Trio Tour 2024 Notes II: The Humility of the Road

Wow—my name, up in lights!

Seemed like everybody was signing their posters in the green room.

Praise the sun.

"Luke 18:14 improved.—He who humbles himself wants to be exalted" — Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human (1878)

I survived the Kevin Sun Trio Tour 2024! Overall, I'd say it was a success: music was good and got better, no bags were lost, we made it to each show on time and played for relatively well-attended shows, and audiences seemed genuinely receptive and appreciative of our work. 

Paraphrasing Nietzsche, in the process of self-exaltation I also found myself deeply humbled. The passing of time and the process of aging is humbling, as I've found in the decade since graduating college, and living in New York and trying to be a professional-level musician is similarly humbling, but now I've discovered yet another source of humility: the road. 

Some brief notes and reflections on this past go-around:

The Music

Walter brought this up after the first night, but I noticed it as well after playing two sets on-stage in a carefully-lit space: there is a real musical challenge in translating the effect and arc of existing band repertoire from where it's usually played (in my case, Lowlands and similarly small bars and clubs) to new venues in distant cities. The intimate, shapeshifting effect of some of the pieces in my trio book seemed to wither a bit or not quite speak as effectively in a more well-lit stage, or at least required a different kind of concentration and approach to convey the same emotional effect. 

I found that time seemed to move more slowly on the first few sets of music—that is, I felt more self-conscious of playing my music for audiences in cities I'd never visited and in larger venues where people were attending with a mix of curiosity and attention. Some listeners knew about us before they came, but many didn't know what they were in for and were trying to find a way into the flow of the band's music. Over time, I gradually regained the pacing and attention that I easily find at venues in Brooklyn that'd I've played at numerous times, but it was a surprise to remember and rediscover that reaching those states of musical flow in new spaces requires greater focus and attention.

The Audiences

They were great! All-around and consistently everywhere we went, I was pleasantly surprised by how gracious and attentive the listeners were. 

There was a slight hesitation before the first set the first night: should we hold off on playing our most esoteric, personal material? Would it be better to play more accessible fare right off the bat? After the first set on the first night, I discovered from talking to some attendees that many were there specifically to hear us dig into original material; one listener specifically name-checked Anthony Braxton and Cecil Taylor as two of their favorites, after which I remembered: never underestimate the audience. 

This is a belief I've had the past few years, which is that if the musicians are not interested in what they're engaging in on-stage, then the audiences will be similarly bored, and I found this validated in our commitment to the trio's existing, often challenging repertoire on tour.

The Road

Traveling is tiring, and not only that, it's quite expensive. I crunched the numbers last night and was pleased to find that I pretty much broke even on tour expenses from the revenue we brought in from performance fees, educational work, and merchandise sales. This doesn't include the fees that I guaranteed Walter and Kayvon, which I paid out of pocket, but those were sunk costs that I already assumed would be paid by myself given the circumstances of booking a domestic tour for an emerging artist of my stature and experience. 

In terms of breakdown of expenses against the revenue earned, airfare and accommodations were by far the leading cost sources:

Expense Type	% of Revenue
Airfare	45%
Accommodations	30%
Rental Car	17%
Meals	4%
Cabs	4%

I was not able to negotiate airfare or accommodations from any of the venues on this tour, but I imagine that if I were able to get at least one major stop on the tour covered, this would make a significant dent in reducing the overhead and making the tour more financially viable. 

In terms of actual numbers, gross revenue was about $3.5k over 5 days (on average $700 per day) while net expense was about the same. In calculating what it would really cost to be able to bring in enough money to pay the band what I paid on this tour and also pay myself a decent wage, we would need to bring in about $1500 a night (over twice what we actually made), assuming that I was paying for airfare/accommodations on my own. 

Assuming the venue paid for airfare/accommodations, we could reduce the per-person fee per night by about $175 (i.e. bringing down the total nightly band fee by about $500, to roughly $1k per night) and still make enough to pay the side-people and myself, but there's no way a smaller venue/bar/club could pay this. A mid-size venue or upscale club with high ticket prices might be able to swing this kind of fee if we were likely to sell them out, but given my relative obscurity and lack of mainstream appeal, it seems unlikely in the near future. 

I have to note also that I was able to save two nights' of accommodations and meals thanks to the generosity and hospitality of a friend who let us stay at their parents' home in Arizona, which reduced our overhead not inconsiderably (about 15% of total expenses), so I would have been further in the red had it not been for their kindness. In the future, I would probably avoid renting rental cars if possible and either see if the venue could provide some transportation from lodging to the venue and back, or else if we could call on any friends to help us out (as in the case of Colorado, when we were primarily teaching and traveling short distances between the campus and hotel). 

Regardless, it's a significant logistical and financial challenge to make a tour happen (in my case, this 5-day tour represents about a quarter of the total expense related to producing and releasing an album). I'm lucky to have other stable sources of income to make this kind of musical undertaking possible, but I'm hoping to get better at doing this sustainably and eventually profitably if at all possible. 

In the end, it's all about the music, but getting better at the business side can only help the music, I'd hope.

* * * * *

[9/28/24: some film photos from the tour]

Myself and Walter backstage at Ravenscroft (photo by Kayvon)

Hanging in the green room of the Century Room

Guest performance at Grusin Hall (CU Boulder) for MUEL 3642: History of Jazz