Gender Parity Is a Booking Decision
BJP is committed to fair performance fees and to gender parity and diversity in programming. We treat both as things you do rather than things you say, so this page is mostly mechanisms.
Fair Pay
Canada needs a cultural shift. Streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music have decimated the ability of musicians to make a living from their recordings. Touring is expensive and band leaders are lucky if they break even.
So we pay properly, and we are open about it. We also link to Bandcamp rather than streaming platforms on every concert page, because more of what you spend there reaches the musician.
$125 per performer
The fee for the average gig is the same now as it was fifty years ago: about $125 per performer.
Women and Girls in Jazz
An estimated ninety percent of the professional jazz community is male. Representation is how that changes, so our work is mostly about putting outstanding female-identifying artists in front of people who have not seen them yet.
The Canadian Women in Jazz poster
With CADME (the Calgary Association for the Development of Music Education) we produced a poster of leading Canadian women in jazz for junior high and high school band rooms across the country. You will recognize faces from BJP concerts, and there are faces missing, because we had to represent Canada's geography and a wide spectrum of instruments on one sheet.
The WBDI collaboration
Every season we present a concert with the Alberta chapter of Women Band Directors International, featuring the faculty of their Girls in Jazz Workshop: outstanding artists from across Canada brought together for one weekend to teach and play.
Sisters in Jazz
When The Ostara Project tours, BJP's Lisa Buck is often on the road with them, and the group tries to include a workshop for students in every city. Six outstanding female musicians in one room act as a lighthouse for women and girls who love jazz and often feel alone in it.
Jane Dough
Our donation form includes a box you can tick to direct your gift to the Jane Dough Women in Music funding stream, which supports female-led projects. Donations receive a tax receipt.
Donate
How You Can Advocate
- Buy music and merchandise directly from artists, at shows or through their websites. On the first Friday of every month, Bandcamp passes its share to the musicians too.
- Encourage your company to hire local musicians for events.
- Vote for politicians who understand the economic value of the arts.
- Attend live music at venues that treat musicians properly.
- Bring a friend who has never been to a jazz concert.
Recommended Reading and Watching
We are fierce about a culture where musicians are paid fairly and recognized, financially and artistically, for creating and sustaining our culture. Join us.
Support BJP