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Posts: 701
Location: New Orleans
Joined: January 20, 2002
Contributor
Since: October 29, 2006
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It just shows what musicians are having to resort to to survive these days, even one as brilliant as Al Di.
The first person I can remember who did something like this was the Canadian cult singer/songwriter Jane Siberry, an innovative musician, performance artist, and indie trailblazer. I really enjoyed her recordings from the 80s, and I think she is still active today. She was an early proponent of self-producing and self-releasing her music and left Reprise at the peak of her popularity (such as it was) to start her own label. Hard to believe, but there was a time when DIY was mainly for punks.
In the early 90s, she began offering to perform in peoples' homes (or anywhere). You had to agree to provide travel costs and one night's lodging and guarantee an audience of 20 or more. I don't remember the fee, but it was reasonable enough that I actually began organizing a group of friends to share the cost (but never followed through).
This was before email and internet were mainstream so it was a lot more unorthodox than it seems now. I suppose it's not so far away from the legendary "rent parties" that jazz and blues musicians used to put together a long time ago, but it seemed radical to me then and still does today. Like what Di Meola is doing.
. . . in theory, practice and theory are the same; in practice, they are different . . .
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