Every summer, tourists wait for hours at the chance to see Shakespeare in Central Park’s Delacorte Theater. Fortunately, The Public Theater also brings their show on the road with performances in the outer boroughs. Last evening, I was lucky to see As You Like It in Sunset Park.
In the background, the eponymous phenomena shined over New York Harbor, and as I was leaving I caught the local Chinese ladies in their evening dance around the flagpole.
For this year’s Make Music New York I learned from past years and made a clear plan to use Citibike to hit as many gigs as stamina allowed.
I started on Tin Pan Alley–28th street between 6th Ave and Broadway–where in the early twentieth century songwriters pitched tunes to music publishers concentrated on this block. Sponsored by The NoMad Jazz Festival and the Tin Pan Alley American Popular Music Project celebrated jazz vocalist Gabrielle Stravelli performed classics from the Great American Songbook.
Next I pedaled down to Tribeca where Flor de Massapê performed Brazilian Forro music while dancers spun around Bogardus Plaza.
After this, a jaunt up Hudson Street brought me to the West Village where the Renaissance Street Singers uplifted Christopher Street pedestrians before McNulty’s Tea & Coffee–a shop that dates back to 1895.
Back downtown I zip just in time to catch a tugboat called Shoofly outfitted with a ‘Hobophonium’ (made of salvaged tubas, ship horns, and bells) join a brass band of landlubbers led by Stefan Zeniuk and his bari sax for a brass blastoff.
A central aim of MMNY is encouraging music creation by all. For example, “Mass Appeal Guitars” invited guitarists of all skill levels to join a collective jam on Union Square.
And a few blocks up Broadway at Madison Square, PianoKosmos featured beginners to professionals exploring works from Bela Bartok’s Mikrokosmos to George Crumb’s Makrokosmos.
A brief break from keyboards came with a performance of William Kentner Anderson’s Amerarcana for three saxophones, guitar and vocals.
Finally, I crossed over to Brooklyn and found a seat in Park Slope’s Warren St. Marks Community Garden where the Brooklyn Treble Choir provided inspiring harmonies for an audience that included dapper feathered chickens.
New Yorker’s reward for a brutal winter!
I saw some beautifully crafted pieces at the Whitney Biennial today. Among them were Enzo Camacho and Ami Lien who spent time among agricultural activists of the Philippines and created hand made paper collages using plant materials from the islands to evoke the experience of local resistance.
Paul Mason Fotsch 