Make Music New York 2010

The Yale Percussion Group at the Naumburg Bandshell 

There were over 1,000 free musical happenings today in New York for the city’s fourth annual Make Music New York festival. I’m proud to say I made it to three. Make Music New York (MMNY) is a day-long music fest open to anyone that wants to make music or enjoy music being made in the city’s public spaces. New York is one of over 300 cities worldwide to hold free music festivals on the longest day of the year after France's Fête de la Musique. 

Though I’ve sung the praises of France’s Fête, I must admit to have being totally ignorant of Make Music New York’s existence until I was handed a program for it at last Sunday at Summer Stage. At first glimpse (1000 musical acts!!) I felt a bit overwhelmed.  A full day dedicated to music in the midst of the city’s abundant free summer concert series? It felt like second dessert. But when I read deeper into the program, I realized that this was different from those series curated for the large stages at Central or Prospect Parks—this was about making music, and you didn’t have to be a vetted act, or even a professional musician, to take part. The other main difference was that the shows were happening in community spaces--on sidewalks, in small parks, around the city’s monuments--and that I didn't have to leave my neighborhood to attend.

The first show I attended was the Yale Percussion Group playing a selection of three pieces by Iannis Xenakis at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. I did have to leave my neighborhood to catch this one, but it was worth the 15 minute subway ride.

The concert, one of three performances dedicated to the Greek composer happening throughout Central Park during MMNY, appeared to be in poor attendance as I made my way through the shaded Mall and towards the band shell. The expanse before the stage was empty save a lone cameraman documenting the performance. As it turned out, the audience was there, but had taken refuge from the sun beneath the treecover of the Mall and were listening intently.  

I had never heard Xenakis before and was duly impressed by his compositions and the six Yale percussionists that interpreted three of his pieces.  The first thing I noticed about the music was Xenakis use of space—long rests playing out between explosive beats (he was not afraid to get loud!). The percussionist clearly heard a rhythm in the space between the notes and the listener was invited to do likewise. In the second selection, played by a single percussionist, Xenakis used quick repeated beats on the marimba or on some clanging bells to create a textured canvass on which big syncopated bass drum beats exploded--a dramatic landscape. The last piece they played involved all six members of the ensemble, each behind his or her elaborate station of tympani, bass drum, tom toms, bongos, and other surfaces to hit. The drums talked back and forth, listened to one another, chanted in unison, boomed and whispered. The crowd was transfixed. Some audience members even braved the relentless sun to face the musicians. (If you want to get a taste of Xenakis and the Yale ensemble, I found this segment of another Xenakis piece on YouTube.)

NYChoro outside La Pregunta 

I could have stopped after the Xenakis show and been completely satisfied with my first MMNY experience. But, despite the heat, I pushed on, this time uptown to La Pregunta Arts Café, a Latin-flavored café and music venue near City College, to hear NYChoro, a group of CUNY music students who would be playing Brazilian music. When I arrived, however, the only thing playing was the Spain-Honduras game on a TV over the bar. I asked the barman about the music and he gestured at a couple of guys sitting outside and said it would start at 4:00 (it was already 4:20). I ordered a pineapple and mint smoothie and waited while the trio set up—soprano saxophone, guitar, and upright bass. There was no seating outside, so I asked if I could do what the domino players at the bodega next door we’re doing—take a chair out to the curb. The young musicians seemed pleased to have an audience member and even offered me an egg shaker to play along (their percussionist was in Brazil).

Between songs (choro, bossa nova, samba jazz for the most part), I learned that the group plays every Wednesday at La Pregunta. I also learned that the two Brazilian players hoped to stay in New York after graduating from CUNY where they thought there were more opportunities and less competition for Brazilian musicians. Check out their MySpace page. 

Apart from me, NYChoro attracted few listeners. Three children stopped and relieved me of my egg shaking duties for a while, and a few other children desperately wanted to stop, but were pulled on by busy parents. The handful of bar patrons were too absorbed in the game to come outside. Not to mention the heat. But I enjoyed the NYChoro’s playing and it gave the hot, still June afternoon a cool soundtrack.

Second line musicians in Marcus Garvey Park

On my way from La Pregunta to the subway, I passed a DJ and his son setting up a laptop and turntables in Convent Park and a R&B singer crooning away in the 125th St. station. With the sun at my back, I walked along 124^th Street in search of the tail end of a New Orleans “second line” jazz procession, which was to terminate in Marcus Garvey Park.  I finally found the second liners on the east side of the park (the sousaphone gave them away) and got to hear a deep, rumbling rendition of Herbie Hancock’s Cameleon before the musicians started to pack up their instruments and mingle with the audience. 

I ended the day nursing a dripping popsicle and feeling glad to have taken part in Make Music New York. Though certainly it took careful planning months in advance, the concerts I heard felt refreshingly informal and accessible, as though impromptu musical community was still something commonplace in New York City's neighborhoods.