November 2, 2017 In Uncategorized

Sony Rooftop Performance

This was something very special. There is a Youtube channel that’s called BalconyTV and the concept of the show is to let musicians play on a balcony or rooftop or anything high above the city. So I got a call from Balcony TV if I was able to perform for the show’s Manhattan Chapter. Of course I don’t mind that!

Balcony TV

BalconyTV Manhattan arranged their usual rooftop which is on top of the Metropolitan Life North Building, better known as ‘The Sony Rooftop’. This rooftop, which gives you a 360 degrees view over Manhattan from it’s place at 25th street and Madison Avenue, really makes you feel like you’re on top of the world. ‘I can see the Empire State Building from here’ was not an unheard sentence. Recently redecorated, it’s a luxury quiet haven high above the hustle and bustle of the city, and with clear blue skies and 24 celsius on the thermometer, I actually got a bit of a tan! After a short interview I performed ‘Why wouldn’t you’ with my iPad music apps like Loopy.
After some time the final video came out which you can check right here! Shoot me a note and let me know what you think! My photographer friend Karen van Gilst, specializing in photography of jazz musicians, got the chance to shoot beautiful pictures which visualize the grandeur of the place and the fun that I had to perform at one of the most special places I’ve performed thus far..
Thank you Balcony TV for this opportunity and thank you Karen van Gilst for the beautiful pictures!

STREETNOTES
October 1, 2016 In Uncategorized

Photoshoot w/ Karen van Gilst

September 2016 this amazing young Dutch photographer came to visit New York for her new project; Streetnotes. A travel website where she interviews and films musicians in their favorite spot in New York. She contacted me and we met up in Prospect park, close to my place in Brooklyn. The pictures turned out great, and the little music video was improvised live while using the sounds that were already in the air. Listen to it here!

https://youtu.be/brKZQhYAEWw

Streetnotes is a project by Photographer Karen van Gilst. Check Streetnotes.nl to discover the best (not necessarily travel agency approved) parts of New York, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Walking towards the Botanical Garden of Brooklyn, the original spot we decided on recording her Streetnote, Vivienne’s husband started telling me about an old tunnel in Prospect Park not far from there. In combination with Vivienne’s voice that was a golden idea. She is an amazing singer and artist in the broadest cense of the word. What I mean? Check out her Streetnote!

“I sing about water and soap, about rooftop gardens and musicians that I met on a certain moment and time … As pure as it gets, a background in jazz, now exploring the very edges of the style. Intense as never before, it swings, crushes and touches. To find and experience total freedom.” – Vivienne Aerts