By
THIRSTY
Danny Melnick has produce over 100 music
festivals in Europe, Japan and the US and has worked with contemporary legends
like James Taylor, Paul Simon, Bobby McFerrin, Dianne Reeves, Ravi Coltrane, Bela
Fleck, Chaka Khan, Diana Krall, Wynton Marsalis, and more. He founded his own
company, Absolutely Live Entertainment, LLC, in 2007, and has traveled to over
30 countries producing extraordinary entertainment events.
At the Saratoga Performing Arts
Center, he will produce the Summer of 2018’s 41st Anniversary of the
Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival. Following in the tradition of iconic
concert and festival producer George Wein, Danny Melnick has distinguished
himself as a force in the music concert field.
Stay
Thirsty Magazine was pleased to visit with him at his home in
Saugerties, New York, for this Conversation.
STAY THIRSTY: This June, Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival will
celebrate its 41st Anniversary at the Saratoga Performing Arts
Center (SPAC). Why does this festival have such staying power and why does jazz
continue to transcend generations and draw such loyal audiences?
DANNY MELNICK: There was very little happening around the northeast,
or anywhere for that matter, in terms of music festivals, when this event was
created and people flocked to SPAC for it. Many of those folks, along with
their children and grandchildren, are still with us. SPAC is one of the most-inviting
and inspirational venues in the world and people love being there. Jazz is
timeless and is always “modern.” If people have open minds and open ears, once
they hear jazz they can become fans. I always tell my friends, “Trust me. Just
come check it out and you’ll be amazed.”
STAY THIRSTY: You have a long and storied career as a concert
promoter and producer who has organized festivals, concerts and performances
involving some of the greatest musicians of our day. How easy or difficult has
it been to deal with major talents and their particular needs?
DANNY MELNICK: It all
depends on the artists and their “people.” I’ve had the most wonderful,
friendly and “human” experiences with the biggest stars and then sometimes you
just want to run away as fast as possible and wish you never met them. BB King,
Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie, Norah Jones, Tony Bennett, James Taylor – all
gems. The nicest people you’d ever want to meet. And they all had a great team
around them. We’ll leave the troublemakers for the guessing game.
STAY THIRSTY: What it is about the Saratoga Performing Arts Center
that keeps you and your audiences coming back? How is the Saratoga Jazz
Festival different from the others you produced and how do the venues differ
from a production point of view?
DANNY MELNICK: Every festival is unique to itself based on the venue,
marketplace, surroundings, etc. SPAC is an incredible amphitheater in a
beautiful park setting with a second stage, bar area, crafts tent and food
court. So we tailor the festival to that environment. Other festivals take
place in urban city centers, or indoors at clubs and concert halls. And SPAC is
such a fantastic place in terms of production because almost everything is
there – stage, dressing rooms, seating, box office and huge parking lots. I’ve
worked on many festivals where it all has to be brought in and that takes a ton
of money, time and labor.
STAY THIRSTY: How important are major milestones in time or in career,
like the 50th Anniversary of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue album or the Sonny Rollins 80th Birthday Concert
or the 60th Anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival, in how you
conceive and build a program to produce?
DANNY MELNICK: The importance of these milestones is really
determined by the audience and marketplace. They do give producers like me an
opportunity to celebrate recordings, events and artists and to expand the
audience for this music but sometimes they don’t have a lot of meaning to a
larger audience and simply don’t work. I have tried to choose wisely when
either being asked to produce projects like these or when I’ve created them
myself. And I work hard to develop the most compelling projects possible,
always striving to offer the artists a platform by which they can best present
themselves and their music.
STAY THIRSTY: What convinces you to do charity fundraising concerts
like JusticeAid that celebrated Bob Dylan’s 76th birthday? Are
certain charity concerts more likely to succeed than others?
DANNY MELNICK: I met the head of JusticeAid, the Honorable Stephen
Milliken, a few years ago and instantly knew his vision and determination to
make the organization meaningful was real. He has a great board, supportive
donors and strong ideas about how to present the events and that allows someone
like me to comfortably and confidently ask the artists to participate and
produce successful concerts. I have been contacted by many organizations who
have “pie in the sky” ideas with no “community” of support behind them to begin
with and that’s always a red flag for me. It can be very risky business and you
typically get only one chance to get it right when you’re fundraising.
STAY THIRSTY: How did you come to work with the legendary producer
George Wein and what did you learn from him?
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| George Wein and Danny Melnick |
DANNY MELNICK: I worked at the Blue Note Jazz Club in NYC from Aug
1989-April 1990. Towards the end of my time there I learned about George and
his company, Festival Productions, Inc. and had
to work there. I mailed a letter and my extremely light resume to him, followed
up with a call, and wound-up speaking with his assistant Deborah Ross. She was
overseeing the hiring of the JVC NY Jazz Festival box office manager position,
which was a seasonal job managing the ticketing for the festival that June. I
had gotten box office experience during a college internship at Wembley Stadium
and Arena in London and that, along with a good interview I suppose, convinced
Deborah to hire me. I was supposed to be there for three months and stayed for seven
years. I went back two years later for another eight years and then again, but
that’s another story.
George is the Jedi Master. He has
done and seen it all…survived multiple decades of economic and cultural
changes, new ways of doing business, new artists, competition and continues to
look only towards the future. He is 92 now and while I’ve learned many things
from him…focus on tomorrow is probably to most poignant and valuable thing I
can point to.
STAY THIRSTY: How did the development of computers and the internet
change the concert production business and how heavily do you rely on advanced
technology in your daily endeavors? What role does digital media play in how
you strategize and promote a production?
DANNY MELNICK: Of course the internet and technology have radically
affected everything we do but the number one issue for promoters and producers
is marketing. It used to be that we could take out an ad in, say, the Sunday New York Times and sell $50,000 worth of
tickets in a day. Now it’s all about posting online, hoping the audience sees
what you’re doing, shares it, acts on it, etc. It’s cheaper but definitely less
focused and that’s been a big challenge. It doesn’t matter much if you’re promoting
mass popular culture artists or events, but when you’re dealing with a more
micro-focused audience, it’s strange not to really know how your audience is
getting their information.
STAY THIRSTY: If you could produce the single greatest show of the twenty-first
century, what would the theme be, who would you bring together and where
would it play?
DANNY MELNICK: Music is the ultimate connector. There’s nothing like
it. I suppose the dream would be to have tens of thousands of artists all over
the world performing at the same time (which they do already, right?) and allow
that vibration to permeate every human being. To wake people up to realize we
are all here together and are either going to make it together or going to go
down in flames. It’s ridiculous how ignorant people are to that reality and I
honestly believe music is part of the solution.
STAY THIRSTY: What is it about live performance that continues to
attract audiences?
DANNY MELNICK: Just as I said before, music is the great connector.
People who come to the events my colleagues and I produce are from all walks of
life and see and hear artists from all walks of life. The bands are as diverse
as they come and so are the audiences. It’s such a powerful life experience to
be at a concert or festival and I actually feel bad for people who chose not to
or don’t get the chance to experience live art.
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