Rhapsody for This Land: The American Odyssey in Music Live from Brooklyn Bridge Park

Pianist Lara Downes performs with bassist Christian McBride at an outdoor concert WNYC broadcast live from beneath the iconic Brooklyn Bridge.
( Sammy Siharat )

Summary Transcript

Terrance McKnight: From WNYC. There we go. Oh, yes. We're live. If you're tuning into WNYC, we're live out here at St. Ann's Warehouse in Dumbo. I'm Terrance McKnight. We're live under the Brooklyn Bridge. Now, if you're close to the park, come on down here and join us. We'll be here for the next almost two hours making music. This is Rhapsody for This Land: An American Odyssey in Music, a special concert and centennial celebration of WNYC and of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Both pieces are 100 years old this year. How about that?

[applause]

Terrance McKnight: We're going to hear a new version of Rhapsody in Blue tonight at the end of the program. Tonight, we'll be joined by pianist Lara Downes, Arturo O’Farrill, Christian McBride, Rosanne Cash. John Leventhal, and Time for Three. We are here, New York City, at the Emily Warren Roebling Plaza outside of St. Ann's Warehouse in Dumbo. The bridge is right above us. There's a drone flying above over there. Lady Liberty is over to the right. I'm looking onto a lawn full of people out here to celebrate our station, celebrate our culture this evening.

This evening, this concert was made possible by support from the Robert W. Wilson Charitable Trust and this evening is all about togetherness across this land. Our listening audience is all over New York City and around the world. This summer we're celebrating WNYC centennial. We've been on the air for 100 years with your support. We couldn't do it without you. We are listener-supported.

[applause]

Terrance McKnight: Thanks for your support. Now we've got a very special evening of music ahead. We'll hear new spins on familiar songs, and we'll be celebrating connection, participation, and the different places that we come from. Now I want to introduce to you my very esteemed co-host and curator of this program. Please welcome pianist Lara Downes.

[applause]

[MUSIC - Lara Downes: New York, New York]

Lara Downes: Thank you so much. Two iconic songs inspired by this wonderful city, both of them called New York, New York. Thanks so much for being here tonight. It is beautiful to be here together in this place, under this bridge that carries more than 150,000 people across it every single day. This bridge that is an iconic image of New York City in the eyes of America and the world beyond.

This concert tonight is about connection, about community and the power of the people when we come together and raise our voices for progress, change, and the American promise. Here we are in a historic moment of change in America. A historic moment for democracy. Yes.

[applause]

Lara Downes: I am feeling so much energy and optimism in the air and I am really glad that we are here together to celebrate it. It's a critical time to step up, to really honor our rights and responsibilities as Americans, to participate in the process of our democracy. Tonight, we have volunteers here from HeadCount, a nonpartisan organization that supports voter registration.

[applause]

Lara Downes: Thank you. Thanks. The volunteers are moving around the park. On your way out of the park tonight, they can help you to check your registration or sign up to vote for the very first time. Your vote matters so much right now. Tonight, we're celebrating with music that represents 100 years of American history, the power of the people and the potential of our future. From George Gershwin's beloved Rhapsody in Blue with some very surprising twists to a brand-new piece by Arturo O'Farrill that's having its world premiere here tonight. Now, it is my great pleasure to introduce the Grammy award-winning ensemble, Time for Three with three gorgeous songs about this American life.

[applause]

Terrance McKnight: If you're just joining us on WNYC, we're here live under the Brooklyn Bridge for this great concert celebrating our centenary. Please welcome Time for Three.

[applause]

[MUSIC - Time for Three: This Life]

First I was young, hot-headed

All the world was sweet to roam

This life was all forgiven for the things I've done

Now these miles I've traveled through life's rivers through its bones

I will go where the water takes me home

Takes me home

Cheap wine and whiskey bottles wasted all the day away

This mind just keeps forgetting the things I meant to say

Funny thing's I've grown

And I've grown was on my own

And I will go where the water takes me home

Takes me home

This time the leaf turns over fading on it all day

This time is all for letting the things I need to change

Many times I tried and I try harder on my own.

I will go where the water takes me home

Takes me home

I will go where the water takes me home

Takes me home

[applause]

Musician 1: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Nicolas Kendall: What's up, New York? Have y'all registered to vote? We are called Time for Three. It is a privilege for Charles, Ranaan and myself to be here making music. Lara Downes, thank you so much for setting this up. This is extraordinary. The crowd goes all the way back there. What's up in the back? That was an original song we wrote called This Life and we're going to do another original called Joy.

