The M Shanghai String band playing under the protection of the Sidney Jonas Band Shell. The date was 19 of August 2007; the last of ‘A Fugitive Baton Summer’ performance festival had come. Late Coney Island rain fell on the Hennessey Triangle making relay races impractical. I had defeated my brother (Carlo Maltempi) in the first leg of team El Alto’s race against ‘The sons of….’ Brother had me beat by a two to three strides as he always did… I had retained some reserve energy for the last length of the race as we fought for precious lane space. Alas, my endurance proved to be my late savoir, my brother’s body battering vices robbing him of his lead. El Alto would go on to lose this race, but not without a somewhat heroic effort by MC for the festival: Evan Kreeger. Evan ran anchor for us. He was handed off baton with opposing team up at least 75 yards. Evan’s opposition was from a fella who happened to be a track star at some point in life, and came to our festival not even knowing music was on agenda! He just came to race. Another team (The Late Entries?) also raced, but not with winning as any type objective. They did have fun. Investigations into possible amateur race doping violations are just germinating, and might reverse the grand trophy going to ‘The Sons.’
Mike Quoma of El Alto did receive a trophy (purchased somewhere on Jamaica Ave,) for ‘most graceful handoff.’
The day was full of joyous music from Carlico and L’ultima. Calro as voice of the usually irascible Tan, delighted all. Balthrop, Alabama wooed the small but doughty spirited crowd with their elliptically buoyant musical creations and stage sweetness. El Alto invited bedraggled listeners to the side of the covered bandshell, where we played our first ever rain concert, facing a few children (including my unstoppably beautiful 3 year old girl running in concentric mud circles with an effulgent blue or green baton held aloft in her hand.) Our faithful listeners sat or stood on the concrete enjoying a set that was full of zest and thunder, including a sensational showcasing of a tune to be on the near future album to be named ‘Grippo.’
As I mentioned earlier on, M’Shanghi String band played in the back of the band shell with their various cheerful members performing blue grass songs that landed in our seated dry laps as pearls and silky husks. It was a fantastic performance by the group, broken G string on the stand up bass be damned.
I will look back on this day’s events with something akin to the ethereal yet so real magic blanket shade shine dancing off from the enlarged pages of a powerful book of narratives that will walk wherever they feel like. They end up crouching down in an auditorium full of kids unwrapping sandwiches without much talk during an endless recess, misty air cool and wet on a window you might look out to with a special friend making a wordless pact or confirming that things are great the way they are when you………..
I feel as hungover as a confused 7th grade math teacher still touched with the immediate acid of a tumultuous divorce. I feel as elated as a man who tells his crook of a watch repairman to ‘go to hell,’ in a sudden and unbarbed manner.
