Most of my music collection consists of vinyl records from the 1960’s, 70’s and assorted years since then. Probably two thirds of that is original, purchased new.
When I buy records these days it’s most likely used. Musicians get zip/nothing/nada from second hand sales, they also get very little from, streaming services. Reissues (new music) provides a limited income and most of the income for musicians comes from royalties and live performances. Royalties come in various types, but if the artist was a sideman for the recording, their primary pay for that recording would have 1x, 2x or 3x union rates at the time of recording. Jazz audiences are the top listeners to physical media, records, CD’s – physical albums were less than ten percent of music but streaming dominates as it does it every genre. It’s very likely that only a tiny percentage of the jazz physical media listened to in 2021 was purchased new [1]https://www.statista.com/statistics/502908/music-consumption-genre-format-usa/.
For musicians in their senior years, unless they’ve had a string of big hits, or written songs that others have recorded, if they can’t perform and tour, income is hard to come by. It’s the dirty little secret of the music business.
Airto [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airto_Moreira[3]https://www.discogs.com/artist/14068-Airto-Moreira retired from touring in 2018, and now at age 82 walks with a cane; Flora [4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_Purim[5]https://www.discogs.com/artist/88228-Flora-Purim is 81. They have returned to Brazil and could use some help funding their future accommodation, and to meet their living expenses. A gofundme account was set-up for Airto in July 2022 – I thought it would be a good idea to have #AirtoFloraDay today to raise awareness of how you can help them secure their future.
That’s a long way of saying that we could do more to support those that gave us so much. Music provides the soundtrack to our lives. Airto and Flora dedicated their lives to creating beautiful music and sharing it with the world. Now, they could use our help. Please consider making a donation to our fund to support these musicians and help them continue to create and share their art. Every little bit helps and your generosity is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support. Please donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/airto-moreiras-rehabilitation
I’ve donated twice already. As of 26th April, the fund stands at $38,444 raised of $150,000 goal. Let’s see if together we can push it over $50,000. Thank you to all those who have already donated, I recognize a few names from when I started the request to support #AirtoFloraDay .
Flora Purim and Airto Moreiera are the power couple of the jazz fusion era. Airto’s Brazilian sense of rhythm and percussion; Flora’s six octave range of vocals made them much in demand session musicians who added both unusual and exciting elements to any recording they were on, together or separately.
They’ve appeared on hundreds of albums, and have some 50+ albums in their own names, both separately and together. Flora was nominated for a Grammy award as recently as 2023 for her album “If You Will” [6]https://florapurim.bandcamp.com/ [7]https://www.discogs.com/master/2627906-Flora-Purim-If-You-Will.
The video included here was filmed on June 5th, 1986 – Recorded in the TV-Studio for program “Ohne Filter” (in Eglish, “Without Filter”), Baden Baden, Germany. It was produced by Videfilm Productions International Ltd. for laserdisc release [8]https://www.discogs.com/release/17201629-Airto-Flora-Purim-Airto-Flora-Purim, this version was converted and post-processed.
The musicians were Airto Moreira – Percussion, Flora Purim – Vocals Mary Fettig – saxophone/Flute, Marcos Silva – Keyboards, Ricardo Peixoto – Guitar, Gary Brown – Bass, Celso Alberti – Drums.
The majority of the tracks featured in the performance are from Airto and Flora’s 1985 album “Humble People” [9]https://www.discogs.com/master/464332-Flora-Purim-Airto-Humble-People. A replica of the cover can be seen in the video, on the wall behind the band!
TRACKLIST:
TV Show Introduction – Frank Laufenberg
Peeling Onions
The Magicians
20 Years Blue
Shoulder
Jogral
New Flora
Move It On Up
We often see an outpouring of love for musicians when they are no longer with us. Heck, even I post RIP-tributes from time to time. Here is one time we as a community can help make musicians lives better, and not wait until they are gone. Feel free to create your own post and tag it #AirtoFloraDay and include a link to the gofundme: https://www.gofundme.com/f/airto-moreiras-rehabilitation