Friday night I was standing in line at the credential table at the Chicago Jazz Fest talking to a fellow photographer. He was commenting that this was his favorite festival to photograph because the music was great and the artists didn’t have any restrictions on photographers. I agreed. Just as I said it, the woman behind the desk held up a piece of paper and said, “ Come over here so I can tell you about all the restrictions on photo access this year.” More than half the artists on the list had major restrictions!! Including one guy who would only allow photographers to shoot one song.
There was a guy sitting behind the desk who I was later introduced to. He is a New York jazz publicist. He told me to get used to this as it was a new trend in the jazz world. He had no idea why, but suggested that the managers and agents were behind it. I asked if the artists were being asked, and he said probably not.
Jazz is pretty difficult to shoot. It is not just the standard instruments played the normal way. On Thursday I saw a guy play at least 4 different kinds of horns, some of which I had never seen before. It takes time to figure out the angles and the lighting (which goes from full daylight to full stage lights during each night. So I went back to my car and went out for a nice dinner, and then home.
Oh well- it saved me the $35.00 per day for parking each of the last two days, and allowed me to catch up on some good college football!!