My point being, I’ll try to put $30+ together to see Kenny Garrett in this recent creative phase of his, but Winard Harper? I wouldn’t pay $25 to see Billy Harper. Now, taste accounts for so much, but the bigger picture is that Jazz is killing itself with these high covers (no pun intended), not to mention drink minimums in the clubs. Who can afford to support the music this way?

Between the financial demands of the clubs and artists (the masters I have no beef with on this), and figures trying to “raise” the music’s status to that of European classical music (museum music), it’s no wonder “Jazz” has been sucked into a box so small that not even Yogi Kudu could attend.

We need to start all over again.
We need to bring the music back to the people, and $25 for a half-filled room is not doing it.

A fair point. I believe tix were $25 a pop, which is no small sum. Money like that could get you half a tank of gas…or one of the small baggies from your guy across the street.

It’s true: reviewers in the plushy comp seats sometimes lose sight of the money question. Still, between LiveNation (even in four-packs the tickets still come to $25+ with “service charges”) and the average cost of a non-Ticketmaster/Livenation big-venue show, $25 to see a fella like Winard seems not unreasonable.

Bottom line: see him if & when you can.