Jazz on Tuesdays: Labor History composed by Jim Kuemmerle

Mosaic Woman and I had just completed our first of what would be four interstate moves in 1987. I had a teaching job at a residential school which required me to work every Monday evening and every fourth weekend. Which meant that once a month I would go to work on a Friday morning and leave the school Monday night. Can you imagine the teacher's squawks?

At some point in my three year tenure, which placed me high on the seniority list (and thus better assignments on those weekends), Mosaic Woman took a class on Labor History. I would hope that I learned something in high school about how unions struggled to make the lives of workers livable, but conversations with Mosaic Woman opened my eyes more fully to the need for those battles and the brave men and women who fought it, and yes it was a fight.

This past weekend, I suggested that once a month we give a little bit to a jazz artist trying to get a project off the ground. So we headed to Kickstarter and there we found a most interesting project. The Triangle Shirtwaist Jazz Project by Jim Kuemmerle.

Kickstarter makes you want to promote the project because if they don't make the goal by the deadline, they get nothing. That is why I blogged about the first project we sponsored and I am proud to say that thanks to us and many other jazz loving folk, Jason Parker made that goal and is making music with the joy of paying people fair wages in the process.

Mosaic Woman had lots to say about this too.

As the project moves forward you get updates. Today Jim sent this joyful note to us:

Quick update:

My 21-month-old son, with no coaching from anybody, has started saying "New Backer!"

As if anybody needed YET ANOTHER reason to pledge. :D

Jim is 7 dollars away from 80% of the goal. In football terms he is nearly in the red zone. I don't know what that means for the success of kickstarter projects, but he is on a roll and I hope the momentum makes this happen.