Santa Plays his Sax Holiday Stroll, Albuquerque Old Town -2018

    Sax Rats is our saxophone quartet – two alto saxes, a tenor sax, and a baritone sax.  It is cold this evening as we load into Dan’s van, drive down, set up, begin our first music set at the Holiday Stroll in Old Town, Albuquerque. ” In college, ” Chris tells us, ” I did gigs and made $50.00 a night and was happy to get it ”  ” The other day, ” he goes on, ” I did a jazz gig and still made fifty. ” he laughs. Chadd, my saxophone teacher, has a sign on his studio door that describes a musician as a person who will work most of their life to get enough skills to play music in public, play a several thousand dollar instrument, drive a hundred miles to a gig in a six hundred dollar car, spend fifty dollars on drinks, gas, and food out of their own pocket, make seventy five dollars for the night’s gig, and wake up the next morning with a hangover and barely enough money for huevos rancheros.. I expect we will be back at the Holiday Stroll again next year. Latest government stats say the U.S. doesn’t have any inflation. Musician pay certainly proves their point.