Revisiting the history of The Town Hall means exploring some of the most important social and musical events in New York City over the past century. And with the debut of The Town Hall Ensemble performing City Suite on October 22nd, audience members will share in some of the great moments and movements that occurred on this iconic stage.
A newly-formed and rotating all-star collective directed by trumpeter, arranger and bandleader
Steven Bernstein and featuring some of the best musicians in New York City, The
Town Hall Ensemble will perform a concert suite celebrating social justice movements and historic music performances at the Town Hall. This benefit concert will support the
Town Hall Foundation and the
Town Hall Arts in
Education program, including the new
Town Hall Ensemble music outreach initiative, gearing up for the venue's 100th anniversary in 2021.
For this debut performance, a Sunday matinee show set for 3:00pm, The
Town Hall Ensemble will comprise
Nels Cline (guitar), Luis Bonilla (trombone),
Natalie Cressman (trombone),
Lenny Pickett (tenor sax, clarinet), Lakecia Benjamin (alto sax),
Bria Skonberg, (trumpet),
Scott Robinson (sax),
Marc Cary (piano),
Marika Hughes (cello), Ricardo
Rodriguez (bass), Pedrito
Martinez (percussion),
Zach Brock (violin). and JT Lewis (drums).
Special guests for the October 22nd program include R&B singer
Lisa Fischer (one of the main singers featured in the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom), producer Hal Willner (famed for his tribute albums and concerts and his decades-long work on NBC-TV's Saturday Night Live), NPR music critic and author Will Hermes (Love Goes to
Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York City That Changed Music Forever), with additional guests to be announced.
Town Hall Ensemble: City Suite also pays tribute to landmark moments in the venue's history, including
Coretta Scott King's
Freedom Concerts (which she debuted at
Town Hall in 1964); the 70th anniversary of
Dizzy Gillespie´s milestone concert featuring Cuban conga player and composer Chano Pozo (on Christmas Day, 1947); and the anti-Nazi Rachen Nu fundraising concert with famed Jewish cantor Moise Oysher (in 1944). The program will include renditions of "Cubana Be/Cubana Bop" from the Dizzy/Chano debut, "No Crystal Stair" from the
Freedom Concert, and "Ani Maamin" from the Rachem Nu rally.
"We wanted to put together a collective that celebrated the diversity and ingenuity of New York City," said M.A. Papper, Artistic Director of the Town Hall. "This venue has always been open to everyone. That's why
Town Hall has been the home and birthplace to so many landmark social, cultural and musical movements-because Town Hall's founders believed in equality and inclusiveness."
Built by a group of suffragists (The League for Political Education) fighting for women's right to vote, the
Town Hall opened on January 12, 1921 as a meeting space to debate the important issues of the day. "The original intention was to have a speaking hall to engage citizens, but its principles and its perfect acoustics also created a music hall to engage audiences for new ideas," noted Papper. "Marian Anderson performed here twenty years before she was allowed to sing on most of the major opera stages. So many activist artists, from
Pete Seeger to
Paul Robeson to
Judy Collins, and pioneers and experimenters-
Dizzy Gillespie,
Nina Simone,
Meredith Monk..."
Musically, "when we are talking about the history of The Town Hall, we are basically talking about the entire history of New York music," says
Steven Bernstein, a New Yorker who's a prominent member of the downtown jazz scene. "Think from
Fletcher Henderson on -
Duke Ellington,
Tin Pan Alley, the Brill Building, Machito, Mario Bauza,
Tito Puente, early New York rock, bebop, the Velvet Underground,
Philip Glass,
Meredith Monk, all the way to Afrika Bambaataa. "
Bernstein also notes epochal concerts at the Hall such as the first Dixieland Revival, breakthrough performances by Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus,
Nina Simone,
Leonard Cohen,
Philip Glass and
Bob Dylan.
Charlie Parker and
Dizzy Gillespie held the very first bebop concert at the Hall.
That said, "the idea is not to recreate music that has been presented at The Town Hall, but to pay tribute to it and use it as repertoire," says Bernstein. "It doesn't make sense trying to recreate
Fletcher Henderson or
Afrika Bambaataa because you can listen to their records. What we want is to sound like The
Town Hall Ensemble playing this music today." The list of musicians eager to sign up for the Ensemble is a testament to the relevance of that mission.
In addition to fund-raising concerts and events, The
Town Hall Ensemble will offer educational outreach programs to New York City public school students through The
Town Hall Foundation. Beyond educating students on the city's rich cultural history, the educational programs also look to inspire students to be engaged citizens. Programs will include class curriculums taught by The Town Hall's Arts in
Education teaching artists, culminating in special live performances for New York City public school students. Future programs will also feature smaller groups made up of Ensemble members that will visit public schools to perform and teach not only cultural and musical history but lessons on a century's worth of musical styles and instrumentation. For more information go to
www.thetownhall.org.
