Last year, I got a bit of a late start on Make Music New York. I had to walk the dog in the morning, and it took me awhile to get up to Central Park. But it was worth it, because when I got out of the Columbus Circle Station, I ran into these maniacs:
So, no problem! They are back with their unique brand of Second Line style parade, not only celebrating MMNY, but the opening of the new extension of the High Line Park. There’s no better place for them, although the park may not be big enough to contain them! The parade starts at 6pm at the 10th Avenue Overlook (at 17th Street), and heads north from there. Don’t forget to look down at the shocked faces of people on the streets below, wondering just what the hell is happening up there.
Next Tuesday marks the start of summer in New York City, and summer in NYC means block parties, everyone pitching in to have a good time. Block parties are a feature of Make Music New York – along with the one outside Cornelia Street Cafe, you can find one by Joe’s Pub and in Williamsburg – and there’s a great one going on down on the Lower East Side intersection of Suffolk and Rivington, starting at 3pm: The Afro-Asian Block Party.
This one is sponsored by Afro-Asian Inc., with invaluable organizational help from their music director, Salome James. It’s Afro, it’s Asian, it’s a party, and a whole lot more; music, food, exhibitions, expect a great street performance. The music is a great urban mix of Latin, Blues, Jazz and R&B, and James loves the diversity in it, something that will bring the community together. There are bands, singers and more. Everything is going to be great fun, and she’s especially looking forward to her colleague Jim Koeppel playing Blues with his Dust My Blues Band – Salome herself is planning on sitting in on vocals with “Kansas City” – and their recent booking of the Latin Band, Epi. There’s also going to be a demonstration by Shaolin Kung Fu and Master Lan.
Salome, Afro-Asian Inc. and the musicians are not the only ones making this possible. The local Burger King is providing the electricity, thanks to Pau Seto; volunteer John Lee negotiated two tubs of free ice cream from the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory (way to go, John!); Drew Figueroa and The Suffolk bar are providing the sound equipment; the Lions Club kids group, the Leo’s are going to help set up that equipment; Jun Park designed the flyer; Kearney L. James, who took pictures last year, is doing so again; and Carlos Morales helped with all the social networking and advertising. Now that is a community effort, and they all deserve a party!
The Book of Psalms in the Bible is a book of prayers, a devotional book. It’s also known as “Tehillim,” which is the title of a piece of music by composer Steve Reich, a beautiful work that sets four Psalms in his exquisitely propulsive and mesmerizing style:
This was Reich’s first piece to explicitly contain liturgical content, and was also the work that the great new music ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, made the centerpiece of their breakout performances and recordings. Their version is fantastic, played with tremendous skill, verve and flair brought out by conductor Alan Pierson (the new Music Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic). They bring out the swing in Reich, and the loveliness.
It’s difficult music to play, and for decades Reich needed the specialized training of his own musicians to express his ideas properly. Alarm Will Sound marks the next generation of Reich’s legacy, where other groups and musicians play his works and offer their own ideas. Now the next next generation, the student ensemble Face the Music, will play Tehillim in the middle of West 67th Street, in front of the Kaufman Center (their home), in the early evening for Make Music New York.
It’s ambitious and impressive, and that’s the goal of the ensemble. There are lots of high school students playing the classical repertoire, the three B’s of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Only Face The Music is dedicated to the most contemporary, cutting edge music of Reich, Nico Muhly and Michael Gordon (and, at MMNY last year, their performance featured a piece by our own blogger Numinous):
Alan Pierson assisted in the music’s preparation, and they will be conducted by Kaufman’s Jenny Undercofler (who founded the ensemble with composer Huang Ro). She believes that this is the first time Reich’s music has been performed by a pre-collegiate student ensemble, anywhere. New and contemporary music – they will also play Cuban Impressions by the excellent pianist and composer Eric Huebner – “is something that kids should absolutely be playing,” Jenny told me.
It’s true. Great new music is being made all the time, and it’s exciting to hear a group of kids sharing their own excitement over tackling the challenge of this repertoire. Catch that excitement towards the end of the day of MMNY, or after the end of your work day, 6:30pm, on West 67th between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. If the weather is bad, the show will go on inside Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Center, free of charge. (You can also see their performance of Tehillim on Monday, June 20 at Poets House, 7:00pm, as part of the River to River Festival).
NY has been host to an ever growing community of West African Griots since the 1980s when West African artists began touring here for an ever widening audience. These poets, historians, singers, musicians and historians play a huge role in their society, performing at weddings, funerals, baby naming ceremonies, and many other events. They recite the histories of their people, they praise their benefactors, they entertain and enlighten, they make music and tell stories and make those two things one.
The tradition dates back 800 years or so to the time of Sundiata Keita, the legendary king who established the Mande or Mali Empire during the 13th century. Sundiata created a role for griots as a caste of musical oral historians and praise singers. Griots would prove important in bringing peace, stability and social cohesion to his great West African kingdom.
