Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi
Finally the Justice For Jazz Artists (J4JA) campaign’s leader John O’ Connor published the letter in Allegro (http://www.local802afm.org/2014/03/its-about-time/) which was written by seven prominent jazz musicians: Ron Carter, Jason Moran, Bob Cranshaw, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano, Christian McBride and Jimmy Owens. The letter was sent to the owners and management teams at the Blue Note, the Jazz Standard and Birdland around November 2013 with the intention to get the owners of these clubs to the negotiation table. I can’t understand, why they didn’t send the same letter to the other jazz three clubs: the Village Vanguard, Iridium and Dizzy’s, and why it took so much time to publish it?
Apparently the club owners haven’t responded yet which proves again that this kind of communication and strategy can’t do anything good for the J4JA campaign. What is worse: after sending out the letter, Ron Carter, Joe Lovano, Bill Frisell and Christian McBride continue to play at the Blue Note which is unacceptable?! All these musicians should re-think, why they have been endorsing the J4JA campaign. Sending that letter out and yet performing at these clubs is just contra productive. This behavior makes them and jazz musicians in general look stupid and would show that jazz musicians are as greedy as the club owners. I can’t agree with John O’Conners’s comment “The letter…illustrate the commitment that musicians are making to the Justice For Jazz Artists campaign.”
