Music in New York
New York City called Gotham has been a venue for artists allowing a freedom of expression.
The exciting music of New York, New York gets audiences smiling and clapping. It allows people to forget their differences and their circumstances. It brings people together with a good feeling about the city and themselves. The most recent singer who has it as her gravatar is Liza Minnelli.
No less important have been the musicians bringing different sounds. George Gershwin and his brother, Ira, were held in high esteem for their collaboration in musical theater (Porgy and Bess) and George’s piano compositions. The all-Gershwin concerts held in the outdoor amphitheater of City College of New York cannot be forgotten by anyone lucky enough to sit on those hard concrete seats. Only early arrivals made it possible to get a seat at all. You sat in an open cone and watched the sunset over Harlem, wrapped in the sounds of Gershwin music.
The only thing better would be if you were a young adult holding hands with your best friend.
Carl Van Vechten photographed
all of the greats who lived and worked in the city. There were artists like a raw voiced Pearl Bailey at the Blue Note. Dean Dixon, the amazing conductor of the symphony, inspired young people of all races before he left for overseas. And so many more set the path for today’s Alicia Keyes and Jay-Z duet.
Who knew?
Opera was playing on the radio in New York City in the early afternoon of December 7, 1941. Everything stopped when a News Break brought on President Franklin Roosevelt’s familiar voice telling America that Pearl Harbor had been attacked by the Japanese.