#Ragtime seattle professional

Well, that and a zillion other occupational headaches that can dependably befall a musician at every gig.Īn early attempt to organize nationwide came in 1870 with the founding of the National Association of Musicians, but that folded after about five years. If a member of a band or orchestra complained, he was suspended or excluded from the business altogether so that many a musician had quietly to submit to every imposition which the dishonest leader might see fit to impose upon him' ( The New York Times, 1865). to protect the profession from impostors who had entered its ranks, and by dint of smart management had the business all in their own hands, and paid the performers whatever they saw fit. 'for the purpose of protecting the members and their interests. The concept of a musicians' union in America - one that could enforce union-scale pay rates - was likely hatched in New York City when the Mutual Musical Protective Union was launched in 1862

In time, though, the city's musicians would, like their peers across America, discover the value of forming a union - or more precisely, two distinct unions.

#Ragtime seattle professional

But for the first four decades of Seattle's existence, there seemed to be little need for those musicians to organize any sort of professional trade- or craft-oriented association.

As Seattle grew, it came to boast taverns, theaters, and dancehalls that all provided opportunities for more bands and entertainers. Frye (1833-1911) - a member of the Bethel party that had arrived via the Oregon Trail in 1853 - organized the fledgling town's first musical group, the dozen-strong Seattle Brass Band, which played at picnics and other events and marched in parades. In the early years after Seattle's founding in 1852, the townsfolk enjoyed a fair amount of musical entertainment, both that made by members of the community and that brought by the occasional touring performer or ensemble. But changing times and increased racial tolerance eventually saw the two unions formally merge in 1958, an early instance of the more widespread racial integration that was to come during the following decades. At its peak in the 1940s, Local 493 probably had about 150 members (compared to Local 76's 1,200), and it represented some of Seattle's biggest African American stars, including Ray Charles (1930-2004), Phil Moore (1918-1987), and Quincy Jones (b. It was at the very center of Seattle's vibrant jazz scene, and bore its share of struggles throughout the era's civil rights strife. AFM 493 became a lifeline and social pillar for the Black community. That organization morphed into Local 493 in 1924, and the two unions then co-existed inharmoniously for the next four decades. Excluded, Black musicians founded their own union, Local 458, in 1918. A complex, Jim Crow system of turf boundaries arose, with Local 76 musicians claiming the most lucrative gigs. But as ever-greater numbers of African Americans arrived in the young, growing town the musicians among them soon discovered that the union had an unwritten segregation policy. Seattle's first musicians' union, AFM Local 76, dated back to the 1890s. Today's labor union for Seattle's professional musicians is the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 76-493, and that numerically cumbersome name reflects perfectly the organization's tangled and sometimes contentious backstory.