Making 'The Business of Music'

Musician and teacher, guitarist Seretse Small is a patient man. When he tells The Sunday Gleaner "I have been wanting to do this for a long time", he covers not only close to two decades, but also many stages of his multi-faceted life in music.

However, like many people who are willing to work and wait Small has seen his 'this', materialise. The television show 'The Business of Music', which he hosts, starts on the government-run Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica (PBCJ) today for a 12-episode season.

And, already, Small is looking ahead to the next season, saying that he would like to start recording before the end of the year.

Each programme turns around a panel discussion, Tanya Batson-Savage, Jerry Benzwick, Michael Thompson and Stephen Stewart discussing radio promotion to start the series.

Like each instalment, the first ends with a performance, Jah 9 doing the honours today.

Appropriately, the choice of performer is a matter of business, as they must have a product to sell.
"It is not about exposure, it is about selling music," Small said.

And so is 'The Business of Music'. Small, who has taught at the EXCED Community College and the School of Music at The Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, said "I got exposed to the business of music at a higher level, the global level" at the Berklee College of Music in the United States.

"I came back because I am primarily an educator, wanting to see that information passed on and implemented in our system," he said.

There was also the Training the Caribbean Popular Musician research paper he did for his diploma. Out of that I realised that there was a relationship between the training side and the industry. At Berklee, I saw an institution that has a vibrant relationship with the industry," he said, adding that it was similar to how the School of Art in Jamaica has a relationship with the industry.

However, Small said, "I found that the institutions were slow to implement". The stance was, he said, that "we cannot divert the programme by taking on commercial interests". For him, though, honing artistic excellence and the business of music go hand in hand, as students and teachers have to make a living.

Dead end after graduation

He introduced a course on music business at EXCED, but said "there is a limit". For while he could talk about issues such as publishing, synchronisation, performance and promotion, there was a dead end after graduation.

"If there is nowhere for them to go, structured companies to be mentored with, we are never going to realise our dream. I will not live my dream, be involved with the music I love and, at the same time, eat the cane that I want and drink the jelly. I will be forced to go to Boston and play in a jazz club and die in an old folks home as a guy from Jamaica who loved music," Small said.

So, he said, all the projects he has done - among them Music Nation and Battle of the Bands - "have been geared towards building relationships, to push, to nudge the industry and students and musicians in a certain direction".

The television programme has been a while in coming as well, the idea of a music industry reality show receiving little support in the 1990s.

Small said when he heard that PBCJ was being formed he made his pitch and waited. And waited, as personnel changes gave 'The Business of Music' more traction, current boss Keith Campbell signing off promptly as he came on board.

The episodes were shot over three days. After today's programme, 'The Major Record Deal' with panellists Jah 9, Robert Livingstone and Ibo Cooper follows next Sunday, Hezron doing the performance. Dr Sonjah Stanley-Niaah, Dean Mundy and Steven Newland will discuss touring the following week, when Rootz Underground performs, and the first third of the series ends with Stephanie Wallace, Mikey Bennett and Wayne Armond speaking about production and the producer on November 25. Althea Hewitt will perform.

Other topics include publicity, sex in the music industry, video production, crime in the music business and live music as a career.

Small's role as chairman of the Jamaica Recording Industry Association's committee, focusing on training and education, helped immensely in coming up with the topics.

Online solicited

Feedback had been solicited online and at events for areas of interest, which was applied to 'The Business of Music'.

For the guests, Small said "we were primarily looking for people who have a track record in the area we are discussing - a meaningful track record in terms of business".

Looking ahead Small said there are so many areas to explore "it is limitless". For example, while 'The Major Record Deal' was a half-hour programme "we barely touched the topic".

At the end of the day, Small said 'The Business of Music' "is about people. It is about our Jamaican music mavericks who have gone out there and done the work with very little capital, but ingenuity and a penchant for teaching yourself".

He is operating with a sense of urgency, as "we need to get the stories out. We need to hear the current expertise, so we can build the future expertise". And that expertise is Jamaican, Small pointing out that while there are those who believe in bringing in overseas experts to build the local music industry, the approach in their countries may not apply in Jamaica.

(from Jamaica Gleaner)