The Brooklyn Standard

Subway and street performances in Manhattan are more than just great (and free) music. Every song is distilled human experience and pure New York character that seems to seep into the ground and grow great things.

“How you guys doing, alright?” the very talented vocalist asks of passers-by in between verses of Route 66. As his bejeweled fingers dance effortlessly along the keyboard, Maestro D’s lounge act gives straphangers something to tap their toes to long after they’ve left Penn Station. “And that’s what it is,” he says contentedly as he fetches the bills from his tip basket.

Geovanni Suquillo draws from an unusual repertoire of rumba songs and 80’s rock ballads peppered with Spanish style guitar riffs. As drum machine beats from an unidentifiable source fill the stagnant subterranean air, the Ecuadorian musician tends to confuse albeit delight his Union Square audience.

Hundreds of performances occur under NYC in a week but few gather a crowd like the nine piece jazz band Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. Even fewer know how to sell CDs as well as the nine Cohran brothers from Chicago. A mixture of flawless jazz classics and energetic original compositions makes getting to Grand Central to listen well worth the $2 cover charge.

A doctor told Karim Noack she had six months to live if she didn’t get a mastectomy and continue her chemotherapy. She refused and, 12 years later, a combination of holistic treatments, dancing, and making music has given Karim new life. “It’s like my therapy,” she says as her friend of 20 years and fellow Colombian David Pena softly strums and whispers Spanish sentiments to Tompkins Square Park.

“I just want to work on my craft and share music with people,” Sweet Lew explains, though he acknowledges the economic pressure of the city. “My philosophy is to always end up with more than I started with,” he says with a big grin that opens into a booming chuckle. With nothing more than an alto sax, Sweet Lew adds a passion and dimension to Astor Place that few New York street corners can claim as their own.

* If anybody wants, add your own. How fun!