Bring Back Live Jazz to Sunset Park
Remember jazz in Sunset Park?
If you do, you probably remember it was the summer after vaccines came out, when we were starting to feel comfortable coming out and being near each other. We brought picnics and enjoyed some quality jazz, as the evening air started to cool. It was really a nice vibe.
As the organizer, I was heartened to hear stories of how several families shared with us that this was their child's first exposure to live music. Especially in that context, it felt special to be able to bring quality music to my own neighborhood.
I was heartened with the quality of musicians I was able to get as well, including Grammy winners, and some of the best musicians making music at the cutting edge of jazz. Mostly people who lived right here in Sunset Park too (there's so much talent living right here!). Everybody just wanted to play, and share music with the community.
The series was very much DIY, we had no backing from any type of organizations so we ran the whole thing based on donations we would collect at the concerts.
The donation based model worked during the pandemic when musicians had very little work. But as gigs came back, it became difficult to guarantee music every week, since donations would fluctuate and I wasn't always able to guarantee anything respectable for the musicians' time. Eventually, the series fizzled out.
But I miss playing in my neighborhood. I miss having real, high quality, live music in the air in the park.
So, here we are on this gofundme page. This is my attempt to get some donations together so that as a community, we can guarantee the musicians something respectable, so I can comfortably book musicians for a full summer of music.
Here's the plan-
I'm budgeting $350-400 per concert. That covers performers, and any fees gofundme will take out. This way for a trio I can budget a little over $100 per performer, which is the minimum I'm willing to offer a professional musician (and believe me this is very modest). The goal is set for $2,400 to fund 6 concerts. This will pay for concerts from July 10-Aug 14. But if we can raise more funds, let's keep it going for the rest of the summer!
Concerts will be Wednesdays, 5:30-6:30, in Sunset Park (the actual park), on the lawn along 44th st between 7 and 6 aves.
As the concerts get funded, I will start booking bands. The first one I will book will be July 10, and I will keep booking groups as long as funds last.
If it rains- we'll have to cancel for the safety of the musician's instruments.
Details for the concerts will be shared on the Instagram page set up for this-
That's it! Thanks for reading through the nitty-gritty. I just wanted to be totally transparent about how everything will work. Your generosity will help bring culture and art to Sunset Park in a way that is fair and sustainable for the artists.
We appreciate you!
