#InTheLoop | Percussion in Jackson Heights. Gospel in Southeast Queens. It’s Make Music New York Time!
BY QEDC It's In Queens
Percussionists Ingrid Gordon, Frank Cassara, and Bill Ruyle are going to bring a shopping cart full of instruments to Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights on Wednesday, June 21, at 3 pm. Then, they’ll crank out some funky rhythms for passers-by in the vicinity of 37th Road and 74th Street.
Sponsored by Friends of Diversity Plaza and Epicenter NY, Shopping Cart Percussion will kick off an afternoon of free events there, including performances by Selima Ashraf & BIPA (Bangladeshi), Percussia (Experimental), Jake Hoffman (Alternative), Rinse and Repeat (Live Drum & Bass), and Brown Sugar (Nepali Singer Songwriter).
Sounds groovy, but what’s the occasion?
Make Music New York is back!
The annual extravaganza organizes live events all over the five boroughs in June. This year features Afro Latin Jazz in Harlem, a piano marathon in Madison Square Park, a massive guitar strum-along in Union Square, and folk music on Governors Island.
The Southeast Queens Gospel Fest in Baisley Pond Park on Saturday, June 17, from 3 pm to 8 pm. Rich Tolbert Jr., who hit it big with his debut album Never Be Defeated, heads a line-up that includes Josh Myles and Juan Winans.
The Gramercy Street Band will perform popular music from the last five decades at Maple Grove Cemetery on Wednesday, June 21, at 6 pm. The performance by the lake is dedicated to the Crabb Family, which is at eternal rest in the Kew Gardens burial ground. Edward Crabb played guitar, while his wife Dorcas studied piano and organ. One son, Dorward, organized 10 of his siblings into an orchestra that performed around Richmond Hill in the early 1920s. RSVP is requested as the organizers plan to provide folding chairs.
Click here for all the MMNY shows.
Believe it or not, Make Music New York started in France in 1982, when Jack Lang and his staff at the Western European nation’s Ministry of Culture launched Fête De La Musique on June 21. Over the next four decades, the Fête spread to more than 1,000 cities in 120 different countries. It crossed the Atlantic Ocean as Make Music New York in 2007. (Each participating city’s Make Music event is independently organized, usually by community groups, media outlets, arts presenters, government agencies, and civic leaders.)
Images: Make Music New York