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2. Showtime (Greg) & Primetime (Roberst)
Location: Washington Square
This duo—drums and sax—are playing the depths of Union Square when I first catch a few notes their jam. The twisting music is bouncing up to the main mezzanine so I follow the tendrils of their sound down.
They hardly notice me on the platform, as focused and in sync as they are. The people around are loving it and the tips are flowing. They take a break and I decide to say hi. Story is, they’ve been playing for years down here. "It's the people," they both agree when I asked what the best thing about performing is. "A lot of people come up and show their appreciation."
'He pissed himself,' he cackles, 'He was dancing so hard he pissed himself!' At that point you’d think he’d leave, but to the contrary. 'He just kept on dancing and tried to cover with it a newspaper,' Primetime chimes in.
It's not surprising why—Showtime and Primetime really know how to make people move and smile. Showtime tells me a story of a time they had quite a profound effect on one spectator. "He pissed himself," he cackles, "He was dancing so hard he pissed himself!" At that point you’d think he’d leave, but to the contrary. "He just kept on dancing and tried to cover with it a newspaper," Primetime chimes in.
This duo is good, good enough to make you want to stop and dance. Maybe even lose some body fluids.
3. Joya Bravo
Location: Washington Square
Joya Bravo's performance is impossible to ignore, and maybe that’s why a cop told her to pack it in after I'd only watched her play for a few minutes. The music she was playing was entertaining and straight up fun. Her electric violin plays the familiar melodies of songs you hear on the radio, but without the annoying catchiness. She strips the song down to the simplicity of a single violin and even though you may have heard "Pumped Up Kicks" a hundred times before, her style makes you want to listen to it one more time.
She's out of Georgia and she's been playing the violin and singing since she was nine. She moved to NYC to pursue music and she's worked hard for her gigs. She's played with The Roots, Estelle, and has toured around a bit, her music taking her as far as Brazil. That's not all though, you may not know who Joya Bravo is yet but you've probably seen her on TV. She has her very own McDonalds commercial... Just check the video below
Despite her commercial success she still turns to the subway to sustain herself. "It can be pretty lucrative," she says, but then goes on to tell the story of how she was once arrested for having CDs out for purchase, something we see many musicians do.
Beyonce has to pass the torch someday!
"Beyonce has to pass the torch someday!" she says, and even though she smiles when she says it, I can tell she's serious. Her dreams are big. "Oh you will,” she says. “You will.”
4. Robert, Ira, and Nicoletta
Location: Times Square
This trio was killing it when I spotted them tearing up the mezzanine at Times Square. With a drum set, bass, and a saxophone, Ira, Robert, and Nicoletta were sending jazz cohesion throughout the station. They were so in rhythm, so on point, it sounded like they had been playing together for years. People rushing to work had to stop and listen. A couple of old jazz heads started head bopping and clicking their heels. The sound was primetime, something you wouldn’t expect to hear on the street.
"Freedom," Ira told me when I asked what his favorite thing about playing in the subway was. "I love the freedom," Robert echoes. "The variety of people who get to hear you," he says. "You see, kids can't just go into jazz clubs."
You see, kids can't just go into jazz clubs.
For Robert it was a big deal that kids had the chance to snap their fingers and jump up and down on the trodden tiles of New York’s subway. It’s a chance for people with no money to enjoy the best the music can be away from the swanky club scene. For Nicoletta, the experience was fairly new. She moved from Italy less than a year ago and found veterans Robert and Ira.
Robert and Ira have been doing it for a while. "I've seen some crazy shit," Robert says, but when I pried for a story or two he just laughed and said, "We wouldn't have time." I stuck around and he eventually told me tales of people falling onto the tracks, and one occasion when it was so cold the bridge popped off his bass and into the subway.
You can catch these three underground and as well above ground playing shows together and separately. Their underground gig however, is something they’ll never give up.
