New York City can really suck the life out of you, especially during the miserably hot summer months, unless you work hard at finding the life in the city. One way is through music.
Under a gentle rain in June, I saw the jazz jam band Medeski, Martin & Wood perform in Central Park. The free concert series often attracts big crowds, but the rain scared away lesser fans and left lots of elbow room for me and my buddy Pete Armstrong. He recorded the following clip on his iPhone during the concert. (I’m the guy in the hat who makes a quick appearance to Pete’s right.)
Pete again saw MMW perform last week, this time with the jazz guitarist John Scofield at the Whitney Museum. Incredibly, he failed to invite me. But I’ll get my chance this Friday, because MMW is performing free at the Whitney every Friday this month to celebrate 20 years together.
I also got my music fix last week in Prospect Park, where I saw Michigan native Sufjan Stevens perform in the bandshell. Evidently, The New Yorker was also there, because one of their bloggers later described the concert as a “spectacle” of “enormous inflatable creatures, metallic space-suit headdresses, and glow in the dark dancers. ”
Sufjan opened the concert with a rip-roaring version of Seven Swans:
And here’s a shorter clip that my sis took with her iPhone:
