The Jazz Passengers and Sotto Voce Students from The Institute for Collaborative Education (ICE) Manhattan Jambone Subway Moon Choir (students from Shotton Hall School Peterlee; Benfield School Newcastle; BA Hons Community Music course) Lyrics by ICE and CoMusica (Sage); Music by Roy Nathanson; arranged by Tim Kiah. MD; Rick Taylor. Plus many more – too many to list!
Persist with your life, don’t give up and cry,
We’re all born to die but we might as well try, Get high, get by, and get the Metro to Chi.
These lyrics give an idea of the life-affirming quality of this performance which was sheer joy to see. All those people who contributed deserve medals for hard work and enthusiasm. The young people of CoMusica had worked for many months to do their part of the lyrics, and the music and production of the written programme (all the lyrics are included) and the video must have meant hours of work. Even Nexus (Tyne and Wear Metro) had provided facilities. Level 1 of Hall 1 was about two thirds full, but this multi-media performance really deserved a full house. The performance, which tells of the universal experience of city living through ideas about subway culture, began with a video of the New York Metro, then our own local Metro, and the music of the Jazz Passengers. The show included songs and rap about both metros and also a little about the London Underground, well illustrated by the video, which showed photos of the young people themselves travelling on the Metro with their musical instruments, with a background of sky, clouds or snow. For instance there was a sequence about run down Bergen Street station in New York showing the dirt and dereliction of the place; a song about a ‘Warrior’with the video showing a frightened rat who lives beneath the Metro. The lyrics about Tyne and Wear Metro were amusingly cheeky, all about fare- dodging and Government cutbacks. Roy Nathanson spoke movingly about his brother who’d died young, and imagining seeing his poems on subway platforms. The Jazz Passengers played well and adventurously and Jambone made an indispensable contribution with their spirited playing. I missed part of the performance because of another commitment, so I’d actually love to see this again. Any chance of that, do you think, Sage Organisers, who may be reading this blog?
Ann Alex
(I guess the logistics would preclude another performance - it's a great thought though! - ed.)
Ann Alex
(I guess the logistics would preclude another performance - it's a great thought though! - ed.)
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