5. Moses Josiah
6. Eddie Blues
Location: 50th St
I have one foot in the door of a downtown bound A train when I first heard Eddie Blues' saxophone. Wafting through the rafters of a Midtown West station, his blues pull me back out of the train and up the stairs from the downtown side, over the track down to the uptown side. It was something out of the Pied Piper, and there I was, transfixed by him and his sax.
Eddie's sound started about 30-40 years ago when he started attending Jazz Workshops in Harlem. "I've been playing virtually all my life," he says with a grin. And you could tell—his smooth jazz and blues held several onlookers motionless in the station.
Getting money is just the icing on the cake.
When I ask him what he enjoyed the most about playing in the subway system, he gave me a humble answer. "It's a sense of satisfaction," he says. "Getting money is just the icing on the cake."
7. James
8. Julian
9. G Wyll
10. Lamar
11. Rosateresa
Location: 23rd St
She's on her lunch break when I first heard her sing. Her voice is something special. She's sitting in the middle of the platform alternating between quick bites of her sandwich and her performance. Her music only consisted of a small keyboard and vocals, but oh what a voice.
I walk up to her. "I didn't expect that." She beams. This was not the first time she's gotten that reaction, but she says the joy of surprising people never fades.
Rosateresa has been singing her whole life, but music was never something she ever thought of doing too seriously. She never thought of performing beyond singing with some family members. All that changed in 1996 when Rosateresa started struggling with her emotions. "I had a bout of depression and it left me with no money," she tells me. Still suffering from it, and without any income, one of her friends suggested performing in the subway. Rosateresa's first reaction: "Isn't that only for the homeless?" Heeding the advice of her friends she took to the platforms and things began to change again, this time for the better.
Talking to the people in the subway has helped me become more open with myself and others. Before I was closed off, but then the music led me to open up and have some interaction.
"Talking to the people in the subway has helped me become more open with myself and others. Before I was closed off, but then the music led me to open up and have some interaction. I was receiving acknowledgment," she says. Her depression has faded and she has gotten back on her feet. She still performs in the subway out of joy and, of course, for cash. On that particular day she had reached her monetary goal, exclaiming to me that we are now in the "bonus round."
For many, music is a dream, a way to make a living, or an outlet for creativity. I was reminded by Rosateresa how it can go way beyond that, how healing it can be, and the immense power it holds to make life more enjoyable.
12. Isaac and Jimmy
13. Matt, Leo, and King of Sludge
Location: Union Square
Too Many Zooz. Remember that name. Matt, Leo, and the King of Sludge have never had a proper rehearsal, and have only been playing together for about seven months, but they're already delivering some great new music to the city. Classifying them is difficult. The best way for me to describe it is EDM without the E (the electronic part, not the drug). It's an organic hyper-sound that they call "Brass House." "We basically want to kill the DJ" they say with a laugh.
As they introduce the mezzanine to this new genre, the crowd around them begins to swell. Sludge is dead focused on the percussion in the back, Matt is going up and down the scales on his trumpet, and Leo is all over the place, dancing around with his Baritone sax. You can't look away as they play, switch it up, and straight kill it for about 7 minutes, after which about half the crowd saunters forward with some change, and three people buy 10 dollar CDs. Many people approach them with compliments and curiosity about this underground band. It was the subway’s equivalent of a Grammy.
Matt, Leo, and the King of Sludge are from Boston, Pittsburgh, and Indiana respectively. Matt and Leo both went to the Manhattan School of Music and later they met King of Sludge, who was also in the city. The band has taken off from there. It's been a mere seven months but they already have a short album out on Bandcamp, have amassed 23,000+ "Likes" on Facebook, and they're all over Youtube with one video (below) going viral and getting over 600,000 views.
They are flirting with the spotlight but still playing in the subway system. As they continue to break down the door with their new style Matt tells me they may have some big gigs to announce soon. "We don't even know who we are yet," they say. "You're only hearing the beginning."
