[music]

Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. It is June 21st, the summer solstice, and this year, that means the return, after a hiatus during the beginnings of the pandemic, of Make Music New York, a music festival happening today in all five boroughs. Now, if you don't know it, part of what distinguishes this festival from some other music festivals you might be familiar with is the emphasis on everybody doing it, participants sharing, and playing your own music regardless of age or experience level.

Listeners, as our contribution to Make Music New York, we're going to have a very special call-in right now. We would love for you to share, let's say, up to 30 seconds of your own musical talents live on The Brian Lehrer Show. Now, remember the human voice definitely counts as an instrument, so you can sing, or you can play your harpsichord or your guitar, or your viola, maybe you're a string quartet, or you're a funk band just so happens to be rehearsing right now. Even if you don't play an instrument, you can open your cabinets and grab that pot or pan you banged on every night at seven o'clock in those first few months of the pandemic.

Give us a call at 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. 212-433-WNYC. I can't invite you to tweet this time. This time you have to do it on the phones. All ages and experience levels are welcome, and as your calls are coming in and you're getting ready, with me now is James Burke, the executive director of Make Music New York, which is just one of a thousand solstice music festivals happening all over the world, we are told, as part of Make Music Day. James, thanks for taking some time out. You must be torn in a thousand different musical directions, sonic directions, so thank you for giving us some time this morning.

James Burke: Oh, thank you. Yes, we're already making music here in New York City, Brian, and I'm eager as you are to hear what New Yorkers have to offer. Let me just quickly say though, a large part of my job is staying up to date on everything that happens in this city, and your show is just such a great resource. Thank you, and your producers, and everyone on your team.

Brian Lehrer: Well, thank you very much. I see that Make Music New York is now in year 16. How did it start?

James Burke: Well, it was inspired by Fête de la Musique which kicked off in Paris, France, and I'm glad you mentioned that because this is actually the 40th anniversary of Fête de la Musique, and I just came from a press conference where the ambassador to the United States, Ambassador Étienne, spoke to the crowd with lady Liberty in the background. The founder of Make Music New York, Aaron Friedman, happened to be in Paris for one of these big festivals, and when he came back to the city, he's like, "Why does New York City not have a Make Music Day?" That was 16 years ago. We've been doing it ever since.

Brian Lehrer: You're saying it started in France 40 years ago. For people who don't know French, Fête de la Musique is what you said. Fête is from the French verb to make, and so to make music, Fête de la Musique. Was it always linked to the summer solstice, and if so, why this date?

James Burke: It was. It was always linked to the summer solstice to celebrate the first day of the summer, and because here in the Northern hemisphere, it's the longest day of the year, so we can pour out into city streets around the world, and make music with that sunlight.

Brian Lehrer: Are you ready for our first Brian Lehrer Show Make Music New York participant? It's going to be Michel in the East Village. Michel, you're on WNYC. Thanks for calling in.

[pause 00:04:15]

[music]

Brian Lehrer: Michel on vibraphone. Michel are you there? Can you hear me? Because as lovely as this is, we're going to have to move on in a sec. Oh, I love that. Michel sticks the landing. Michel are you there? You want to say hello?

Michel: Oh, yes, I'm here.

Brian Lehrer: That is so great. It's vibraphone, I presume, right?

Michel: Vibraphone, I'm on the air or just testing? Are we testing are we on the air?

Brian Lehrer: Oh, no, no, that was on the air.

Michel: Oh, yes.

Brian Lehrer: Everybody was mesmerized. Is that an original composition or an ad-lib, an improv? All right, sticking the landing one more time. Michel, thank you very much. We're just going to right on the next caller. Here's Dan in Manhattan. Hi, Dan.

Dan: Hi.

Brian Lehrer: You want to just start or you want to set something up?

Dan: Okay, let me just play.

[pause 00:06:02]

[music]

Brian Lehrer: Nice. I said before the break when I was listing possible instruments people might have around the house, get out your steel drums. Was that a steel drum or another kind of drum?

Dan: It's a tongue drum hand pan. It's like a cutout metal globe.

Brian Lehrer: Does that come from a particular musical tradition or cultural tradition?

Dan: I'm not sure.

Brian Lehrer: Was that something you made up?

Dan: Yes. [chuckles]

Brian Lehrer: Nice. Dan, thank you very much. All right, we're going to keep going. Oh, this person, I'm going to call him a ringer because I know who he is. This is Mark in Tarrytown. You're Mark Morganelli, right?

Mark: That's right, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Mark Morganelli, the owner of the Jazz Forum. One of the great jazz clubs in our area in Tarrytown in Westchester, made it through the pandemic, still presenting jazz in Westchester, near the foot of the Tappan Zee Bridge. I didn't know you also play. Tell us what you play.

Mark: I'm playing the flugelhorn today for you.

Brian Lehrer: The flugel, and I said that one too before the break, I was joking around, right? "Get out your trumpets, get out your flugelhorns," and you actually got out your flugelhorn. We're all ears, Mark.

Mark: Okay.

[pause 00:07:57]

[music]

Brian Lehrer: Yes, Mark, Summertime And Living. It's not as easy as it used to be, but it's still--

Mark: The fish are still jumping.

Brian Lehrer: The fish are still jumping, absolutely. You want to tell people a little of what's coming up at Jazz Forum?

Mark: Yes, we're celebrating our fifth anniversary, as you mentioned, having been closed 15 months during the pandemic, but people are coming back. They're really enjoying it, and for our fifth anniversary this weekend, someone I've never presented before, pianist Michelle Camelo playing our Steinway beat solo piano.

Brian Lehrer: Awesome. Thank you for calling in Mark. Happy Make Music Day. For those of you who were listening to Mark play Summertime on his flugelhorn and thinking, "But I love the lyrics," we have Nora in White Plains. Nora, you're on WNYC. Hi, there.

Nora: Hi there. Oh my goodness. This will be hard when I'm shaking so much.

[singing]

Summertime time and the living is easy,

Fish are jumping and the cotton is hard,

Your mama's rich and your daddy is good-looking,

Hush little baby,

Oh, don't you cry.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, Nora, thank you so much. That was great. Two versions of Summertime from Westchester, Mark in Tarrytown and Nora in White Plains, with James Burke, executive director of Make Music New York, which is, as we said before, just one of a thousand solstice music festivals happening today all over the world as part of Make Music Day. James, isn't this great? People call in, playing instruments I never heard of in some cases.

James Burke: You anticipated some of them. I'm impressed. New Yorkers are just amazing, what they can play. I have to tell Michel, we actually have Glockabelle playing at Battery Park at 4:00 PM, playing the glockenspiel, so she should come out to that. We have percussion programs, so Dan should come to Prospect Park where we're going to be making music with flower pots.

We actually commissioned a piece to be performed using mallets on flower pots. We've got The Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra for Mark playing tonight up at General Grant National Monument. We've got a vocal program for Nora, we're doing a rendition of Mozart's Requiem from the North Oculus Plaza at the World Trade Center campus. I'm loving hearing this over the phone, but come make some music live, guys. It's not too late.

Brian Lehrer: Some of the other things going on around town that I've got on my list, Queens Memory live in Travis Park in Jackson Heights featuring Queens-based musicians, poets, and storytellers, Kids Rock for Kids at The Old Stone House in Park Slope. Do you know that one? I don't know that one, but how are you getting kids involved, do you know, in rock?

James Burke: Kids Rock for Kids is actually a non-profit that we're partnering with. They've been doing this ever since the pandemic hit. They were doing mostly virtual programs, but now, they're all live. They're actually flying in teenage and tweenaged musicians from countries all around the world to perform this whole week. This is a big day for them to do a free outdoor performance right in the heart of Gowanus, Brooklyn.

Brian Lehrer: Now, somebody is calling in as, let's see if I get this right, I think it's Ms. LaPoet in Princeton. Did I say that right? Hi, you're on the air.

Ms. LaPoet: Hi, this is Ms. LaPoet. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: I'm okay. Are you going to do poetry for us?

Ms. LaPoet: I'm excited, I love everything so far that I've heard. Excuse me?

Brian Lehrer: What are you going to do for us?

Ms. LaPoet: I do have a guitar here, but I don't know how to play it, so I'll just go with a string, and then I'll sing.

[singing]

Every nation,

Every tribe,

Come together and unify.

Calling all nations,

Calling all tribes,

Come together and unify.

Happy summer. Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Nice. Did you write that?

Ms. LaPoet: Yes, it's called Dream On by Ms. LaPoet.

Brian Lehrer: Nice. Is it available anywhere, are you a professional?

Ms. LaPoet: I did it 2008, I believe, 2009, you can find it on YouTube. I'm planning on redoing it so it could be for sale, but it's not for sale as for now. If you choose to go to it, it's on YouTube.

Brian Lehrer: Ms. LaPoet, thank you very much. How about that? What a name to take for-- I'll assume that that's an assumed name, James, Ms. LaPoet.

James Burke: I love it, though. That's perfect.

Brian Lehrer: I think we have another original here. Karen in Huntington, you're on WNYC. Hi, Karen.

Karen: Hello. Good morning. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. What do you have for us?

Karen: I have a guitar, an acoustic guitar, and I would like to sing a little snippet of one of my songs called Perished.

Brian Lehrer: We're all ears.

Karen: Okay.

[singing]

Stranded on this highway,

On my way to you,

Four cylinders gone perish.

With a choice to walk from here,

Feel my way to you,

Four cylinders have perished.

I think that's 30 seconds, right?

Brian Lehrer: Yes. That's great, what is it? That was really beautiful.

Karen: It's a song I wrote about a year and a half ago or so where my car died right on the entrance to a highway when I was on the way to continue an argument with a former significant other. [chuckles] I waited in my car for like two hours for AAA, and I thought, "A song is going to come out of this," because my cylinders just went, everything went in my car. I'm in the middle of recording that song, and I'll be releasing it probably in a year or so.

Brian Lehrer: Under what name, if you want to promote yourself?

Karen: Karen Bella.

Brian Lehrer: Karen, thank you very much. That's probably the prettiest song about an automotive breakdown that I've ever heard. Thank you, thank you very much. [chuckles]

Karen: You're welcome.

Brian Lehrer: By the way, James, I want to mention as a correction to myself that when I heard you say the French name of the holiday for Make Music Day, Fête a la Musique, I heard it as the French word F-A-I-T, which I said, "From the verb 'to make,'" but I'm gathering from some of our callers that it's really F-E-T-E, the French word fête for holiday or festival. Is that what it is?

James Burke: Yes. It's Fête de la Musique, so yes, it's party, music party, music festival.

Brian Lehrer: When we say "fait accompli", that's the other fait, meaning, "This is already done, we've already made this, stop talking to me, this is a fait accompli," [chuckles] but that's the other fait. This is F-E-T-E because, of course, it's a festival.

James Burke: That's right. To make things more complicated, all the free programs we're doing at Battery Park, and on Liberty Island, and Ellis Island are part of a festival called Faire la Fête today. These are all of our French music composers being featured and French musicians.

Brian Lehrer: I guess, at the risk of being wrong again, that's the French verb "to make fair." It's almost like "fait la fête." "Faire la Fête", like, "Make the Festival."

James Burke: Absolutely. That's why I could not correct you because you were right, we're doing both today.

Brian Lehrer: James in Syracuse, you're up next on The Brian Lehrer Show's contribution to Make Music Day here on the summer solstice. Hi, James.

James: How are you doing, Brian? Long time listener. This composition is called Falling to Rise Again. You'll literally hear the melody fall and then rise again. It's about endurance, perseverance, strength in a time of difficulty. Original composition by yours truly.

Brian Lehrer: We're all ears.

[pause 00:17:38]

[piano music]

James: That's the A session. That's my snippet.

Brian Lehrer: That's awesome, James. I like how you prepared the listeners' ears for it by saying they would hear the rising of the notes, they would hear the falling of the notes. I think that helped people just get into it because they anticipated something. You said, "An original composition by yours truly," is that released anywhere? Do you want to promote anything?

