Photographer: © Michael Tapp

At 1:30 a drummer asked me what time I’ll be done busking today (he wanted to play at my spot when I was done). When I told him 3pm, he asked if I can watch over his drum, so he could run home to get his CDs for sale. I said ‘sure’.

A guy said to me: “I have seen you in my dreams”.

A lady told me her friend in Australia is my fan. She wanted to buy my CD and have me sign it for him, but she only had a $100 bill on her.

The homeless lady who panhandles on the trains and who was having a hard time walking came to say ‘hi’. I haven’t seen her since her operation. She looked well and is now walking without a cane. She does physical therapy and her leg is in a cast. She is now having trouble with her arm, but she is in good spirit and optimistic.

It was 2:30pm and the drummer who wanted to busk after me at 3pm and who left his busking gear with me wasn’t back yet… I began to wonder what I should do with his busking gear if he isn’t back by the time I need to leave…

Somebody put a small box (that used to be for facial soap) in my donations box. When I opened it a wonderful citrus aloe smell came out, and a few cents.

My musical saw’s tip-handle broke! I didn’t even know that could happen. The strange thing is it broke above where I hold it – so not even where I apply pressure…

The drummer returned at exactly 3pm with his CDs.

I love hearing people’s associations to the sound of the musical saw. A lady at the Union Square subway station, where I was playing, said that it is like “Vox Humana”.
That sent me to Wikipedia to find out what she meant…:
“The Vox Humana is a short-resonator reed stop on the pipe organ, so named because of its supposed resemblance to the human voice. As a rule, the stop is used with a tremulant, which undulates the wind supply, causing a vibrato effect. The vox humana is intended to evoke the impression of a singing choir or soloist”.

When I got to the Music Under New York busking spot in the subway, Scout (a.k.a. Eunique) was singing there. When somebody asked him how much his CD is, Scout, like a pro, didn’t stop singing. Rather, while singing, he put his mic down and mimed “10″ with his hands.

A lady told me that when she was little, during WWII in Hamburg, Germany, across from her family’s apartment was a family named Schneider, who had 3 members of the family playing musical saw! She has not seen musical saw playing since them until she ran into me in the subway. This family of musical saw players moved, and also her family moved, so she doesn’t know what became of them.

Photographer: © Puneesh Suri

When busking at the Whitehall Ferry Terminal two cops came over to say ‘hi’ to me. I thought they would want to see my permit, but – not at all. They just wanted to tell me that my music keeps them calm… One of them, named John, said: “You played ‘Evergreen’ before. Can you play it again sometime?” Turns out we are both Barbra Streisand fans.

A lady said to me: “I saw you on TV on channel 25 a couple of years ago. Every time I see you here I feel like a famous person is playing here”.

Karen, the blond blind lady, stopped to chat. She told me about a restaurant on Long Island where people experience eating in complete darkness in order to experience what it is like to be blind. This restaurant hires musicians to play while people eat.
Karen is admirably entrepreneurial. She is now teaching high school kids a five week workshop at the Queens Museum. The workshop is about how to work with disabled people in museums. She also started working as a psychic from her home and she plans to rent space from the Edgar Casey Institute near Penn Station.

A guy holding flowers scattered a few red petals in my donations box.
The sound of a Chinese er-hu was wafting up the stairs from the platform.

Sixto, the Andean pan-flute player, came to say ‘hi’. He doesn’t play much in the subway any more. Instead, he sells Andean stuff at a mall. He showed me a bear claw pendant he was wearing. “I’m glad I’m encountering you and not a bear right now…”, I said.

The teen-ager named Natalia who goes to school near by came to say ‘hi’. I haven’t seen her in a whole year. Turns out she spent a year in Honduras, just to try something new. She told me that when she returned to JFK and heard everybody speaking English she felt like hugging everybody.

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I enjoy working at the Music Under New York audition, because I like meeting the musicians who aspire to play in the subway. Many of them I have already seen playing in the subway, and it’s nice to see them again.

This year about 250 musicians applied to Music Under New York. A panel of judges went through their applications and listened to the CDs they sent. 68 of these musicians advanced to the final stage of the audition – auditioning live at Grand Central Terminal.

The amazing line-up of talent aspiring to play in the subway this year was:

Jeronimo Hernandez – Gospel
Threeds – oboe trio
Johnny Jackpot – sings and plays banjo while tap dancing.
Metropolitones – 4 ladies singing a capella
Honey Rums – pop sould duo
Shigemasa – opera singer who plays guitar
Jennie Walker – pop singer
Eric Reimers – guitar player who plays classical & traditional Argentinean music
Susan Keser – whose been playing classical violin in the subway on weekends, by the mosaics at Times Square
Harold Allen – a country singer/songwriter who’s been playing in the subway for 6 months
Melissa Kaplan – a jazz & pop singer/songwriter who has played in the Boston subway.

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Meta Joy Epstein – a harpist who plays in the subway and Central Park. Her husband was in the first batch of musicians who joined Music Under New York 25 years ago. He now plays dulcimer in the subway as a freelancer. Whenever I see a harpist in the subway I am always reminded of Daphne Helman, who played her harp in the subway as part of Music Under New York years ago. Sadly, she passed away.

Keiso Ishibashi played his mandolin in the subway once before the audition. I am puzzled why more musicians don’t try playing in the subway on their own before bothering to audition for it. I have seen many musicians who got into Music Under New York, then played in the subway only to realize it is not what they imagined it would be like, and they never played in the subway again.

