The Knocks of the Music Biz and Richard Twardzik
November 09 2008

News Flash: It's really really really hard to make it in the music biz.

I've been a litigation lawyer. I've been an award-winning PhD graduate. I've been an Assistant Professor of French. I've been a teacher at the Bar. What I'm saying is: I've worked hard in my life.

But nothing, noth-ing, matches the music business for difficulty in making a buck. Your art is a full-time business. Promoting the music is a full-time business. Performing is a full-time business. That makes 3 full-time businesses. And in most cases, the musician is CEO, CFO, Chair, Board, Bottle Washer and Cook for all three.

And then there's the cruel secret of the music business: Talent is the least part of the equation. Talent is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for success. If it were, many of the names we all now would be unknown, and many of the unknown names known.

My rant is prompted by the release of Jack Chambers' new book "Bouncin'
with Bartok: The Incomplete Works of Richard Twardzik" on Mercury Press. Twardzik was a genius jazz pianist and composer who died in 1955. He was working with Chet Baker at the time, and with correct pre-beatnik era flair (i.e. stupidity!), he died of a heroin overdose in a Paris hotel room. 24 years old. What a waste.

In his short life, he left a few dozen dazzling recordings, and some compositions. He was gifted beyond belief. Yet he is forgotten today. Talent did nothing to preserve his name in the public memory.

Jack Chambers (www.chass.toronto.edu/~chambers/jazz.html) has talent, both as a linguistics scholar and a jazz writer. Fortunately, it has not relegated him to obscurity. He is as good as they get. The fact that he has written a book on Twardzik means two things: (1) we will finally learn what there is to know about this near-forgotten genius, and (2) it will be a great and rewarding read.

I'm eager to get my hands on Jack's new opus (disclosure: Jack consulted me for a small part of the book.) I expect it will not only educate us about its subject, Richard Twardzik, but about the struggle that is a life in the arts.

Lest I give anyone the wrong impression, being a musician may be a struggle, but what a glorious struggle it is. For those of us who never get involved in Paris-hotel-room heroin overdoses, and this rounds in about 99.9% of musicians, despite all of our complaints, we wouldn't trade this life for anything. Believe me, I know. I traded two others for this one. And I'm happy I did.

- Bouncin' With Bartok web site

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