James: Well, sure. My website is jamesgordonwilliams.info. I also wrote a book called Crossing Bar Lines: The Politics and Practices of Black Musical Space. I'm a music professor, so I'm used to explaining things, as well as a composer and a pianist.

Brian Lehrer: There you go.

James: It was a wonderful opportunity to explain briefly the structure of what this piece is about and how it's organized. It's been a real pleasure.

Brian Lehrer: You did both well, playing and explaining. Thank you so much. Marissa in Harlem, you're on WNYC on Make Music New York Day 2022. Hi, Marissa.

Marissa: Hi, Brian. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. What you got for us, or you want to just start?

Marissa: I actually attended Fête de la Musique in Paris a few years ago, so it's fun that now we're having Fête de la Musique here.

Brian Lehrer: Yay.

Marissa: This is my melodica. It's like a little piano t hat you blow into. [chuckles] Here it goes.

[pause 00:20:02]

[music]

Marissa: That's called A Walk Down The Street on a Sunday Afternoon, an original.

Brian Lehrer: That is so cool, the melodica is so cool because you get that effect of a wind instrument, as some people might have noticed as you were manipulating vibrato and stuff with your breath, and at the same time, the percussive effect of hitting the keys like on a piano.

Marissa: Yes, and I highly recommend for anyone who plays piano and wants just a portable way to practice piano anywhere.

Brian Lehrer: Awesome, you can get the piano app on your phone or your tablet, or you can carry around a melodica, thank you very much. All right, we're going to do one more before we say goodbye to James Burke from Make Music New York 2022, and give you a few more places where you can either participate or hear New Yorkers making music today for the summer solstice, but we're going to end by going out to Montauk and hearing from Gordon. Hi, Gordon.

Gordon: Thank you, Brian, my dear friend was a swimmer down in the ocean, I'm out in Montauk now listening to you, and he lost his life. They put his ashes down on the ocean and I have the newspaper helicopter shot. A very rare right whale swam in to take his spirit away, I like to think, and this is a little song about whale off.

[music]

[singing]

Another season since you've been gone,

Another summer,

They say you won't be back,

Whale off,

Indian whale,

Whale off.

[unintelligible 00:22:27]

Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: A spiritual cry if there ever was one. I hear it. For your friend, and celebrating the whales out past the tippy tip of long Island in Montauk. Gordon, thank you. A wonderful way to end. James Burke, executive director of Make Music New York, you listed some of the things that are going on around the city today. Let me ask you about two others before you go. One is A Thousand Drums Crying For Peace in Marcus Garvey Park and other areas in East Harlem, what is A Thousand Drums Crying For Peace, do you know?

James Burke: That's a local drummer Andre E. Small who runs a West African drumming group. He's inviting drummers of all skill levels and styles to show up at Marcus Garvey Park at 4:00 PM today up in Harlem, and he is going to be leading different group jam sessions. Definitely bring your djembe, or your congo, or whatever hand drum you have laying around the house up to Harlem tonight.

Brian Lehrer: The last one, there are various events I see under the umbrella Plaza by Plaza which is a partnership between the festival and the New York City Department of Transportation. Plaza by Plaza, various plazas around town.

James Burke: We're so excited to partner with DOT, we have things on Staten Island, Luke Gehrig Plaza up in the Bronx, Diversity Plaza, Jackson Heights, Osborne Plaza out in Brownsville. Working with DOT and all their managing partners is to bring people who live and work in these very neighborhoods out into the public to make some new fans today.

Brian Lehrer: All right. For the 16th year, it is Make Music New York on the summer solstice. Over 500 free outdoor events slated for today. It was James Burke, our guest, helping take your Make Music contributions, James is the executive director of Make Music New York. This has been so much fun for me to indulge my inner music geek, and listen to all these people playing different instruments, and singing things they made up. Thank you for enabling it. I really, really give you a lot of credit for the fact that we were able to do this and have so much fun.

James Burke: Oh, I had a great time too, Brian, thank you so much.

 

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