ECP’s Michael Lazaroff – HuffPost 7.12.13

Mike Ragogna: What advice do you have for new artists?

Michael Lazaroff: Oh, lord. Smooth jazz artists?

MR: If you’d like, but artists in general, since you’ve been exposed to so much music, genres and artists.

ML: I think that if I was a new artist, I would dedicate myself to performing anywhere at any time for any money, just to build up that volume of people that know you, places that you’ve played, and gaining that kind of experience. I sometimes see new artists trying to mimic what the more established guys get or do, and they say, “Well he didn’t do this,” or “He got that” and stuff. In this day and age, it’s all about live music. Back in the old days, it was recording, and then you would do live music to support the recordings. Now it’s the other way around. You have to get out there. Nobody’s going to buy your CD until they’ve seen you play. That’s just the way it works. So I would perform anywhere that I could at any time.