SEEKING LIVE MUSIC IN MANHATTAN

 

First Evening in Manhattan

by Chris Perry | Sep 30, 2022 | Music

This article was first published on the Grapevine Live! website in Sept. 2022

Yes, it is possible to leave Norwich on the 06:04 train and still get to Manhattan in time to watch the latest version of Roxy Music on their US tour.  I didn’t set off with that concert in mind, but there was the possibility of picking up a spare ticket had I really wanted to see them. I saw two older men on their way to the show when travelling on the subway from JFK.

One wore a black t-shirt with a copy of the cover from ‘For Your Pleasure’, featuring the model Amanda Lear, holding a heavily sedated black panther on a lead. The other man’s had a motif that looked to have been lifted from Queen’s “Night at the Opera”, with Roxy Music printed in an ornate script across his sternum.  Instead of hunting out a ticket, I wandered around for a bit in order to get orientated. Once I’d remembered that avenues run north/south, while streets cut across east/west, it was easy.

I checked out Dizzy’s Club on the 5th floor of the Lincoln Centre. I pitched up just after Sarah Hanahan’s first set had started, with ninety minutes before the 21:30h performance, I decided that I should find somewhere to eat. The thickening humidity caused me to pause outside Guantanamera’s Cuban restaurant and bar. Tempted by the menu, I took a table.  Waiting for my meal to be served, a short, jacketed man came in, kissed the waitress, shook hands with all the waiters before starting to sort out the low, brightly lit platform stage at the back of the restaurant. He was soon joined by a lean, long pony-tailed conga drummer and the performance began.

Singing in deep basal tones, accompanied by the subtle congas, while playing his guitar with a strong cha-cha-cha rhythm, Saul Noda performed ‘Guantanamera’, ‘Chan Chan’ and three other beautiful Cuban classics before the break. The sound unmistakably Cuban, the interpretations fresh and distinctively his own.

The drummer, Ismael Wigton accompanied with each chorus, the pair producing the definitive Cuban harmonies when singing together. They gave it everything, putting on a high quality show for a half-interested, half-empty restaurant audience.

During their break at a sidewalk table, I spoke with Saul and Ismael, thanking them for the entertainment. When Saul found out I live in Norwich, he told me about his great friend, Carlos Fumero, another Cuban musician, based in Diss!  Available for parties, weddings and any event of your choosing, there’s a four-piece Cuban band waiting for your call within easy reach.

Having enjoyed a sumptuous blues set from Shunters Company at the Walnut Tree Shades on Saturday night, washing down the aperitif of A Twist of ABBA and the Queen of Kitchen Disco, Sophie Ellis-Baxter at the Eaton Park food festival earlier in the day, it was lovely to hear half a set of acoustic Cuban son as the sweet.

Talking of acoustic, The Violent Femmes are in New York in mid-October, who I hope to see before I climb on board a return flight to Gatwick, if I still have the $76 required for a standing ticket.
The restaurant bar puts on live music free every night.