Busking New York City – October 4, 2018
Here I witnessed (in Washington Square Park) one of the most astounding musical performances in quite some time. Talk about a different drummer! Percussionist Reggie Pison plays on a collection of buckets, pots and pans, and various metal forms and pieces that clearly have a “real” function in construction & fabrication, perhaps. These he bangs with some crude wooden sticks. The lively and insistent rhythm emerges unfiltered from his soul, as does the rap, more jagged than smoothly flowing, an ongoing conversational monologue indicative of uniquely connected dots upstairs in the cranium. I found it infectious, couldn’t tell if he was addressing me while I sketched, talking to himself about me, or mostly oblivious. He definitely was master of his instrument; by turning a metal form upside down he was able to access a whole new set of sounds, and he had an assortment of them that he rotated into and out of the active configuration. His performance involved a constantly shifting array of sonic offerings, as he flipped this or that piece according to his real-time vision. I was intimidated about asking for the autograph, as it seemed like there would be no break in his stream of consciousness presentation, and there wasn’t! I had to maneuver the book in front of him, he took the pen with one hand while he kept the rhythm going with the other without a break. There was no sense engaging him in small talk, or informing him that his last name is the name of a wasp genus. Weil kept her classical and contemporary offerings brief and to the point, which made them eminently digestible. Cohen & Garvey perform under the moniker “Goin’ Local Duo”.
Reggie Pison
Laura Weil
Martin Cohen & Ann Garvey