One Aurora Marine’s request that his mom send a guitar to him while he was posted in the Iraq desert resonated so deeply with other Colorado musicians that hundreds of guitars have been shipped - or soon will be - to waiting soldiers.
Sam Gill has appeared with jazz greats such as Max Roach, J.J. Johnson, Phineas Newborn, Paul Bley and Thelonius Monk. He has recorded with the likes of Randy Weston , Art Blakey and Max Roach, and is listed in the International Who’s Who in Music, Who’s Who Among Black Americans and Blacks in Classical Music. In 1955, Downbeat Magazine ranked Sam Gill above jazz icons such as Milt Hinton and Paul Chambers, etching Sam’s name into history as one of the “New Star’s” in jazz. This December, after 48 years as a member of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Dr. Sam Gill will retire from the orchestra after a rich and influential career.
Feature/Interview, Pete Vriesenga, Symphonic/Classical, The Denver Musician
“Some are just instruments that have just been lying around the house,” Pete Vriesenga with the Denver Musicians Association said. “Some are prized family collections…To have an instrument in your hands and just turn that fear or boredom into productive creation of music is really what this is about,” Vriesenga said.
The digital revolution has been “taking a bite out of (the paychecks of) orchestral musicians for 20 or 30 years now,” observed Pete Vriesenga, head of the local musicians union. Not that there’s anything that can be done. “We’d be laughed at if we picketed movie theaters. Most people don’t know the difference, or don’t care. All we can do is educate the public and make them aware.”
According to DMA president Pete Vriesenga, pit orchestras ranging from 26 to 45 players will provide accompaniment for “Giselle”, “The Nutcracker” and “Dracula.” Previous orchestras numbered only 30, Vriesenga noted. Players’ payment for rehearsals and performances will also increase 3 percent to approximately $97.
Ballet executive director Lisa Snider called the agreement “terrific news,” adding that it ended a full year of talks with the DMA.
The “Phonograph Record Labor Agreement” (PRLA) has been the foundation of AFM recording policy since 1944, and is the AFM’s agreement with Warner Brothers, Atlantic Recording, Elektra Entertainment, Sony Music, Universal Music Group, Polygram, BMG and EMI Music. These major labels have negotiated with the AFM to establish all working conditions from session rates to mandated residual payments. This is great for the musicians who do this work, but it’s even better for the major labels because in recent years these negotiated terms of employment now apply to “the industry.”
Electronic Media, Labor, Local Discussion, Pete Vriesenga, Symphonic/Classical, The Denver Musician
There are two manifestations of trade unionism that have taken root in the labor movement over the last century, and as I suspected, these two opposing viewpoints are readily found in the AFM: Unions that protect, and unions that organize.
It is wrong to suggest that struggling musicians are at fault because they cannot demand rates or agreements that are proven effective for only a very small percentage of the membership. To equitably resolve this dilemma, musicians employed in symphonic work or recording are encouraged to join Players Conferences (Associations), which are organized to establish and maintain standards for their members.
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