New Haven Independent

Literally.

As soon as the live music starts playing downtown — at festivals, impromptu concerts, sidewalk restaurant-patio performances — you can count on finding Triffin carving his own cosmic path through the astral vibes.

By day Triffin runs West Haven’s health department. By evening, in warm weather, he has become as central a performer New Haven’s free arts circuit as any hired act. Off comes the tie (or the carrot costume, used to hand out free veggies on West Haven’s green). On comes the improvisation.

We caught up with him in between his joyous accompaniments to Mighty Purple and Mavis Staples on the Green during Arts & ideas, a festival he says he never misses — although skin cancer did sideline him from stepping one year. He said he’s been grooving to New Haven outdoor music since the ’60s. Click on the play arrow to watch him describe his craft. (And click here to read more on his “Transcendance” philosophy, and here to read a profile on him that the Register’s Randy Beach did a while back.)