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During the past 2 weeks I have changed my life
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Double Agent
Notes from a Music Exec/Musician
About the author
I love music, especially Jazz...Avant-Garde. I manifest my love for music through being a musician and working in the music industry. I've been doing both since I was in my early twenties. It started in Cleveland and evolved in Los Angeles. Today I live in Miami and I'm still managing to juggle both careers. Sometimes it's very difficult, but you know what.....when it goes smoothly, it's pure magic. I hope to share some of my stories and experiences....in music.
Grecco Buratto in Stockholm
-Stockholm, October 16th, 2011. Artist and dear friend Grecco Buratto will be performing an hour set. I am fortunate enough to be supporting him that evening on bass along with another dear friend Sandro Feliciano, one of the best drummer/percussionists I’ve ever played with. Grecco started performing his compositions at a little wine bar I owned in Los Angeles called Bodega DeCordova on Fairfax and 3rd street back in 2006. It was a way to work on the craft and get some feedback from a captive audience over a few glasses of Spanish wine. Those were great times, I met my wife in this place and accomplished yet another dream/goal in my life of owning and operating my own wine bar.
Grecco’s self released first album will be completed in early 2012, following the promotion of these songs and giving people some authentic music….some real art to rejoice to. It’s been a very long journey for Grecco getting this record made. It’s a true honor to be part of this path. See you in Stockholm.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
A recently recorded track from my new music project “Free Agents”, not yet released. Enjoy.
(Source: theagentk.us)
More from the trenches..
It’s been a while since my last blog, been busy trying to stay afloat in this crazy business of music. Today working in the entertainment business is already hard enough let alone trying to work as a musician and pay your bills or support your family.
The corporate giants in the music industry are not in the creative business or in the talent business, they are in the making money business and in the “keep the shareholders happy” business. So where does that leave the musicians, creatives, artists? In their own world surrounded only by themselves and their supporters and loyal followers. How can a musician make a living? Where do they go? Is there a world musician network or union? Or central office where musicians can go for advice, information, support, work? Certainly there are loads of sites where one may network and post music but it really comes down to a 24/7 job in an effort to stay afloat and current.
My avant-garde project will be performing on july 5th at Bardot Miami for $300. The bar will make that in liquor sales in less than one hour. We’ll be performing as a trio that night but otherwise I’d have a difficult time trying to secure musicians at that rate of pay. We’re very thankful to the venue for having us, but the musician needs a little more incentive, or the ART is dead. Sometimes the pot is a little more, but not often, at least not in this town. Good luck to all musicians, stay inventive and get paid.
Can a Miami musician make a living?
The Agent-K Quartet performed at the Van Dyke Cafe in Miami Beach on September 7th. We had a full house and a great show which featured David Burgos on trumpet, Max Farber on piano, Bobby MacIntyre on drums and myself on bass. We gave Miami a little avant-garde to spark up their creative senses.
It’s a great room to perform but the venue needs to get a better handle on how they manage the sound engineer scenario. Basically, once the band is up and running, the sound guy gets up and leaves mid set. It’s then up to the band to handle their own mix in whatever way you can. This is only one small issue that all Miami bands are dealing with across the board at ALL the venues that feature live performances in Miami. If it’s not chasing the venue to get paid, it’s dealing with not getting paid very much at all or getting any type of respect from the venue.
Miami artists are faced with the daunting task of having to convince and plead to the venues that they are worthy of performing at their premises, this at of course a minimum fee. Very few artists in Miami, if any at all, are able to sustain themselves on the live club circuit. So many Miami musicians have decided to move to different cities based on the fact that they cannot earn a descent living off their music. It’s a shame given that Miami has been home to so many music legends and has hosted so many back since the 1930’s Deco era. Legends like Jaco Pastorius, Frank Sinatra, Gloria Estefan and so many others have made music history in South Florida. One would think that this type of background and history would inspire business owners to take pride in our music culture, art and help maintain that legacy.
Not so.
New Agent-K Quartet release!
My partner in music David “El David” Burgos and I have completed a new recording documenting another side of our creative expression. This latest effort will be available this month at CDBaby and very soon after on iTunes and Amazon. Here’s the cover of the album, concept by Kenny Cordova, design & layout by my pal Chris Ceja.
-Agent
Producer Aaron Fishbein and myself working on my next record. We worked thru the weekend last week tracking bass, drums, piano, trumpet and percussion. We hope to make this session available by May, The Agent-K. David Burgos and I laid down all the instruments over three days. I played electric / upright bass, drums and percussion and David played trumpet, flugelhorn, piano and percussion. We’re very excited about these recordings.
The Agent-K Experiment
It’s in the planning stage, my next jazz avant-garde studio album. This time I’ve decided to drop the quartet and go in the studio with no set rules or band lineup. It will be an “Experiment” indeed. I think I’ll start recording in March and have a release ready by summer at the latest, maybe even sooner. I may even decide to do a painting for the cover, that would be fun.
“Pierdo El Control” by Elastic Bond - bass session
My good friend David “El David” Burgos plays trumpet in the silky Miami band ELASTIC BOND. One night last year I went to see them perform at Electric Pickle (formerly Circa 28) on North Miami Avenue. I knew I could only stay for a short while but I needed my fix of Andres & Sofy’s cool grooves. So they start the set and a couple of songs later they go into this new joint called “Pierdo El Control”……that was it, my jaw was on the floor. I was so hooked on the bass line and the melody I had a smile from ear to ear, that was insane how cool this groove felt.
The next day I was calling Dave and telling him how much I loved that song, how I would come up on stage anytime just to play that bass line with the band, I was so excited I felt like I wrote the damn line, I guess you have to be a musician to know how that feels.
So a few months later I got my wish and Andres calls me to ask if I’d like to stop by the studio and lay down the bass on this track for the new album…….Oh boy! Oh boy! What a delight to work on music that already has you wrapped up, that’s what it’s all about. This afternoon I took my upright and my fender jazz over to Andres’ place and found David in the parking lot waiting for me with a grin on his face. Great time hanging at the Elastic Bond pad……un cafesito, un vino tinto y un regalito del jardin. That was a fun session fellows, thanks for having me over, it was my pleasure to be part of your new record, I can’t wait to get my own copy when the cd comes out. This new record is going to be a hit, great energy and great vibes, I’m on board! Pa’lante.
Songwriters/Musicians must know..
In all my years in the music industry working on nearly all facets of the business I’ve learned that no matter how talented songwriter and musicians alike don’t take the time to learn the business. It’s essential that if you choose to walk into a field that is already full of corruption and vanity you should, at the very least learn the basic laws of your game.
You MUST learn about music publishing, even at the most basic level it will serve you well in your career. When dealing with your performing rights society, ALWAYS learn their system of song registration. The three societies in the US being ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, all have very efficient systems in place in order for their members to register their songs online at their websites. This task is usually performed by your publisher if you have one but in most cases writers are working on their own and not signed to major publishers. Even if you are signed to a publishing company you should always stay on top of your song status and registration updates. You cannot and will not get PAID unless your songs are in their system. It’s very easy for you to call your PRO (performance rights organization) and have them take a look at your catalog to see what has been registered/indexed. You also have access yourself to look at your songs in your respective PRO system.
Do yourself a favor and hit the local book store and pick up a book on music business, look for one that contains chapters on music publishing. You may of course also find plenty of information online. Knowledge is power indeed.
