PHILANTHROPISTS PROVE PARTYING ON PAYS OFF

By Gretchen S. Swanson

Exuberance spilled into the streets of Black Rock, Connecticut, as the drinks flowed and the musicians kept time during the Fifth Annual BlackRock Rocks Mardi Gras fundraiser.  This party with a purpose, held on Saturday, February 12, 2010, was organized by BlackRock Rocks (online at blackrockrocks.org).  BlackRock Rocks is a nonprofit organization that raised a total of more than $14,000 for the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, The Higher Ground Fund and Tipitina’s Foundation through its first four annual Mardi Gras fundraisers. This year, Uptown Music Theatre (online at uptownmusictheatre.org), founded by Delfeayo Marsalis, was the beneficiary and a group of talented, enthusiastic musicians—including Marsalis himself—took to the stages at three local venues to raise funding for the New Orleans, Lousiana-based organization.  Uptown Music Theatre is dedicated to promoting community unity through the tradition of fine storytelling in musical theatre and each year, the organization commissions an original children’s musical.  In 2006, however, when NOLA residents young and old were struggling to express their feelings and cope with losses following Hurricane Katrina, Uptown Music Theatre instead offered a music education program especially designed to help young children participate in that expression of loss.  Its “Swinging With The Cool School” program, which is still active, gave kids the chance to listen to select jazz recordings and interact with a live band, fostering understanding of the diversity of jazz music and what makes it special.

In addition to the local musicians and organizers who helped make the Mardi Gras fundraiser a success, sponsors including Bacardi, The Gathering of the Vibes, Exotic Recordings, Sound Magazine and OurBridgeport.com have assisted BlackRock Rocks by contributing to the promotion of the event and by donating party provisions. In addition to the three local bars that served as the musical venues for the event—Lady Luck, Acoustic Café and Black Rock Tavern—other local businesses that helped publicize this year’s fundraiser include the Bridgeport Banner (online at bridgeportbanner.typepad.com).  The 2010 Mardi Gras crowd began to gather in Black Rock just in time for a late lunch, starting off at Lady Luck. Kung Fu, a local jam-band super-group, was on stage at Lady Luck while I was on my way to Black Rock.  I arrived in time to see the soundboard lighting up as the speakers pounded out the uplifting, high-energy, soul-based New Orleans sound of Brother Joscephus and the Love Revival Revolution Orchestra (“BroJo” for short).  It was early and I was already having a great time.  From what I could see, just about everyone else was having a great time too. One young boy—around 8 years old—was laden with multi-colored chains of plastic beads that he took from around his neck and gave to ladies on the dance floor. 

Also in that little boy’s hands was a tambourine—one of the BroJo girls handed it to him while they were on stage, and he learned to shake it just right, in time, by the time the act was done—pretty impressive for such a beginner.  Both BroJo girls performing that day high-stepped down into the crowd to shake up the energy and excitement on the dance floor even more, and at one point Brother Joscephus himself stepped off stage to twirl a southern belle-style white frilly mini-parasol and dance a few steps.  Following their last number, which forced my feet into a frisky frenzy that took my whole body along for the ride, One Alabama Red Sister told me, “You make us feel like we’re in New Orleans!!”  Their performance and a little encouragement was enough to get a friend of mine shaking the cash out of his pocket and into Seoul Sister Mama’s hands so I could get my hands on their CD.

After the rip-roaring big-band sound of the Love Revival Revolution Orchestra, Lady Luck’s stage was dominated by Delfeayo Marsalis joining in with Rambunction featuring Renard Boissiere, and a smooth stream of jazzy stylings backed by a toe-tapping mellow march beat breezed through the crowd, giving dancers a chance to sashay and sway in a slow, cool-down kind of way.  The music swelled into a hip-rocking lullaby and the crowd seemed ensconced in serenity.  Both the Love Revolution Orchestra and the ensemble featuring Delfeayo and Boissiere played a version of “When the Saints Go Marching In” that showcased each group’s own particular style and panache, while helping to set the scene for a truly New Orleans-style party.

