CROTONA BRINGS CONCERT TO KIDS

(Article published in HWW June 2008)

This was no ordinary after school event at Crotona Family Inn. Boys and girls, big smiles on their faces, banged on conga and bongo drums and cowbells right in time with the grown up professional musicians.

When the concert/workshop started at 3:30 Chris Washburne and his Latin Jazz band who had come to entertain and instruct young residents of Crotona lined up with their keyboards, drums, and horns on one end of the 1st floor recreation room, tuning their instruments. At the other end, the kids and a few moms crowded in, the littlest sitting cross legged on cushions on the floor.

Washburne, who started to play trombone in his grade school band, is an academic -- Associate Professor of Ethno-
musicology at Columbia University -- as well as a noted performer with a special interest in Latin American, Caribbean and African American music. He says he started his band SYOTOS (stands for See You On The Other Side) to mix his jazz background with his experience as a salsa performer.

At the Crotona session, he started by introducing the kids to the instruments in his band – the trombone, trumpet, sax, clarinet, piano keyboard, drums, percussion. The boys and girls sat still and attentive as he told them about the music. Then the band started playing and after not very long Washburne suggested some of the children might try to play, too. A few stood up shyly, and then more and more until every child in the room had a chance to perform.

You could see the excitement on the children’s faces as they played and pretty soon you could hear that compelling salsa/mambo beat all the way down the hall in the shelter offices.

Washburne’s visit to Crotona was part of the Carnegie Hall free neighborhood concert performances, presented by Weill Music Institute, all over the city. In a collaboration led by Antonio Rodriguez, Director of Special Events at the NYC Department of Homeless Services, the series includes performances for shelter residents.

To find out about free concerts you and your family can attend this summer, you should look at the web side carnegiehall.org/neighborhood concerts or call (212) 903-9670.