At first it seemed like a small, no-frills concert in a carefully controlled environment: Jazz musician Jon Batiste sat at a piano in an auditorium in the Javits Center on Manhattan’s West Side, performing in front of about 50 seated health care workers in evenly spaced rows – some wear scrubs, other army clothes.
The dancer Ayodele Casel began to knock, with no musical accompaniment other than a recording of her own voice, and her increased convulsive roles filled the room. And the opera singer Anthony Roth Costanzo played “Ave Maria” in the angelic tones of a countertenor.
But about half an hour later, the performers stepped off the stage and left the room. What began as a formal concert turned into a boisterous procession of music and dance that ran through the sterile building – the convention center was turned into a field hospital early in the pandemic and is now a mass vaccination site – where hundreds of hopeful people are had come on Saturday afternoon to get their shots.
Batiste switched to the melodica, a stylish, hand-held reed instrument with keyboard, and the band of musicians, which had been expanded to include a horn section and drummer, marched up the escalator and through the convention center, finally reaching a climax. Ceiling room where dozens of people quietly waited 15 minutes after the vaccination for the required waiting times.
This concert roaming party was the first in a series of “pop-up” shows in New York designed to give the arts a jolt by giving artists paid work and audiences the chance to perform live after nearly a year see darkened theaters and concert halls. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo last month announced plans for the “NY PopsUp” series in which he stated “we need to bring art and culture back to life,” adding that their revitalization is essential for the economic revitalization of New York the city is of decisive importance. The shows begin as he comes under fire for the government’s handling of Covid-19 deaths of nursing home residents.
Since the program doesn’t attract crowds, most of the performances will be unannounced and suddenly pop up in parks, museums, parking lots and street corners. The idea is to bring a dose of inspiration into the lives of New Yorkers – a moment when they can disrupt their planned lives and experience art during a pandemic year when human contact is limited and people’s activities are severely restricted.
“We need more spontaneity; That’s the beauty of it, ”said Batiste in an interview. “You don’t know what’s around the corner.”
As the band of musicians roamed the Javits Center, the audience of healthcare workers followed them, clapping to the beat, and recording the spectacle on their cell phones. Batiste, the bandleader on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” drove his musicians around the room (most of whom played with the show’s house band, including Endea Owens on bass, Tivon Pennicott on saxophone, and Joe Saylor and Nêgah Santos on drums).
Bre Williams, a 35-year-old blue scrub nurse who had come from Savannah, Georgia to help out in New York, watched wide-eyed.
“You guys do all that stuff up here?” she said with a laugh.
Just before the music ended, some of the health workers rushed off to continue their work day (this concert, after all, took place during their breaks).
The series is being created by a public-private partnership led by producers Scott Rudin and Jane Rosenthal along with the New York State Council for Art and Empire State Development. Zack Winokur, the director and interdisciplinary artist in charge of the program, said the group intends to have more than 300 pop-up performances in all counties and across the state by Labor Day. The performers are selected by an artists’ council – including Batiste, Casel and Costanzo – who are each asked to use their own networks to find participants.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a live performance,” said Winokur in an interview. “It’s a much needed experience right now.”
After performing at the Javits Center for the first time, the musicians made their way to Brooklyn, where they began another flash mob style street jam that started from Cadman Plaza Park and snaked through Dumbo to land at a skate park where teenagers stared at them curiously before hopping back on their skateboards. The free, mobile concerts are described by Batiste, who previously planned them on social media, as “love riots”. This drove over sidewalks and slushy snow and sometimes slowed down traffic.
Casel was prevented from tap dancing in the street and beat out rhythms by clapping her hands on the metal plates of her tap shoes. Costanzo danced with the band and at one point grabbed the megaphone to sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.
While the music was meant to offer passers-by a spontaneous display, the march itself was as strictly regulated as any event from the time of the pandemic. Security guards guided members of the musical entourage through rough terrain and dog litter. Another employee asked viewers to spread out when they started violating social distancing guidelines.
Despite the logistics, the plan managed to arouse a spontaneous curiosity for dozens of people who unexpectedly came across the music. The band moved through narrow streets and shopping streets, making people stop, stare and sometimes groove a bit. Children peered through windows along Washington Street; A doorman shot out of an apartment building to see what all the noise was about. Pharmacy workers leaned out the door to film the procession on the sidewalk.
However, not everyone seemed to appreciate the music. At one point, someone in a residential building threw objects from several floors at the protesters (one of the security officers said he saw an orange juice container and a trophy in the snow).
The band, used to improvising, simply avoided the flying objects and marched a little faster, the music never stopped.