[MUSIC - Time for Three: Joy]

Ooh, ooh, ooh

Sad with sickness in his bones

But he keeps a smile on his face

Born with a heart that's overgrown

Song that beats its own pace

Misunderstood, fought to be good,

Hands in his pocket, his head in his hood

Hiding and shy

Mess of a guy

Fighting and trying and dying inside

He cries, joy

Joy

He cries, joy

Joy

He cries, Joy

Joy

You sing his praises he can't hear

When he can't hear his own name

And all of the world has disappeared

He won't feel no shame

Misunderstood, fought to be good

Hands in his pockets, his head in his hood

He was a star, trying to hard

Love was around only he was too scarred

Hiding and shy

Mess of a guy

Fighting and trying and dying inside

He cries joy

Joy

He cries, joy

Joy

He cries, joy

Joy

He cries, joy

He cries, he cries, joy

Joy

He cries, he cries, joy

Joy

Nicolas Kendall: Thank you very much, everyone. We love you. We love you. Thank you so much.

Musician 3: Thank you to HeadCount for being here. We love you, New York City. We'll see you next time.

[applause]

Terrance McKnight: The Grammy award-winning trio, Time for Three. Give it up for them.

[applause]

Terrance McKnight: If you're just joining us on WNYC, we're live out here. I'm Terrance McKnight. I'm the host on WNYC and WQXR. We're here from Brooklyn Bridge Park for Rhapsody for This Land: An American Odyssey in Music. There are some folks in the house tonight in the park walking around with T-shirts on that say HeadCount. Now, if you're not registered to vote, or if you're not sure if you're registered to vote, just flag over one of those folks and they'll come over and they'll assist. They look similar to this shirt. Spin around so they can-- model that for them.

Okay. They've got laptops and they can hook you up. Make sure we take care of that business. Time for Three. Thank you, Finn. Thank you. Thank you. He just made his radio debut. Our next set builds on the same themes of grace, joy, and humanity. We're going to hear two songs, both written during the 1960s against the backdrop of the civil rights movement when Dr. King encouraged musicians to use their talents for the cause. Oscar Peterson responded with Hymn to Freedom, and Sam Cooke responded with A Change Is Gonna Come. Please welcome to our stage as we celebrate our culture, our music, our station basis, composer, radio host extraordinaire Christian McBride.

[applause]

[MUSIC - Oscar Peterson: Hymn to Freedom - Christian McBride]

[applause]

[MUSIC - Sam Cooke: A Change Is Gonna Come - Christian McBride]

[applause]

Lara Downes: Thank you so much. Thank you. Those two songs are anthems of change and freedom that date back to the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Really, American music has always expressed themes of protest and progress in so many different times and places. Times of war, times of oppression, times when we felt our freedoms threatened, the union organizing movement, peace movements, really, you can trace it all the way back to the very beginning.

Really, the roots of American music lie in protest. The spirituals that were the first music born on this soil in protest, sometimes covert protest against the brutality of slavery. Here to share some songs that represent our American struggles and triumphs throughout American history. Roseanne Cash and John Leventhal.

[applause]

Roseanne Cash: Good evening.

[applause]

Roseanne Cash: What a venue, right? This is a song written by a folk singer from the '60s, Eric Von Schmidt. It's about a strike in the cane fields on the island of St. Vincent. The cane workers wanted to go on strike and the head of their government said, "Go ahead," and then he left the island. This is called Joshua Gone Barbados.

[MUSIC - Eric Von Schmidt: Joshua Gone Barbados - Roseanne Cash and John Leventhal]

Cane standing in the fields

Getting old and red

Lot of misery in Georgetown

Three men lying dead

And Joshua, head of the government

He said strike for better pay

Cane cutters are striking

Joshua gone away

Joshua gone Barbados

Staying in a big hotel

People on St. Vincent

They got a lot of sad tales to tell

The sugar mill owner told the strikers

I don't need you to cut my cane

Bring in another bunch of fellows

Strike be all in vain

Get a bunch of tough fellows

Bring 'em in from Zion Hill

And bring 'em on a bus to Georgetown

Know somebody get killed

Sonny Child, the overseer

I swear he's an ignorant man

Walking through the cane fields

Pistol in his hand

But Joshua gone Barbados

Just like he don't know

People on the island

They got no place to go

Police giving protection

The new fellows cutting the cane

The strikers can't do nothing

Strike be all in vain

And Sonny Child, he curse the strikers

Wave his pistol 'round

They're beating Sonny with a cutlass

They beat him to the ground

There's a lot of misery in Georgetown

You can hear the women bawl

That Joshua gone Barbados

He don't care at all

Cane standing in the fields

Getting old and red

Sonny Child in the hospital

The pistol on his bed

I wish I could go to England

Trinidad or Curacao

The people on the island

They got no place to go

Joshua gone Barbados

Staying in a big hotel

The people on St. Vincent

They got many sad tales to tell

[applause]