Mbady Kouyate, griot of Guinean President Ahmed Sekou Toure, 1958
The Griots I know now living here have left behind the culture that understands their important role and the 800 year tradition they bear. And yet, many have adapted well, performing regularly, picking up new students, playing huge roles in their communities and making great music allowing them to hold onto their culture. While there is a large community, most Griots do not perform together or have many occasions to work, play and get together. Make Music New York’sNY Griot Summit is, therefore, a historic gathering.
When you bring a bunch of musicians who play the same instrument together, you call it a herd. When it’s a bunch of singers, you call it a chorus. And when you do it for Make Music New York, you call it Mass Appeal: Mass.
We are graced this year with conductor Kent Tritle, not only an organist, leading choral conductor, director of the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space concert series at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, and WQXR DJ, but an enthusiastic leader of this special event, one that will bring together upwards of 250 singers, in Tritle’s estimate. And, as the name suggests, the music to be performed is masses, famous works from Mozart and Handel.
From Handel, there will be selections from the Messiah, and Tritle will be leading Mozart’s Coronation Mass, with talented, experienced soloists. These are celebratory pieces, perfect for MMNY, and the setting is the inviting Gansevoort Plaza in the Meatpacking district. Here is the opening “Kyrie” of the Mozart mass, in a very different kind of public setting:
Tritle will not have an orchestra at his disposal, but Michael Sheetz will be accompanying the singers at the piano. And who are the singers? Well, along with Jamet Pittman, Meg Bragle, John Tiranno and Jesse Blumberg, the ‘ringers’ who will be taking the solo parts, the chorus is . . . you. New York is full of chorus and singers, and Tritle works with many ensembles and is expecting a cohort of choristers, but this is a Mass Appeal event, so it’s fundamentally sing-it-yourself. A good example of how this works is the annual Sing-It-Yourself Messiah that is a staple of Christmas in San Francisco, an event where anyone who has ever sung in the chorus for the Messiah, or has ever sung in a chorus at some point in their lives, or who has ever wanted to sing in a chorus, or who has ever sung(!) is welcome to participate. And that’s all of us. Beyond singing in the shower, singing is what we do, it’s one of the things that make us human, and we all have an instrument.
Bring yours, Tritle would love to hear it. As he says, the only requirement is that you have music in hand (you can download these PDFs for the Mass and the Messiah) and joy in your heart. Experience is not necessary (Nor is the ability to read music strictly necessary; if you can follow the tune, and follow your fellow choristers – and the soloists will support all the singers – or even if you are familiar with how the music goes, join in – ed.). While singing in public can seem nerve-wracking, you will be with dozens of other people, sharing the same experience of making music together. There’s safety in numbers, certainly, but (without getting too pop-psych on everyone), there’s the inherent fun and confidence of doing something that is so natural; opening up your voice and making a joyful sound. Tritle wants to hear you sing for the city, for Make Music New York.
Peruse the latest blog posts, sort through the schedule, and you’ll see that Make Music New York features many spectacular, fascinating “Special Events.” Some are all about making music outdoors in the summertime – like Punk Island and the Block Parties – and others feature a piece or an idea that fits perfectly into the event and especially into some space in New York City, like last year’s Persephassa on Central Park Lake.
This is not New York’s first performance of Inuksuit — the Park Avenue Armory took those honors as the crowning program of their Tune-In Festival in February. With 55,000 square feet in the drill hall, the work came close to a complete realization, with musicians in every part of the hall and on the stairs and in the corridors outside. Here’s a taste:
Perkins was part of that performance, and was also part of one in Texas last year (where the pictures on our schedule page were taken). He’s looking forward to the MMNY one: “[Morningside Park] is a beautiful park that a lot of people don’t know about. [We get to] share and highlight a piece of New York City that a lot of people don’t know about; bringing people together for an experience like this. It’s an improbable event, MMNY [itself] should not happen, but it does.”
The musicians will not fill the entire park, but will still be deployed in a large area covering four blocks from 112th to 116th streets, spreading out to the east and west edges of the park. Some will be up on the terrace that overlooks the park from the west, blowing the conch. The musicians begin gathered in a central place, then wander out to their playing stations; Inuksuit is in an arch form, beginning quietly and ritualistically, building to a tremendous density of sound and activity, then tapering off to silence. The topography of the park (“it’s so rich, you’ll have to wander around” to best experience the piece, Perkins says), means that the players will be out of line of sight of each other, and the listeners will also not be able to see all the performers.
Since the work is made to be part of the environment, the opening and closing ten (or so) minutes will imperceptibly blend deliberate music making with the sounds of the park and the city – this is by design. Perkins considers the first ten minutes a way for the audience to “tune their ears” to what is happening, they “may not realize they are hearing the piece.” And as the music recedes to notated bird songs for metallic percussion and piccolo, “everyone’s ears will be ready to hear that,” when it fades away, leaving behind the companionship of the park. “It happens, and it works, and there you are, listening to the birds.”
Inuksuit is co-sponsored by the Friends of Morningside Park and Miller Theater at Columbia University School of the Arts. The small army of musicians will include So Percussion, the Percussion Group Cincinnati, the Proper Glue Duo, Mantra Percussion, and students from music schools in New York City and beyond, including Juilliard, NYU, Brooklyn College, Eastman, the Hartt School, McGill, Grand Valley State and Baylor.
