When a musician is hired for an ongoing gig it is important, you would think, to respect the fragile nature of this kind of work: at its best it exposes deep emotion, sometimes obvious, sometimes not so much. But support is essential because music is a two-way street. The negative energy exuded by an employer becomes evident, as does the prevailing negative climate thus generated among the listeners. It’s no way to run a railroad.
Have we become so accustomed to being person-less listeners that we cannot perceive that this matters?