When I’m not working at my “day job” running a marketing/advertising/design agency, I’m a professional musician. Right now, I’m trying to put a band together here in Amarillo to play in restaurants, nightclubs, and private parties. Now nobody’s gonna confuse Amarillo with, say, Dallas or Austin, as far as a music scene goes. Most of what you hear up here in the Panhandle, frankly leans toward the country music side of things. I want to create a jazz group – I’ll play vibes and sing, with a piano, bass and drums. A group like that could cover a lot of material – traditional jazz, Latin, standards, pop tunes – you name it. We could play everything from Nat ‘King’ Cole and Diana Krall to Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock to Harry Connick Jr. and Micheal Bublé.

A couple of days ago, I put together a flyer, and posted it at the local junior college, the local branch of Texas A&M, and the three biggest music stores. Now to give you a picture of this, you should probably know that this ain’t my first rodeo. I’ve played professionally with Gladys Knight & the Pips, Barry White and the Love Unlimited Orchestra, and was the house drummer at a supper club that brought in acts like Robert Guillame, David Brenner, Frankie Layne, Frida Payne, Bob Newhart and a slew of other entertainers. I played ‘em all. I’ve jammed with guys like George Benson and Ray Brown. I’ve gotten to rub elbows and hang with some jazz greats like Dave Brubeck, Maynard Ferguson, Stan Kenton and George Shearing. Even better, I’ve gotten to hang out with their sidemen, picking their brains for tips, techniques, and the kinds of information you just can’t get from a book. I play drums, guitar, bass, vibes, and a bunch of other instruments. I’m a songwriter/composer, arranger and orchestrator. In short, I’ve got the street cred to front a jazz group, and the chops to make it work.

So I’m really curious as to why I’ve not gotten so much as one nibble on my call for musicians.

I’m afraid that it may be a matter of perception that’s put the screws to my master plan for world domination.

You can see an online version of the flyer at www.bradkozak.com and make up your own mind. I think that it may be a case where the guys that play jazz here already have gigs, and the rest are more interested in playing country or rock. I hope I’m wrong. I hope there are enough musicians here that want to play jazz, that will enable me to put together a great little combo.

So what does this have to do with marketing, you ask? Fair enough, I say. Allow me to explain. The conventional wisdom says “figure out what everyone else is doing that works, and do that.” Unconventional wisdom says, “the market is saturated with me-too guys. Figure out what nobody is doing – but is still in demand…find that hole and fill it.” There are very few jazz groups here in Amarillo. Is that because there’s no demand? I don’t think so. I think it’s because everybody is trying to fish in the same overcrowded waters and has neglected the “jazz” hole. I feel certain that, if I can find the right musicians, I can put together a killer combo that will stay busy with as many bookings as we want. But I’m fighting against the conventional wisdom crowd. I’ll report back on this as details warrant. Let’s hope that the thinking outside the box crowd wins one this time.

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