Nicole Atkins – Madison Square Park – June 18, 2014
Atkins is the latest exponent of the Asbury Park mystique music scene (and band members are culled from it) to make an impact – at least on my radar. Her band leads the league in Daves, with three.
Nicole Atkins
Dave Heilman
Zach Westfall
Dave Sherman
Dave Rosen
Busking New York – Samantha Echo – June 18, 2014
Echo was in Herald Square station, one of my favorites for catching busker action. She had just a boom box and microphone to sing along to her accompaniment.
Samantha Echo
Wynton Marsalis JALC Orchestra – Woodlawn Cemetery – June 11, 2014
Woodlawn Cemetery is where the remains of many of our notable jazz figures rest. Wynton did all the talking from the stage, pointing out when various orchestra members would “explain” something with their instrument, and imploring them to do justice in the presence of the predeceased who would be very much listening in and grooving. Unlike a similar previous Lincoln Center-associated event held in the chapel, this bring your own chair affair was gorgeously outdoors.
Wynton Marsalis
Dan Nimmer
Marcus Printup
Vijay Iyer Trio – Aaron Davis Hall – May 9, 2014
Vijay Iyer
Stephan Crump
Marcus Gilmore
Wall to Wall Cabaret – Symphony Space – May 3, 2014
Cabaret is not my forté, so I entered without preconception, and was sufficiently amused, with a slight tilt towards the comedy cabaret. It was really fast-paced, with many performers doing only a single number, so I had to work at breakneck speed. The logistics were not conducive to me getting too many autographs either. To show how not part of this world I am, not one of the performers portrayed was previously known to me!
Adam Ben-David
John Arbo
BD Wong
LaTanya Hall
Jackie Hoffman
Eric Yves Garcia
Molly Pope
Worldwide Sketch Crawl 43 – Brewster, NY – April 19, 2014
Was feeling not sufficiently tip-top to join the NYC Urban Sketchers for this one, so stayed local – remembered a spread of wild hyacinths in walking distance; with this year’s late spring, the timing was right for them to be in peak bloom, and well-festooned with the native bees!
Spring Bees on Hyacinth 2014
Greenwich High School Jazz Festival – March 22, 2014
I was dragooned into serving as MC for the GHS Jazz Festival. A total of 14 high school jazz ensembles performed in an all-day affair. So I brought along the sketchbook to maintain sanity. I did capture all of the faculty directors, and quite a number of the students; these (over 30 sketches!) will be directed to a different presentation forum to be determined. Here I offer tribute to the organizer, John S. Yoon of Greenwich High School, and also include sketches of several of the professional musicians who served as judges, and then performed briefly at the end of the festivities. Not portrayed here, but shown on previous blog posts, were Greg Gisbert (trumpet) and Rich Perry (sax). Milliman presents an interesting aspect when performing: looks down at his instrument, so that only the top of his head is showing; for an old guy he sure scrammed fast at the end, gone like a cool breeze before I could track him down for an autograph!
John S. Yoon
Linc Milliman
Scott Brown
Justin DiCioccio
David Oliver
Sloan Wainwright – Pound Ridge Library – March 9, 2014
Wainwright is a scion (scioness?) of the Wainwright-musical-industrial complex of Westchester County (sister of the more famous Loudon III), performing here on basically her home turf. Her passionately expressive pipes put over both covers and her originals, composed with longtime collaborator Murphy. Carroll provided intermittent harmony and hand percussion.
Sloan Wainwright
Steve Murphy
Cadence Carroll
Poetry & Poetry Talk – Bruno Walter Auditorium – March 6, 2014
The real title of this presentation is waaaaay too long to fit on the title line: “e.e. cummings and Edna St. Vincent Millay: Two Mid-20th-Century Stars”. Presented in collaboration with Poetry Society.org at the NY Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center, it featured discussions of the bibliographic books by Cheever (cummings) and Milford (Millay), followed by poetry readings by Collins (cumming) and Brown (Millay).
Billy Collins
Blair Brown
Nancy Milford
Susan Cheever
Busking New York – Columbus Circle Subway Station – January 30, 2014
I finally came up against a performer (kora player Salieu M. Suso) who wouldn’t sign, leading to speculation on my part about why that would be. Guitarist Martinez was much more accommodating (and took a picture of the sketch to boot).
Salieu M. Suso
Daniello Martinez
