Summer 2020: Local Music, Brooklyn

Covid has shut down institutions and venues but hasn’t stamped out music in Prospect Park, Flatbush, and the front yards in Ditmas. Sunday afternoons in the southeast corner of Prospect Park is a seamless soundtrack from Parkside entrance where Trinidadian Steelpan rings out blending into African drumming from the circle as one walks along west drive. Jamaican dub and dance hall merges into the Haitian roots and jazz as one approaches the boathouse where Alegba and friends can be found nightly. Saturday evening the Dan Martinez trio holds court on Woodruff Avenue (documented by guest writer Precenda Griffin), while Zing Experience delights the neighbors with “Front Yard concerts” at 448 Marlborough Road. and since September Operation Gig has been matching locally based musicans with porches in Ditmas Park.

The View from Here
by: Precenda Griffin

It’s the last of the warm splendid summer evenings. It’s also a summer of a global pandemic. COVID-19 has changed the way we operate, and communicate. Being in a motorized wheelchair gives me a particular perspective that most never consider, or even notice for that matter. The beauty of this perspective is I have a  unique love for my    borough from the ground up.
Brooklyn is always alive with streets teaming with world music on every block.  
This particularSaturday was no exception. As I cruised my neighborhood I happened upon the Dan Martinez Latin jazz trio. This magnificent trio set up in a tiny front yard of a Brooklyn brownstone.
The prerequisite tip jar was on display.

There was certainly no pressure to tip, but you certainly felt inspired to.  It was bliss when the first strings of “Satin Doll” began to play. A particular favorite of this writer.
This  performance took place on a block that had recently become synonymous with rampant violence and murder covered by news outlets. This community is shellshocked. We’re experiencing a level of violence that has not been seen since the 1980s.
An ordinary day such as this serves as no instant panacea for the psychological, and emotional toll this pandemic has taken. However, It certainly was a welcome break from the realities of job losses, and more importantly the loss of loved ones.
So while we close out Labor Day 2020 it’s still can be said that music certainly soothes the savage beast. We hope and pray. 

Dan Martinez is a bass player based now in New York City. He was born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico and studied music at Escuela Libre de Musica and later the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music with Jose Garcia and Eddie Gomez. He has performed with jazz artists including William Cepeda, Humberto Ramirez and Eric Figueroa. Dan has also collaborated with songwriter Gabriel Miranda and folkloric group Severo Group. Recently he has performed in jazz clubs including Terraza 7 with the Fernando García quartet and with the Richard Padrón group.

@Precenda_Inc
Precenda@Precenda.com

Go back 3 months to May when we were in full lockdown quarantine, Feeling restless, Alegba Jahyile took his guitar to a place he was comfortable, the Prospect Park boathouse, to get out into the fresh air. There as he sat and played on his own, a woman who had just lost several family members broke into tears as she listened. He realized that live music was something that people hadn’t had for months and a gift he could give from his heart. He has played in the same spot every night since, rolling out good musical vibes and therapeutic energy.

His solo sessions have evolved into Alegba and Friends with a core group of musicians including saxophonist Mark Kraszewski; vocalist Tasha Mabri; Christopher Fletcher, keyboards; Alix Julien, guitar; percussionist Kebyesou perform regularly. Many nights now include guests from the spectrum of the jazz and Haitian music communities. This month - Sept. 10th: Tasha, Sept 12th: San Simon, Sept. 19th: Dawn Drake and Zapote, Sept 26th: Dr Merengue’s Vodou Band will appear. Announcements can be found on social media,

There is no set list, a recent show a funky “Days of Wine and Roses” was followed by a funky “So What” featuring a Kraszewski solo that stopped traffic on the pedestrian bridge over the lake. Alegba added heartfelt vocals on a song by an obscure master Zelibou. Zelibou, he said is one of the great Haitian songwriters who he hasn’t seen in a few years. When Tasha Mabry steps up to the mic, the music pivets towards R+B with classics such as “Aint No Sunshine”.

COVID-19 cancelled West Indian Labor Day carnival celebrations and the summer sounds of the panyards. Offically sanctioned events have given way to word of mouth gatherings, (not a stretch from a culture built on resistance and improvisation). Just inside the Parkside Avenue entrance of Prospect Park, Sunday afternoon pop-up events have provided relief. Featuring steelpan from Hearts of Steel, rhythm sections Kutters and Natural Expressions and DJs spinning calypso and soca tunes the last big event of the summer takes place this weekend, Sunday August 30th, celebrating Trinidad and Tobago independence. Look for the jab jab characters at the entrance of the park.

Hearts of Steel as a single pan or “pan round the neck” band stays true to the roots of the music. Steelpan music’s origins are in the struggle against colonialist authority in Trinidad and Tobago. Hearts as an integral part of Brooklyn’s jouvert celebrations continues that struggle in its current context. Over the past 20 years Hearts has become reknowned for their “sailors mas”. Their weekly panyard events are among the most popular of pre-carnival celebrations. In steel pan music the arrangements are what makes each band unique. Gospel, funk, soca, calypso are all in the band’s repetoire arranged exclusively by one the bands 7 arrangers.

As COVID-19 left the steelpan community without venues to celebrate they brought their instrumensts to the park on Fathers Day. Mike Demas, founder and captain of Hearts told us “The park is a place for us to gather, we want to know who is alive and engage with friends. COVID left us without venues to celebrate Fathers day or for gathering in the summer, no place to rehearse. The community was so grateful that they decided to continue. As New Yorkers we accept certain things whatever is given to us and follow the format we adjust to everything. Hopefully we can go back to the panyards next year.”

Another truly Brooklyn summertime happening occurs at 448 Marlborough Road most Saturdays. Zing Experience performs in the front yard for neighbors friends and an online audience from 6pm til after dark. Fans sit on the porch and passersby stop to lean on the fence and listen or dance on the sidewalk in the quiet neighborhood. Zing Experience is Paul Beaubrun, guitar and vocals; Chico Boyer, bass; and Peter Barr, drums.

Alegba and Friends will be at the Boathouse through September and longer if the weather holds up. Sept. 10th: Tasha, Sept 12th: San Simon, Sept. 19th: Dawn Drake and Zapote, Sept 26th: Dr Merengue’s Vodou Band

Zing Experience and friends has also just released the documentary Rasanbleman, a live concert in Central Park, and completed a project “Let The Rhythm Lead” a collaboration with Jackson Browne, Habib Koité, Jenny Lewis, Raúl Rodríguez, Jonathan Russell, and Jonathan Wilson, with musicians from Lakou Mizik, recorded in Jacmel Haiti and available as an album.

The difficulty of working in the live music business cannot be overstated in these times, local musicians with community support in Flatbush (Brooklyn) are taking things into their own hands.

Sunday, August 30th is the Red Black and White Independence Day celebrations beginnig in the afternoon at the Parkside Ave entrance. Hearts of Steel, Natural Expressions, Kutters, DJ Kendell.

Jab Jab characters from JouveyFest including Bruiser and Sandra Bell make appearances including the upcoming Halloween saturday gathering in what may be the last big sterel pan event in the park.