Spike Wilner: Mining An Alternative Currency

Smalls Owners Spike Wilner & Mitch Borden

Spike Wilner runs a bar business in Manhattan, New York City. He has rent and staff to pay, supplies and equipment to purchase. Since he was a teenager he has never stopped wanting to be a jazz piano player. He is that too. Why does he bother running a bar (Smalls Jazz Club) in New York City where capitalist monsters devour whole city blocks at a snap in pursuit of profit when he could just play piano?

Spike took time recently from a weekend installment at Frankie’s Jazz Club in Vancouver, Canada, to explain his unique journey inside the metropole of the jazz world over the past 25 years. How he got started, his changing attitude, the power of constraints.

Enjoy this in depth and extensive interview with Spike Wilner and please feel free to share and comment.