First of all, there were some people who objected to my use of profanity. Maybe I shouldn't have used it in the title. I'm sorry, but almost all of my favorite comedians use a ton of profanity and nobody seems to care when they do it! Perhaps if my job description were "jazz/classical pianist/comedian" no one would have even noticed. I really do not feel a need to censor my speech. This is still America, isn't it? (Oops! I forgot! Dubya- or should I say Dumbya - is still in power! This isn't America anymore!) Anyway, even though I really don't want to, I will yield to the Almighty God of Political Correctness and keep it clean. Why can Chris Rock use all the foul language he wants to when he rants about something, yet some people tell me that I should tone it down? I guess when you're rich and famous you can say whatever the **** you want and nobody gives a ****!

There were also a few people who were bugged because they thought that I was advocating shooting 50Cent and Eminem and wishing for their death. There's a little thing called satire. Some of you may have heard of it. I was only making a joke. I repeat: I WAS ONLY MAKING A JOKE!!!!! I happen to have a really sick sense of humor and I feel no need to apologize for it. So just shoot me! Hey! I just advocated shooting me! I really need to respond to myself for saying that!(If you thought that what I said was sick or over the top,maybe you should watch South Park sometime. Nuff said!)

Lastly, there was one comment that suggested that I was only mad at 50Cent because I was jealous and envious of his money. Whoever said this is a pinhead! Come on,be honest! Who wouldn't want to have that kind of money? Why do people spend so much money on lottery tickets? I'm mad as hell at 50Cent because of his negative influence on our society and our youth. I couldn't care less about having his houses, his cars , or his groupies. (Wait a minute! Okay! He can send some of the groupies over!)

Now to address the title of this article.You may wonder what I mean by going on strike. This means that I will no longer work at the clubs in my local area anymore. I live in St.Petersburg, Florida , which isn't exactly a cultural mecca but it's an affordable place to live. As a musician, I've been working in bars, restaurants and nightclubs my entire professional career, and to be honest, I'm tired of it! I will still play at out-of-town clubs, of course, because the money is better, the audiences are usually better,and they usually put me up at a nice hotel. I will also still play concerts, festivals, private parties, weddings, and corporate events locally because they usually pay better than the clubs. But as far as the local clubs, they can forget it!

The jazz scene in general has become to my mind nothing more than lip service and chump change. People will give you lip service about how great you are and how much they love your music, but then they turn around and pay you chump change. Think about this: When I first started in this business I was playing little bars and clubs in the NY/NJ area for $60 or $70 a night. Now fast forward about 25 years. I am now considered an established jazz artist with a pretty good reputation. I've made 21 albums under my own name , played all over the world with some of the world's greatest musicians, and performed with symphony orchestras. Now, when I play a little bar or club in the Tampa Bay area I get paid a whopping $100 a night. WOW!!! In real dollars ,I'm making less money doing these little gigs than I did 25 years ago when I was a nobody! In the real world continuing to do a job that pays you less than it did 25 years ago ,even though your skills at that job have improved immensely, would be considered sheer idiocy. In the jazz world, this is just business as usual. And,as with most things in this crazy world, I am sick and tired of business as usual!

Let me tell you what I have to put up with to make this $100 a night windfall. Most of these clubs don't have a piano, so I have to bring my electric piano and amplifier. Sometimes I have to deal with a stage that's so small that I wonder if the whole band will fit there. As far as the audience goes, the place is either almost empty or it's packed with people who are talking(or yelling) and couldn't care less about the music. Usually when the room is almost empty the few people who are there came to hear the music. When the room is packed with non-listeners the people who did come for the music just get annoyed because the crowd is so loud they can't hear the music. Another thing is that steady gigs don't really exist anymore. Even in those rare cases when you do have a "steady" gig, it can end at any time. You can get fired at any time for any reason or no reason. Also, club owners are notorious for being"funny with the money". They will nickel-and-dime you to death and bounce checks without so much as a second thought. And of course,most of them have no clue about the music and have tin ears that can't tell the difference between Sonny Rollins and Clarence Clemmons. Also, if somebody comes in and offers to play the gig for $10 a night less, you're out of there. I am generalizing a bit here, because not all club owners are like this. Some of them are really cool and knowledgeable about the music and a few of them have become friends of mine;but these are the rare exceptions and they know who they are (in case any of them are reading this.)

So there you have it. Your average local club gig means dealing with nonexistent or indifferent audiences, no job security whatsoever(and forget about any kind of benefits), and having your employment depend on a person who knows almost nothing about music. Yet these are the kind of jobs that people expect me to bust my ass to get. I'm sorry but I can't do this anymore. As jazz musicians we're expected to put up with crap that would make workers in other professions go out on strike. Well, I have decided to go out on strike all by my damn self! I know that not too many other musicians are going to join me in this and who's even going to notice anyway? But I really don't care. I feel that I have to take a stand on this even if I'm all alone. As jazz musicians we're expected to just be happy because we have all this "talent" and the ability to play this wonderful music. Well, this is one jazz musician who isn't happy with the situation and I don't care who knows it. Recently, I got a call from someone with the Jacksonville Jazz Festival about playing a gig there as a sideman. The pianist who was supposed to play cancelled a few days before the gig. I was available to do it, but I didn't because I wanted a measly $200 more than the chump change they were offering and they refused, even though they needed someone at the last minute. Even with my reputation and all of my accomplishments I'm not worth an extra $200 . And people wonder why I'm depressed!

To end this article, I'd like to tell the story of my very first jazz gig. I was living in New York at the time and met John Hicks through a mutual friend. I went to one of his gigs and sat in.He told me really liked my playing and we exchanged numbers. A week or two later, John called me to sub for him at a gig at a little place in Harlem. He said that he could only make the first set and asked me if I could play the rest of the night. I was so excited to be doing my first real jazz gig! When I got there and saw and heard the piano I knew I was in trouble. This was the absolute worst piano I've ever played.

Not only was it completely out of tune with many broken strings, this monstrosity also had several keys missing . Not only were some of the black keys missing, some of the white ones were gone too! You can actually hurt yourself playing an instrument(and in this case I use the term very loosely) with missing white keys. But there were some good musicians on the gig and I managed to get throught it without injury. At the end of the night I was given a check for the jaw-dropping amount of $35. Of course, the check bounced. (I did get the money about a week later after I told John about it.) Can someone explain to me why I persisted in this career choice after such an auspicious beginning? I should have my head examined!