Dan Brody – a capella singer
Canue – Latin American & blues fusion trio
Lindsay Dragan – singer/songwriter who plays guitar
No Future – Hip Hop artist who has been rapping for 6 years
Ron Service – saxophone

Starnes & Shah – four people (singer, 2 guitars and drummer) folk rock band
Timothy Garrigan – guitar & harmonica
Istanza – better known as Anja Ghielli from Italy, has been playing Turkish folk music inspired guitar improvisation in the subway for a while.
Margarita Tragedy – singer/songwriter who plays keyboard
Matt Dallow – accordion player who has been playing in the subway for a while
Fish Altieri – guitar & vocals
Musical Prophets – a duo guitar & vocals
Novus Cantus – two brothers (really) playing percussion and vocals
Lost Wandering Blues & Jazz Band – 3 people swing band

After the lunch break:
Tony Styles – guitar & vocals
Erik Heger – plays harp in the subway
Eric Lee – traditional Celtic violin
The Connections – Motown, R&B duo – the singer has been singing in the subway for many years
Tricia Douglas – pop and R&B singer
Mahlon Hoard – saxophone
Marcella Louise Adame – opera singer
Mike Lunapiena – cellist who plays in the subway
Christopher Worth – singer
Brazilian Quarter – 6 piece band playing Brazilian/New Orleans music
Gene Robinson – R&B singer
David Spectra – blues singer
Rainy Day Assembly – Indie-pop singer/songwriter
Thalys Peterson – Brazilian guitarist who has been playing in the subway for a few years
Naomi Frank –
Appalachian dulcimer
Key Appleseeds – singer who plays harmonica and guitar for a few years in the subway
Metro Brass Quintet – classical, pop and jazz
Arlette Beauchamps – singer
Tara Hack – pop & rock singer
Tom Larsen – blues singer who plays guitar
Aria – operatic eclectic duo
Matt Vorzimer: eCussionist – had a lot of percussion equipment, including electronic panels
Samuel Saffery – folk, old country and pop singer who plays guitar
YG and the XYZ’s – 6 piece group of guitars, vocals and percussion
Jay Legaspi – singer/songwriter

Joseph da Fonseca – classical singer
Kyndra – jazz & soul singer
The Body Electric – 6 piece Afro beat jazz band
Josif Faerman – Russian singer
Lachi – vocal & guitar trio

On my way home I saw Josif singing by the Shuttle train. I told him that I am very happy to see that he is performing in the subway and that even if he should happen to not be one of the musicians who pass the audition he should continue to perform in the subway anyway.
Myself – I played in the subway for a few years as a freelancer before I auditioned for Music Under New York. If I could go back and live my life all over again – I would do it exactly the same way.

A lady bought my CD. She said she has a kindergarten class and she is bringing the CD for the children to hear. “It’s very soothing music”, she said.
“Where is your kindergarten class?”, I asked.
“In the Bronx – not very soothing”, she said.

Photographer: Arpit Hathie

A little kid with his mother and two siblings stood to listen to my music. The kid bent over and grabbed a dollar from my donations box. “That’s not allowed”, I said to him. He dropped it back in and he and his family walked away. The mother didn’t say a thing…

A homeless looking guy who looked pretty out of it, and whom I’ve seen passing by before, stood in front of me and said: “Play the saw, play the saw”. When I played he stood there for a full song, listening, looking like he was in another world.

Drummer Mike Alaska walked by, waving to me.

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At 3pm Nicola (singer/songwriter) came for her permitted busking spot. Mike Alaska, the drummer, walked by again and we all talked about how ‘Red Bull’ is trying to scheme and exploit subway musicians by offering them a demeaning contract for performing in their promotional festival in Brazil.

On the train back home the lady who was eating lunch on the bench by the busking spot where I played was walking the trains asking for donations to help her get something to eat.

The three Nortenos who were making the rounds, changing from the up to the down town train at 14th street and passing by me every time they did this, waving to me, were on the train, playing one song on each subway car.

I changed trains and on this train two of my friends were singing with an acapella doo-wop group. They said ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ to me as they walked down the train, singing.

As I was playing at the Whitehall Ferry Terminal a girl told me that she has an old 45 record with a musical saw and an orchestra playing a song called “sleep”, probably in the 1950′s.

Three bagpipe players dressed in kilt uniforms were on their way to playing at a ball game on Staten Island. They will march into the stadium and play a couple of Irish tunes. Since they said they play Irish music, I played ‘Danny Boy’ for them.

A lady told me that she has photos of me from a couple of years ago when I played in Harlem dressed as a witch.

A guy told me that he saw me in a movie. “Which one?”, I asked.
Guy: “The Heart is a Drum Machine”.
Saw Lady: “Oh, yes! I still have to see it myself, actually…”
Guy: “I rented it. It’s good. You’re in the beginning of the movie”
Saw Lady: “Good to know!”

I’m at 0:43 on this movie trailer. Please tun off the blog’s player on the right hand column before playing the video:

A guy told me that he has made a wrong turn in his life – he let go of music and joined the corporate world. For thirty years he has been in the corporate world. He has been up and now he is down. “I could have been a musician and stay down my whole life but enjoyed my life”, he said. Now he is learning to play guitar one song at a time. In two years he hopes to be good enough to play in the streets or subways.

The ultimate compliment to a busker is when a police officer buys the busker’s CD (instead of chasing the busker away):

Thank you Kerim from Turkey for being there at the right moment to document it!

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Many ‘Star Trek’ fan blogs discussed this video and some even gave my photo a ‘Star Trek’ make-over

Thank you, Michael, for making this happen!
Check out film maker Michael Tapp’s blog – he has some amazing videos and photos of subway musicians.