Roseanne Cash: Thank you. We'll do one more song. If we're going to delve into the folk tradition, I guess it has to be by Bob Dylan, a guy who played a lot of clubs just right over the bridge. This is called Farewell, Angelina.

[MUSIC - Bob Dylan: Farewell, Angelina - Roseanne Cash and John Leventhal]

Farewell, Angelina

The bells of the crown

Being stolen by bandits

I must follow the sound

The triangle tingles

And the trumpets play slow

Oh, farewell, Angelina

The sky is on fire

And I must go

There's no need for anger

There's no need for blame

There's nothing to prove

Everything's still the same

Just a table stands empty

By the edge of the sea

Means farewell, Angelina

The sky is erupting

And I must leave

The jacks and the queens

Have forsaked the courtyard

And 52 gypsies now file past the guards

In the space where the deuce

And the ace once went wild

Means farewell, Angelina

The sky is on fire

I'll see you in a while

Machine guns are roaring

The puppets heave rocks

Thieves nail the time bombs

To the hands of the clocks

Call me any name you like

I will never deny it

Oh, farewell, Angelina

The sky erupting

I must go where it's quiet

Oh, farewell, Angelina

The sky erupting

I must go where it's quiet

[applause]

Roseanne Cash: John Leventhal. Thank you.

Terrance McKnight: Roseanne Cash. John Leventhal here on WNYC. How you all feeling out there? Yes, There's something about that music. If you're just joining us on the radio, I'm Terrance McKnight on WNYC, and we're here live at Brooklyn Bridge Park with St. Ann's Warehouse. We're celebrating a century of music and WNYC's 100th anniversary as part of Rhapsody for This Land: The American Odyssey in Music.

Now, we just heard from Roseanne Cash and John Leventhal on themes of organization, participation and solidarity. Now, when you all listen to this next music, here's something you can consider. Think about where you are, about the ground you're sitting on or standing on. Think about, if you're at home listening on the radio, the land where you are. If you're driving, the land that you're driving across, just think about place. Next up, we're going to hear from Arturo O'Farrill.

[applause]

Terrance McKnight: As you listen to him perform, think about community and about what we owe this land and about what we owe one another. To talk about the next piece that we're going to hear, please welcome to the stage Arturo O'Farrill and please welcome back to the stage tonight's curator, Lara Downes.

[applause]

Terrance McKnight: Bobby McFerrin said, "If you want to have a great concert, invite some great musicians." That's what Lara has done tonight, right?

Audience: Yes.

[applause]

Terrance McKnight: Invite some great musicians out for us. Lara, I'm going to start by asking you this question. As you began conceiving this concert, you considered the space, you considered the land, you considered Gershwin's 100th anniversary of the piece. You considered WNYC's centennial celebration. How did you go about thinking about how you wanted to surround all of those ideas and which musicians you wanted to bring, to really bring this community together? What things did you consider?

Lara Downes: Well, you know that I love American music a lot. What I love about it is that it is not one thing. It's so many things. It's as many things as we all are. It comes from just everywhere and every time. I think my favorite places in American music are the places where those crossroads happen.

I'm so lucky to have such wonderful colleagues and friends who work at those crossroads. The crossroads between jazz and classical music, as Gershwin was doing, the crossroads between folk and popular music. There's just so many places where traditions merge and mingle, and it's a beautiful space. Arturo is the embodiment of all of that, of creating music that comes from blended roots, that expresses blended stories. I think you were the first person I called.

Arturo O'Farrill: Thank you, Lara. I definitely don't like to stay in my lane. Is that okay? Is that cool? I'm known as an Afro-Latin jazz big band guy, but there's so much more to this terrible story. I'm actually trans-cultural. I'm Mexican, Cuban, German, Irish. My wife is African American Jewish. My kids don't know who to hate.

