Concretebeat

The Last Year

noreply@blogger.com (___________________________________) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:38:00 +0000

Hello everyone who's still checking out this blog or subscribing. Having just updated a post at the request of an artist, I thought some people might be coming back to see if I've started up again due a google reader alert or something. If you are, then at least you'll have this post, with my explanation of the last year, waiting for you.

So what happened?

Concretebeat was going well and I sure did love making all these videos and meeting all these artists. What happened was, first, I started to have to focus on making a little money (and I'm sure all the artists I've interviewed know exactly the feeling). So I did. I got a job as the New Media Director on the Obama campaign in NY State (now you know my political leanings) and, while that didn't pay the, it worked some 20 hours a day. And of course I loved it.

Day in and day out I managed the team that brought you the New York blog entries, online maps for phonebanks and rallies, online calling and those millions of bloody phone numbers. "But ENDED a year ago, what were you doing since then?"

"Sweet dreams and flying machines, in pieces on the ground"

Less than a month after Barack Obama won the presidential election my mother died in a plane crash. When I found out that Monday morning, I left unable to translate thoughts into writing, unable to edit video for hours at a time and unable to go out into the city and put in a smile while I enjoyed it's hidden artists. More generally, the thought of doing those things that I had done while she was alive seemed unbearable. I didn't even want to log into blogger. Besides, with my main supporter and benefactor gone, it was time for me to find a permanent job.

In between last year and now, I've gotten a new job, doing more new media. I've moved, gotten to know my dad a lot better, taken up yoga and tai chi and had a one year anniversary with my girlfriend. I've also thought very often about going back out and doing more documenting.

Having said that, it's still hard to take it back up. It's like revisiting a time when my life was completely different. I'm doing the same thing but I don't live where I used to, I don't know the same people and my number one fan, promoter and friend isn't there to help me figure out what to do.

I think I'd like to anyway. In due time.

Trumpet, guitar, bass, washboard, accordion, vocals: A Jazz Band

noreply@blogger.com (___________________________________) — Sat, 17 May 2008 10:21:00 +0000

A jazz band playing a slow song

A jazz band playing a fast song

Interview with trumpeter Jesse and bassist Debbie about their lives and the NYC jazz community

Interview with percussionist David and guitarist Luke about their lives and music

Some great traditional jazz from a band which is a split off from the Loose Marbles (also on Concretebeat). The band, known has Baby Soda, has been through some changes in the last year. Since the current lineup no longer represents who you see in these videos, I was asked to change the name of entry. But who cares, right? A rose by any other name would still sound as sweet.

Vocals: Singing Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (___________________________________) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 15:38:00 +0000

Singing Dragon Singing (Sittin' on the Dock)

Singing Dragon Singing

Interview with Singing Dragon

Artist: Mitchell “Singing Dragon” Hughes
Medium: Vocals
Location: Times Square on the downtown Q platform

Singing Dragon has been singing for nearly 60 years, and he’s still at it. Now, you might think that Singing Dragon is an odd nick-name for a South Carolinian rice planter. And you might think that he got the name from the fact that he’s still singing even though he’s become ancient, but you’d be wrong on both counts. Rather, Mitchell Hughes’ name is entirely sensible and he got it from the Chinese zodiac. Born in the Year of the Dragon, Mr. Hughes explained to me that he, the Singing Dragon, happened to be born in the same year as Bruce Lee, the Little Dragon (Bruce Lee’s Chinese name is Lee Xiao Long, literally Little Dragon Lee. So yeah, asking for “Bruce Lee” in China only results in quizzical stares from all parties involved).

As suggested by his zodiac, Singing Dragon is quite strong and vibrant personality. Despite his age, Singing Dragon was constantly joking and smiling as he spoke with me and had enough energy to belt out song after song over the din of the subway. But is not to say that Singing Dragon is still young. In New York with his sister, when I asked him how long he’d been here Singing Dragon looked off across the subway platform to the tracks, as if remembering another train station far away and told me “too long.”

Originally from South Carolina, Mitchell Hughes is, as he told me, a Geechee, or rice person. Growing up on a farm Mitchell and his family planted rice when he was young. When Mitchell’s mother made him and his siblings participate in the church choir, however, Mitchell’s skills eventually took him to join a gospel group in New York. After the group broke up Mitchell joined a band – the first tune he learned was “I’m a Soul Man.” Singing such popular music left it’s mark on Mitchell who has gone on to write his own music and cites influences from Ottis Redding, to Johnny Taylor to Tyrone Davis.

Although he occasionally seems weary of the city, Singing Dragon made it clear that he does enjoy signing in public. “Why I sing in the subway? It’s a big audience” he also added “the money is fun.” However, Singing Dragon’s preferred venue is the club work he does as it affords him the chance to get dressed up in a nice suit and be a real showman.

Singing Dragon is quite proud of his ancestry and pointed out that, as his adopted name implies, he does have some Chinese blood in him dating back to the Ming dynasty in Southern China. As mentioned, he is also of Geechee ancestry and that comprises virtually ever Latin American place from which the Spanish took people to work in their South Carolinian plantations including Puerto Rico, Dominican, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico and Guyana.

Concretebeat

The Last Year

Trumpet, guitar, bass, washboard, accordion, vocals: A Jazz Band

Vocals: Singing Dragon

Blues Guitar: Kappa

Guitar and vocals: Christiana Lynn

Breaking: Happy Valentine's Day

Tuba, trumpet, drums vocals - Jazz/Punk: The Stumblebums

Sorry for the hiatus, I'm back

Living Statue: Sera

Sanshin and vocals: Kossan

Vocals and keyboard: Midnight Mass

Live Appearances In December '07: Pesu, Greg Patillo and Eric Stevenson, Max ZT, Melissa the Loud

Vocals, guitar and drum: Susan Cagle

Poetry: Donald Green

Guitar: Geo

Live Appearances In November '07: Greg Patillo and Eric Stevenson, Max ZT, Trip, Luke Ryan, Melissa the Loud

Electric Guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, fiddle, saxaphone: King's County Crawlers

Charcoal and Paint: Tom Barlow

Bucket drums, African jembe, bass drum, hand drum, shaker, saxaphones: The Drumadics

Martial Street Art - Tai Chi, Bagua, Capoeira: Roberto Sharpe

Hurdy Gurdy: Melissa "The Loud" Kacalanos

Live Appearances In October '07: Greg Patillo and Eric Stevenson, Max ZT, Pesu, Break of Reality, Ande Sedwick, Larry Wilson, Welf Dorr

Guitar Rock: Mike of Dark Matter

Puppet Show: The Puppet State Players

Matchstick Construction: James "the Matchstick Man"