The Essential Need for Relief for Calgary’s Jazz Artists
For the next couple of weeks, Arts Commons will be posting stories to the blog, speaking to performing artists in Calgary about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their lives, and how they are continuing to create art in a time when the sharing of the performing arts in its usual form is not possible. We will examine the essential role that the arts plays in our lives, and look at what the future might hold.
You can also check out previous installments:
Performing Art in Strange Times
Performing in a Time of Performancelessness
Save Our Music
A Musician’s Pandemic Awakening
During a Pandemic, When in Doubt - Stay Creative
Read time: Under 3 minutes
It has been 6 months since it all fell apart. I know where I was sitting, how it felt, how I cried. On March 13, 2020 I lost whatever momentum I had gained over the past 2 years while trying to strengthen my career after my 3rd child was born. This was the year I would release my first album, this was the year I would plan a tour. Not only had I lost it all, but my husband's event production business of 10 years also came to a screeching halt. Suddenly, all events for the next 3 months were cancelled - weddings, conferences, celebrations - they were all gone. March was the time generally each year where we would be able to start breathing again. Where our income would creep back up after a long winter’s nap.
It became obvious to me that we would need help. How could we move forward? How could our community make any income? That is when I set a gathering; I never realized that would be our last home visit with friends for a long time to come. We first met on Sunday, March 15, myself, Mark DeJong, Lisa Buck, Stephanie and Kodi Hutchinson, my husband and myself. We drank coffee and tried to think of ways we could team together to keep the music happening.
What we soon realized was that we were a part of an unsustainable machine. Then, Calgary Jazz Relief was born.
Part of what we are hoping to accomplish with Calgary Jazz Relief is not just fundraising and helping the jazz community here in Calgary, but also to educate and lobby for a sustainable arts community. It’s easy to see how much the world has relied on Art to carry us through this time of isolation. Curbside concerts, free live stream sessions, pop-up gigs throughout downtown.
Art is essential. However, the artist seems to be missing from that equation.
Those of us who are called to be artists, to give back to our communities, our societies and build the culture live in a world that many would not care to be a part of. We have no benefits, no security and no savings accounts and many of us are in debt. So much debt. Should we take the risks to have families, many of us work unmanageable hours, sometimes getting very little sleep and having to book several gigs in a day to make ends meet; it’s feast or famine. Like many, I now have a day job, working 5 days a week, on top of my own work to promote my album, run my social media and emails, shop for groceries, do the laundry, clean the house, teach my kids and tend to my garden. How do I make art during a time of isolation? I don’t. I haven’t.
I don’t have the energy to do it. In the jazz community, we are in a symbiotic relationship,we feed off each other. We need to be around each other to survive the hard hours, the little money we make and the unfulfilling gigs we sometimes have to take. The reward is each other.
With my new job, I haven’t had time to think about not making art, until I hear our new album on the radio, then I am brought to tears. I am grieving the loss of so much, because I know that even if things start to return to normal, it can all be taken away and very quickly we are back to zero.
In the meantime, I will get on with my day. I will transfer whatever compassion I can muster into the residents of the care facility I now spend my days in. For, whatever COVID has done to my career, it has made their lives far more lonely. And I can always go home, and ask for help.
If you’re interested in getting involved, or donating to support Calgary’s jazz artists, please visit calgaryjazzrelief.ca.