[laughter]

Arturo O'Farrill: That's the same way I feel about music. Music is a good excuse to gather people around a campfire. It's a good excuse to bring us together in proximity to one another so that we can learn about life. That's why I don't believe I have degrees in classical music. I have a reputation as a big band mambo person, but, man, my heart is in all of it.

If you listen to me, if you get to my playlist, you will be surprised. Balkan music, music from Africa, music from across the world. Even Webern. Even Webern. I'm not scared because, you see, to me, the beautiful thing about all of this is standing with these two heroes and the way they feel about this sacred thing that we call music. It's just an excuse.

[applause]

Lara Downes: When I called Arturo and I told him the concept of this show, we tossed around a few ideas about songs and then you were off busy doing your thing, and we talked, what a couple weeks ago? You said, "Well, actually, I've written a new tune." Talk to us about this new piece that's going to be heard for the very first time in a few moments.

Arturo O'Farrill: I wrote this piece for this occasion, and it's called Turtle Island Crossroads. I'm sure most of, you know, the Turtle Island is an indigenous name for the world and specifically for the Americas. When I think about this land is your land, I can't help but think about the Lenape indigenous people that were here long before us.

[applause]

Arturo O'Farrill: It's important to acknowledge them. It's important to acknowledge that the land that we call our land actually has a direct connection to a farm in Hungary, to a cornfield in Veracruz. Our land masses are a part of each other. We are touched by an ocean and that ocean connects to every single nation on earth. When we talk about this land, we need to include every single human being on earth. I really believe that with all my heart.

Lara Downes: Now we can stop talking about it and you can perform this peace for the first time. Thank you.

Terrance McKnight: You're listening to WNYC in New York. We are underneath the Brooklyn Bridge celebrating our centenary. We've got Lara Downes in the house, Arturo O'Farrill on stage. We heard from Roseanne Cash and John Leventhal. We heard from Time for Three. We've got a live audience here with us. Live audience.

Audience: [cheers]

Terrance McKnight: Much more music to go. Here is Arturo O'Farrill and his band on WNYC.

[MUSIC - Arturo O'Farrill: Turtle Island Crossroads]

[applause]

Lara Downes: That was Arturo O'Farrill and the world premiere of his original composition, Turtle Island Crossing. Can we give another round of applause?

[applause]

Lara Downes: It's now my pleasure to recognize a very special group of very generous people and organizations who stepped up to make this concert possible. First and foremost, I would like to send out a huge wave of love and gratitude to the Robert W. Wilson Charitable Trust, the major donor for this event. They are truly miraculous in their visionary support for Rhapsody for This Land and the culture of New York City. In addition, we received generous contributions from several other private sector and government entities, many of whom are with us tonight and to whom we are very grateful.

They are Janel Anderberg Callon, Brooklyn Bridge Park, and President Eric Landau, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who is represented tonight by Deputy Borough President Kimberly Council, the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, Commissioner Pat Kaufman, Montclair State University, Paycom, and Charles Hamm. I would also like to extend a special thanks to the people and organizations who worked tirelessly to bring this project together. I'm going off-script. About a year ago, I came down here to St. Ann's with my dear friend Karen Brooks Hopkins to talk about doing a concert in the theater.

I thought it'd be a beautiful space to bring this project, and before I knew it, we were having this insane conversation about building this giant stage under the bridge and taking the whole thing outside and making it free and inviting the whole city of New York. I'm so glad we did.

[applause]

Lara Downes: Karen, I love you. Karen has been executive producer, and apparently, that job means doing everything because that's what she's done. St. Ann's Warehouse, the visionary minds and risk-taking capabilities of the team here, the producer and presenter of Rhapsody for This Land, and artistic director, Susan Feldman.

[applause]

Lara Downes: WNYC and its president, LaFontaine Oliver, broadcasting this concert live to hundreds of thousands of people who can't be in the park here with us, and of course, HeadCount, which is really an extraordinary organization that's putting democracy in play tonight with voter registration in real-time.

[applause]

Lara Downes: Huge round of applause for all of these donors and our partners. Really, we would not be here without you.

[applause]

Terrance McKnight: What a beautiful night. If you're just joining us on WNYC, I'm Terrance McKnight here under the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge Park. We're celebrating, as you may have just heard, the centennial of WNYC. Again, we could not turn 100 years without you. Every pledge drive, you stand up, you show your support, you count, you vote for WQXR and WNYC every time you contribute to the station. That's how we're able to bring you the great programming here in New York City.