There is also a companion film; Miller is hosting the premiere of Leonard Kamerling’s Strange and Sacred Noise, a documentary of a piece of Adams performed on the arctic tundra. The screening takes place on Monday, June 20 at 7pm and, like the MMNY performance, is free, open to the public and requires no tickets. Following the screening, Kamerling, Adams and Perkins will have a discussion with each other and the audience. Miller is also producing podcast-based audio program notes for Inuksuit, available by calling 855-468-57848 (INUKSUIT]), or by downloading podcasts. Check their website by June 17 for files and information. And there’s an Inuksuit tumblr! When arriving at Morningside Park, you can find more information at a table Miller will have at the southwest corner, near the entrance at 110th and Morningside Drive: View Map
And if you’d like to volunteer to help out (keeping an eye on the percussion set ups, helping clean up, answer questions and give directions), you can fill out an online form. We are grateful to Miller and Director Melissa Smey for bringing this tremendous production to life.
Woven in and out of the sidewalks and parks of New York City, and of Make Music New York, will be the return of the Pop-Up street pianos, there to be played by billionaire and bum alike, produced by Sing for Hope, a great organization that provides opportunities for professional artists to volunteer in schools, hospitals, and communities. Perhaps they are new to you, in which case you will find them unforgettable after the end of this month.
The idea of street pianos began with Play Me, I’m Yours in London, and has spread across the globe (this will be the second year for their appearance in New York City). In New York, the pianos are a physical expression of Sing For Hope’s fundamental mission, to create and maintain access to the arts for all New Yorkers. A street piano does that in many ways; it’s not only an instrument that anyone can sit down and play, but it also brings the somewhat archaic idea of the bourgeois salon – from a stretch of roughly 150 years when the piano was ubiquitous in the parlors of middle class homes – into the street, and creates an intimate, social gathering space in the middle of the throngs around us.
The covers come off the pianos on Saturday, June 18, and the instruments will be available for two weeks. Each one of the 88 (coincidental number? Perhaps . . . ) has been painted by one of sixty-five artists who volunteer for the project – they will all look different, and each one will be donated to a local site after the project ends, barring inevitable attrition (Emily Walsh of Sing for Hope told me the project loses two or three a year to the vigorous playing of children, perhaps one to water damage. Two were lost last year to intentional vandalism, which seems low but is, of course, too high.) There is also an extensive roster of artists who just may show up at one of the pianos for an impromptu concert, even with accompanying singers and dancers.
You can check out a map of the piano locations here, select Pianos from the line at the top, and then pick locations by borough and neighborhood. Select a particular piano, and you will then see a link that allows you to schedule your own event at it. The times will be 1:00-1:30pm and 6:00-6:30pm daily. Bookmark their site to stay apprised.
For MMNY itself, many of the pianos will host scheduled appearances by musicians playing in the festival. You can see a list as part of our schedule, and there are a fair number of time slots open that you can book. If you play, and want to be part of MMNY, this is another great opportunity to join at the last minute. For example, as of this writing the piano at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is completely available for booking from 11:00am – 9:00pm! Of course, all these pianos will have all their unbooked time available for anyone who wants to sit down and bang away. You’ll be joining some impressive company, like terrific jazz pianist Alon Nechushtan and his trio, the Amore Opera at Tompkins Square Park, our Mass Appeal: Trombones event, and, of course, much, much more. It really is the old joke: how do we do it? Volume, volume, volume . . .
While it wouldn’t be right for New York City to lay full claim to Punk, the music could not have begun without New York City’s contribution to the creative dissatisfaction across youth culture worldwide. Punk needed the Ramones, it needed the 1977 Yankees as an object of disgust, it needed the pending dystopia of: it needed The Warriors:
That story is a retelling of Xenophon’s ancient Anabasis; people have always needed to escape out of something, someplace. We don’t intend Make Music New York to be that explicitly or entirely, but music is something we all use for escape from whatever ails or distracts us in the everyday. Punk started as an escape from so many things that were dull and decayed. So there’s no better way to kick off MMNY 2011 than to leave the city behind and escape to Punk Island.
Punk Island is this Sunday, June 19 – the event gets the leg up on the schedule, because Governors Island is closed to the general public during the week. This is a good thing! We want you to be able to enjoy six hours and and more than 50 bands worth of Punk in the beautiful sun (and as of today it looks like the weather will be good). It’s all free, all curated by ABC No Rio and the Punk/Hardcore collective.
The bands include Common Enemy, Less Life, White Collar Crime and the legendary AnarchoPunk band Zounds, with their first-ever US show. Bands will appear at eight stages, including the perfectly named Tinnitus Stage, and there will also be readings from Soft Skull Press poets Todd Colby and Sparrow.
We want everyone to have a great time, so please check out the Governors Island regs (scroll down the page) and the directions there. Enjoy the music and that great boat ride there and back across the harbor. Enjoy the present you, Punk fans, helped create, rather than what might have been:
