The music scene in this Brooklyn neighborhood is here to stay
Roy Nathanson, left in blue cap, with a group of student musicians at the Open Streets Kick-Off event on Newkirk Avenue in Brooklyn, July 11, 2021. During the citys lockdown, porch concerts in Ditmas Park began as a way to unite artists these events, along with new series and festivals, have transformed this quiet area into an arts hub. Natalie Keyssar/The New York Times.
by Laura Zornosa
(NYT NEWS SERVICE)
.- One July Sunday, just off Newkirk Plaza in Brooklyn between the yellow facade of a laundromat and the red awning of a bodega the mellow strains of a saxophone floated over a crowd of about 150. Haitian jazz guitarist Eddy Bourjolly introduced the song Complainte Paysanne, and the band serenaded the street.
The music scene in this Brooklyn neighbourhood is here to stay
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Radio K :: NICK HAKIM & ROY NATHANSON
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Rolling Stone Nick Hakim, Roy Nathanson, and Creating Community During Covid
The duo seamlessly blend R&B, jazz, and dreamy pop on their collaborative album
Small Things, recorded and mastered just as the world was locking down
By Zora Sicher
If you listen closely, you can hear the subtle sounds of sirens in the background of “Small Things 2,” the final track on Nick Hakim and Roy Nathanson’s collaborative album,
Small Things. Much of the album was recorded before Covid shut down the music industry, but Hakim and Nathanson weren’t happy with a few of the takes, so they had to settle for collaborating over a distance, even though they lived a few miles apart in Brooklyn.
“Awaken, My Love!”
+ the “Taxi Driver” theme
Neo-soul music artist Nick Hakim and multi-reedist Roy Nathanson channel a blend of both terrestrial and cosmic inspirations on
Small Things, their first collaborative album. The partnership is unexpected, aside from the fact that the artists met through and have both performed with the elusive New York City-based jazz ensemble
Onyx Collective in the past.
Small Things is the first album to be released on Onyx Collective’s new record label NYXO, and promisingly so.
Eclectic and romantic,
Small Things is reminiscent of Hakim’s debut,
Green Twins (2017), and is a passionate tribute to Nathanson’s instrument. “She was speaking to the saxophone / In an intimate way / All because she recognized that the saxophone / Is a kindred spirit,” Hakim sings on the title track, carefully, as if waking someone from a deep sleep. Lo-fi vocals and staccato woodwind give way to a mellow drum beat and the result is transporti