Thank you for helping us turn 100, and we're looking forward to the next 100 years. Our CEO and president of New York Public Radio just happens to be in the building. Please give a warm round of applause, LaFontaine Oliver.

[applause]

Terrance McKnight: You can't see him, but he's out here.

[applause]

Terrance McKnight: This program we're calling Rhapsody for This Land: The American Odyssey in Music. Tonight, we're going to celebrate George Gershwin's 1924 hit, it was an experiment in music, his Rhapsody in Blue. That same year, WNYC hit the airwaves for the very first time, "Broadcasting live from blah, blah, blah, New York City, WNYC." The voice probably sounded more like that than it does this. [laughter]

We've come a long way, and we still got a ways to go. That year when George Gershwin wrote Rhapsody in Blue, this experiment between culture, between traditions, between musical traditions. We're going to talk about that, and we're going to hear this new take on George Gershwin's 100-year-old piece. I want to bring up Lara Downes, again, who has written this piece that we're going to hear tonight to just talk about her reinterpretation of George Gershwin's music. I just want to remind you that George Gershwin grew up right here in Brooklyn. Brooklyn.

[applause]

Terrance McKnight: Come on over here, Lara. Now, George Gershwin, let's talk about Gershwin in Brooklyn, because he was born right here in this borough, 1898, didn't live to be 40 years old.

Lara Downes: Wrote some good songs.

Terrance McKnight: He wrote lots of hits, hit songs, the American songbook full of George Gershwin tunes. Can you talk about how George Gershwin just came up, his influences, and why his music is still so relevant and pertinent 100 years later? You got any key, any insight to that?

Lara Downes: I love thinking about the part of 1924 that was this country in such a quick kind of a transformation, people coming from everywhere with different modes of transportation, migration, people encountering each other for the very first time and listening to each other. That's what George Gershwin was doing. When he grew up here, his roots were in the Yiddish theatre, but he's hearing the sounds of jazz that have migrated up from the South. He's hearing the sounds of Latin America. It's just like a new version of America that's coming to be during his lifetime, his very short lifetime.

I just want to share with you this story of the first performance of this piece, which was in February of 1924, in a concert that was called An Experiment in Modern Music. The idea was to experiment with blending these two things, symphonic music and jazz. Some of that didn't go very well. It was kind of a bad concert. It was overly long, which we are not doing tonight. It was snowy and wet outside and the heating system in the hall wasn't working, so it was kind of stinky and full of wet wool clothes.

People were getting bored, and they were getting agitated, and they were heading for the exit when Gershwin sat down at the piano and started this piece. I love to think about that actual moment as this breath of fresh air and just a moment when everything changed in American music.

Terrance McKnight: Tell us about what we're about to hear right now.

Lara Downes: The danger with things that are turning old is that we wrap them up and put them in a museum and say, "Well, that's nice. You've had your time." I don't like to think about that with music. To celebrate this centenary, my idea was to reimagine this piece through the lens of the present and to honor George Gershwin's vision for this piece, which is what he called the musical kaleidoscope of America. This was a celebration of the melting pot. This was a celebration of our ability to come together and share all of our diverse stories, and so I reached out to Edmar Colón, who is a brilliant young Puerto Rican composer. We started from scratch with Gershwin's original piano score.

Just imagine what the melting pot is today compared to 100 years ago. A century of change in this country and growth and what he would make of it and what his origin story would sound like today.

Terrance McKnight: You're ready for this?

Audience: Yes.

[applause]

Terrance McKnight: This is why we're here. Please welcome-- Do you want me to hold that? Please welcome to the stage, Lara Downes is already up here, but Aram Demirjian, Edmar Colón, and Orchestra Elena for Rhapsody in Blue Reimagined. As a reminder, I'm Terrance McKnight in Brooklyn Bridge Park. You're listening to this program live on WNYC. The orchestra is here. They're all tuned. The scene is perfect. Here's the music.

[applause]

[MUSIC - Lara Downes, Aram Demirjian, Edmar Colón, and Orchestra Elena: Rhapsody in Blue Reimagined]

[applause]

Terrance McKnight: You've been listening to Rhapsody for This Land: The American Odyssey in Music. A special broadcast from WNYC and St. Ann's Warehouse celebrating 100 years of WNYC and of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. We've been broadcasting live from Brooklyn Bridge Park this evening and special thanks to St. Ann's, Karen Hopkins, Lara Downs, and WNYC's public song project. I'm Terrance McKnight. Happy 100th, WNYC.

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