allow live music to be performed at their venue or business as well. We can enact laws that make every neighborhood have to support live music with live music venues or restaurants that feature live music with something else like food or wine. We can also partner with Grammy’s Music Cares and Grammy’s Music Advocacy programs to ask for help on all levels to make these creative people’s lives better. As Bob Dylan sang and wrote in our own Greenwich Village (before the places he sang went out of business thanks to the high rents there), “the answer my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.” I believe all it takes is us WANTING to bring back accessible Arts to NYers and it’s performers and creators. And who wouldn’t want that?
Our restrictions on music artists finding a way to make a living here has made sad conditions for these talented people even worse.
Sure, the majority of NYers can easily “stream” music from their smartphones these days but I’m sure you’ll agree that there is no substitute for a live music performance and what a city can do to support such a culture that encourages the Arts and makes it more accessible for those who appreciate the Arts as well as those who participate in its creation.
Thank you for your time. Feel free to discuss this with your colleagues. I look forward to hearing your ideas on how we as a city and community can once again support a culture of making live music more accessible in every neighborhood in our great cultural mecca and supporting the music creators and performers who are having a hard time finding outlets to make music and make a living at being entertainers.
In the meantime, I look forward to another school year of teaching where I will sadly have to discourage my talented students from pursuing their dreams and talents further in NYC as the climate here is simply and sadly too oppressive for music creators and performers to make a living for too many.
