What? And give up Show Business?!

mmelinger ♦ February 22, 2025 ♦ Leave a comment

Yes. Quite easily, in fact.

There seems to be a general public consensus that certain occupations just don’t allow for people to gracefully exit. Musicians, for example.

Any time I tell people that I have retired from the music business, I get the same wide-eyed response. “Really? But I bet you miss it. They say a musician never REALLY retires, right?”

Wrong. Willie Nelson and Paul McCartney notwithstanding, it’s actually quite easy to retire from the music business. Stop taking gigs. Stop hustling them up. Stop hanging out with musicians. I mean, there must be a 12-step program somewhere.

In my case, it was made easier by moving to a whole new town in a whole new state, where we knew a mere handful of people. The fact that one of them is a former student who now works most of the jazz sax gigs in town is just the icing on the cake, allowing me to move into elder statesman status without so much as a pickup gig. The tasks of networking, haunting jam sessions, and hustling private students are but faint memories.

I understand, of course, that the path of benign neglect is not for everyone. But I came to music relatively late (mid-30s) after having already held a variety of other jobs. And the sorry truth is, music is almost always a hardscrabble route starting out, and quite possibly ending up. I was fortunate to start a successful nonprofit that allowed me 30 years of playing jazz to captive audiences of children who were too small to run away. None of this was by accident, of course. I built it, I lived it, and now I have let it go.

Our new home of Colorado Springs has what might be described as an ‘intermittent’ jazz scene. There is no dedicated jazz club, but there are a number of ‘pop-up’ type events that move around the city. There is no weekly jam session where all the players can hobnob, like the Elephant Room in Austin TX. From what I’ve seen so far, there are many aspiring young players who are still working on their skills, and some accomplished players who mostly seem to work out of town.

On the other hand, there are several outstanding classical organizations that maintain a lively calendar. So we have turned our attention to them, where there is no threat of being asked onstage to sit in.

At this point, I should probably mention that this willingness to actually retire and seek NO gigs is partly due to the fact that I am drawing a pension from the American Federation of Musicians, made possible by my 33+ year association with Local 433, the Austin chapter of the AFM. It’s not a princely sum, but combined with Social Security and savings, it keeps me afloat. In the beginning of this journey, I never would have guessed a pension fund for musicians was even an option, so I owe a big debt of gratitude to Austin Federation of Musicians for getting the ball rolling for me and my fellow musicians. In particular, thanks are due to the late Randy McCall (President) and Ginger Shults (Secretary), who helped Austin Jazz Workshop in our crucial formative years. And not just us, of course. There have been hundreds of musicians who benefited from their association with Local 433.

If you are a professional musician, you’re probably already in a local somewhere. If you are not…well, you may not be a professional musician.

Austin Jazz Workshop, by the way, is still going strong and employing musicians. It’s a nonprofit, and as such, can always use donations from folks who feel that bringing jazz music into public schools is a worthy endeavor. You can help them, if you wish, at austinjazzworkshop.org

OK, that’s enough rambling for one afternoon. If you are one of the hundreds of musicians I have had the privilege of working with over the years, please accept my heartfelt thanks for making me look good! And if we never worked together…well, we’re pretty unlikely to at this point, but good luck in all your endeavors, musical and otherwise!

Also….always get a contract. Even from the elephant.