THE FAMILY CONNECTION

The fact that Uptown Music Theatre is this year’s beneficiary may be one of many links in a chain of kindness that ties the New Orleans and Bridgeport communities together in the same family of cities: cities that embrace local and touring musicians, enticing residents and travelers to support local businesses and good causes, while celebrating a collective joy and appreciation for music, philanthropy and community.  One of our favorite local musicians, Renard Boissiere, attended Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans, Louisiana, together with Delfeayo Marsalis and many other talented teenagers.  Benjamin Franklin High School, a member of the East Bank Collaborative of Charter Schools, is a magnet school for high-achieving, high-IQ students selected and tested from the entire metropolitan area of New Orleans.  “We called it the school for geeks and nerds,” chuckled Boissiere.  In addition, he said, Marsalis simultaneously attended New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), the school for the artistically talented and gifted students in the NOLA metro area.

We talked with Boissiere about how much we both enjoyed BlackRock Rocks’ Mardi Gras.  “It was really fulfilling because people were having a good time supporting a good cause.  They were enjoying the music and there was a sense of real camaraderie, as well as a true sense of purpose and meaning in terms of what brought us all out for the fundraiser.  What tied it all together, what really represented this real bridge of New Orleans and Black Rock joining forces, was Delfeayo sticking around until the end of the night and playing with Manchado,” commented Boissiere.  “My favorite moment of the whole experience was right after our set at Lady Luck, maybe 7:15 or 7:30, I was standing outside the tavern… and at the same time, we could hear bluegrass coming from the Acoustic Cafe and jazz coming from the original Black Rock Tavern, and another band starting up across the street.  It was really a moment for me that I felt just like I was in New Orleans, with all the people moving around from bar to bar,” he added. 

That moment happened to be during the time Lisa Furman and the Blueflies were playing at the Acoustic Café, the Steve DeTroy Trio was playing at Black Rock Tavern, and across the street, Larissa DeLorenzo was starting up her set with The Buttondown Mafia.  Inside the Tavern, the Steve Detroy Trio hosted a steady-on audio cruise of uplifting jazz waves with a funky undercurrent—just the right thing to rev up revelers in the Tavern’s live music Mardi Gras experience.  Meanwhile, in the Acoustic Café, Lisa Furman and the Blueflies gave us a cedar-sweet, down-home bluegrass sound, featuring Lisa Furman on lead vocals and including her young teenage daughter on fiddle. The group brought an easy country heel-kick to the stage, its Americana strains flavored with clear vocals recapturing some of the sounds of simpler times while also evoking youthful playfulness.

IN THE BEGINNING

Larissa DeLorenzo, the musical and passionate young lady who was inspired to put on the first BlackRock Rocks benefit, told us about the genesis of this annual Mardi Gras benefit party.  “BlackRock Rocks Mardi Gras had its beginnings in 2005.  In June I went for my first southern tour, together with Darian Cunning and other friends,” she explained.  “We went down to Georgia and New Orleans to play some gigs and we stayed with a friend of mine, Steve, in New Orleans.  It was the only other city I’ve ever been to that I feel I could live in, outside Connecticut, and I was seriously contemplating moving down to New Orleans.”  Perhaps it’s lucky for the rest of us that Larissa is still right here in Black Rock, but sadly she stayed, in large part, because of a catastrophe.  Larissa recalls, “On August 29^th, when the hurricane hit, it was a Sunday and I was at my grandma’s, and I remember having to explain to them why I was so hysterical about the fact that this city I love was being hit.  The next day, Monday, the levees broke and the city was devastated, completely underwater.  The next night [at Acoustic Café] we had our open mic, like we do every Tuesday, and we had people coming up from New Orleans. My friend Steve was one of them, because his home was now underwater. That was when I said, I am going to throw you a benefit.  This hurts too much to stand here and do nothing.”

That very night, Larissa asked Rich Franzino, the original founder & owner of Acoustic Café, for a date to hold the benefit and it was scheduled for the following Thursday.  “We couldn’t have done it without him,” she said of Franzino.  Organizing and orchestrating the concert event was no small task for Larissa.  “I had less than a week to throw together a benefit, but that night I started.  I booked artists including Darian Cunning, Cosmic Jibaros and The Alternate Routes.  Angel [Angel Telesco, now the event organizer], Juan [Juan Carlos Vega, bass player for Cosmic Jibaros] and I had all been mutual friends, and I remembered that they too adored New Orleans so I asked if they wanted to jump on this bandwagon.  They both became involved and we had an event of great magnitude, especially for pulling it together in less than a week, including a corporate sponsor, Gartner Group, and tons of food donated by local restaurants… we had a total of about 7 bands and artists… just a handful of us hand-made all the decorations. All the [bar]staff worked for free that night.  The night of the benefit was the first night I met Renard [Boissiere], a musician, from New Orleans, who had come up here because everything he had was underwater.  Renard closed out that first night and it was really amazing.”

That first benefit brought in approximately $4,000 (including Gartner Group’s contribution) to support efforts to aid victims of the floods following Hurricane Katrina, but the 2010 Mardi Gras fundraiser topped that with donations approaching a grand total of $6,000.  Getting back to the music at this year’s Mardi Gras event, Larissa DeLorenzo, on stage at Lady Luck, strummed and crooned a few softly powerful tunes of her own, letting attentive listeners languish in a moment of stillness and emotional openness. Soon she was joined by The Buttondown Mafia, when the stage loomed to larger than life behind Larissa and carried the crowd in front along with it.  The Buttondown Mafia proved to be somewhat riotous, adding a real rock groove and steady bass drum kick that complemented Larissa’s vocals, which she amped up right along with the beat.  Larissa told us, “I’ve been playing some instrument or another since 4^th grade, starting with clarinet, saxophone, piano… then I started playing guitar during 7^th grade. I started writing songs when I was about 8, which I actually have recorded.  But I started actually doing the singer-songwriter thing when I was 13.  I didn’t start doing it seriously though until about senior year in high school, when I started playing songs that I wrote for my friends. They actually got gigs for me.  I was just writing the songs to cope, and my friends were telling me, you need to do this, you need to play these gigs and do full sets.  They said my songs really affected them. “

Each and every one of the artists who performed at the 2010 BlackRock Rocks Mardi Gras event showcased their own ability to affect individuals and groups of people.  I was lucky to catch the next act from the most up close and personal seat in the house.  I’d been blissfully lounging on one of Acoustic Café’s plushy booth-couches, in one of the back corners of the room, when that very spot was turned into a stage and all the heads in the room turned about 180 degrees to see Mike Falzone—one artist who’s been involved with the fundraiser since nearly the beginning—put on a quick but forceful show.  Accompanying himself on the acoustic guitar, Mike gave us a strong solo rendition of Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer and also a couple of emotive, audience-gripping originals, one including some lyrics about candy-covered raindrops.  Lucky for me, there was no need to move from my Cleopatra position at that point, but soon, Chris DeAngelis, armed with acoustic guitar and mic and accompanied by a hand-drummer and electric bass player, moved into that back-corner stage and I moved into a front row chair.  From their cramped quarters, these guys gave us a tight delivery with a soulful sound that filled the entire room, perfectly matching the mood of the moment.

For the next act I was back in the cushiest seat in the house, but I had to get up and bounce a bit!  Blurring the lines between dance floor and stage, “performing,” as he puts it, “under the unfortunate name of Sketch The Cataclysm,” one artist not only brought a dancer up on stage for a spell, but also himself jumped down onto the floor—and up onto a table—to show his own dance moves. Sketch’s on-point delivery of incisive, intelligent vocals rapped against the backdrop of a hip-hop electronic scratch break-beat.  Lyrics layered with subtleties revealed an attack on the neglect of perspectives on truth and justice in today’s society, while the dance floor shook with energy and momentum. 

BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE

For me, perhaps the most memorable single point in the evening was probably between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m.  In two bars the music continued as did the lively chatter and clinking of glasses—but in the third bar, the crowd was absolutely jammed in to peak capacity and it was one big smile throughout the room.  Naturally, where the house was packed and the blue-tone groove was practically gleaming in the air was where Darian Cunning was playing, in the Acoustic Café, together with a trio of musicians who have become his regular band.  Darian’s been playing with Drew McKeon for about six years and they’ve been playing with Rich Zurkowski and Jesse Gibbon for about three years.  Darian’s smoothly gracious, lightly hopeful vocals, accompanied by his own expressive guitar solos and the band’s cool vibe, rocked the audience into a charmed evening high lit by the warm glow of colored lanterns and contented faces inside the Acoustic Café.

Meanwhile, next door the party was still raging, the music was still pumping and the taps were still flowing inside Black Rock Tavern.  One of the Tavern’s staff said, “Yeah, we had a fantastic day! We had tons of music, we had crawfish in our kitchen here… it was great.  We were full to capacity and it was one of the better nights of the year.” Not only were the drinks frosty but the food was tasty, which was no surprise since the kitchen at the Tavern was recently taken over by new management and has been getting lots of compliments, including numerous props for the tasty New Orleans-style crawfish they served until close on Mardi Gras.  According to one bartender at Black Rock Tavern, “We were slammed three deep all night! It was packed.” 

According to another one of the Tavern’s bartenders, “It was amazing.  It was maybe the second-busiest day of the year for us other than St. Patrick’s day.”  As for the music, he said, “The Speakers didn’t play with Tom Crowley—our friend Amy filled in on trumpet.  So Tom played guitar, and Amy played trumpet and it was sort of a mellow, reggae-flavor kind of jam-sound.  When John Torres came on stage, it just felt like it was all a family in here and they were really jammin’ it out.  Next it was St. Bernadette, and man, she just goes crazy, you really gotta see her.  At the end of the night it was Big Moon rockin’ out the ‘90’s alternative covers, they were doing a really good job and they were totally crowd pleasers.”

Closing out the night at Acoustic Café, Manchado raised the roof with rump-shakin’ Latin rhythms, including Johnny Durkin keeping a rock-solid, steady beat, Rick Reyes infusing the Latin groove and vocal sensuality, Rob Somerville delivering some super-sweet tenor sax solos and Jesse Gibbon keeping it rock-organ funky on the keyboard.  Durkin and Reyes are two other musicians who have been key to the success of the Mardi Gras event year after year.  On this very special night in 2010, the group got bigger and bolder and the resulting music was positively breathtaking.  Darian Cunning pulled his guitar strap back over his shoulder and came back up, Renard Boissiere took a seat at the keys for a bit and sang a few bars… and for more songs than we could count, Delfeayo Marsalis too was on stage just crooning to the audience with his trombone.  It was like an all-star lineup of the most popular performers of the day, all together on stage for a really amazing closing set that really rocked the rafters until closing time.  All of us gathered at that point surely felt thankful to be a part of such a successful fundraising event.  But what really elevated our spirits and made us grateful to be alive had to be the music.  The energy of the musicians and the mastery with which they released emotions, stories and dreams through their instruments and voices provoked a feeling of powerful inner peace and a kind of brotherly and sisterly love.

While Uptown Music Theatre continues to pursue its mission of music and unity, the Black Rock community goes about its regular business… mostly.  Two days after the Mardi Gras celebration left the streets of Black Rock, reminders remain in the form of metallic streamers in a royal rainbow of colors, fluttering from trash bags and a few other random spots; bead necklaces still hang from the awning of the Acoustic Café and icicles hang from a few of the necklaces; the front window of Lady Luck is still decorated with painted-on masquerade party eyeshades and beads.  However, a few regulars may have been missing from the bars on Monday, perhaps because some really good hangovers—which can only be the result of some really good parties—require more than a single day for recovery.  –Gretchen S. Swanson, thegswan@gmail.com