nothin East Rock Concert Series Comes Full Circle | New Haven Independent

East Rock Concert Series Comes Full Circle

To introduce her first song, Sweet to Me,” Caroline Doctorow told a quick, acerbic story that was the genesis for the song’s title. She knew a man once who practiced singing and playing the guitar all the time, to the irritation of his wife.

What is the point of all this?” Doctorow related her saying. You’re never going to be Elvis.”

His reply: I may not ever be Elvis, but it doesn’t cost you anything to be sweet to me.”

That couple isn’t together anymore,” Doctorow added.

Laughter rippled through the crowd of about 20 gathered on Sunday evening at mActivity on Nicoll Street for the second show in the new East Rock Concert Series, organized by Fernando Pinto. The Long Island, N.Y.-based Doctorow may have told the story of a couple who couldn’t communicate, but she and multi-instrumentalist Gary Oleyar were joined at the musical hip. Doctorow was sharing the stage with two other singer songwriters — former Connecticut state troubadour Lara Herscovitch and the New Haven-based Anne Marie Menta — as they took turns at the microphones to perform round-robin style and let their stories weave together.

And the audience was quiet enough to hear it all.

Pinto learned about the value of a listening room versus a club early in his career as a club owner and promoter, back when he worked at his first club, the Nightshift Cafe, in Naugatuck. Folk legend Dave Van Ronk had taken the stage.

Dave Van Ronk was called The Whisper,” Pinto said, because his performances could get very, very quiet. But the more we really start tuning in,” Pinto said, the more you could hear. Then a couple decided to start playing a game of pool in the back.

I didn’t have much of a clue,” Pinto said. As the owner, I should have been tuned in. But I was totally unconscious to it. So Dave Van Ronk puts his guitar down, goes to the pool table, turns off the light above the table, puts the balls in the pocket.”

Then, Pinto recalled, Van Ronk said to the couple, if you guys want to play pool when I’m performing, I suggest you find another place to play pool.”

It was a lesson for Pinto as a club owner and promoter. Some nights, some venues, could be for loud, raucous fun. But other times, bottles breaking, doors squeaking, cash registers ringing — all of this is going to ruin the vibe. People will feel like they lost part of the song.”

In a listening room, he added, if a drop of water falls on the floor, you should be able to hear it.”

That idea stayed in Pinto’s head through his years at the Tune Inn, and those that followed as a promoter. He brought plenty of bands to town that made a party, plenty of shows that were about hanging out and dancing. They were great. But others he was hoping for a quieter vibe. He found a willing accomplice in club owner Paul Mayer, who let me bring some of these listening artists to Cafe Nine,” Pinto said.

But what Pinto really wanted to create was a space dedicated to listening. Club Passim in Bostom. Iron Horse in Northampton. Rockwood in New York City. All of these places provide listening rooms. Where is the place that consistently does that in town?” Pinto thought. It didn’t exist.

Pinto lives a block away from mActivity. He stopped in for coffee and liked the vibe.” He joined as a gym member and noticed that every month they had a party for the members, and hosted art shows and local organization meetings.

I see all this happening,” Pinto said, and I thought, man, if we get a stage in here it can really be something.’”

He spoke to mActivity owners Burch Valldejuli and Pablo Perez. Burch knew of Pinto as a promoter and was interested in collaborating. One thing led to another, and the next thing we know, we built a stage, and there we are,” Pinto said. The East Rock Concert Series had its debut show June 10, with Kate Callahan, Miles & Mafale, Kristen Graves, and Jeff Przech. Pinto already has shows booked into next spring — everyone from reggae act Taj Weekes and Adowa to Qawwali musicians Fanna-Fi-Allah to Melanie (who performed at Woodstock), to local stalwarts Seth Adam and Lys Guillorn.

The music that I’m going after is not the music that I bring to Cafe Nine or to the State House or Pacific Standard Tavern,” Pinto said. I want to do world music from every part of the world. I want to do American roots music.” That is, folk music from as many folks as he can.

Pinto is hopeful that the East Rock Concert Series will benefit from the East Rock Brewing Company opening nearby. He also sees promise in the opening of the State House in Ninth Square and the Rough Draft, adding the ventures at College Street Music Hall.

The scene is not as big as it has the potential to be,” Pinto said. The more music being thrown in front of people, the more curiosity will happen.” And the more people may start going out to hear live music everywhere around town. Then you bet that this scene will flourish.”

I want the new fan that doesn’t come out — when they come out and experience something, they get hooked,” Pinto added, whether at a punk show at Cafe Nine or a quiet room like the one at mActivity.

When the artists are sharing slices of life with us, we need to listen,” Pinto said.

So the audience at mActivity could hear every word when Herscovitch performed, and shared the thoughts and experiences that informed her songcraft, a rich blend of the personal and political. I hear that globally the world is doing better than it has ever been, but right now it doesn’t feel that way,” she said. My hope is that you get to do the work you’re meant to do.” The mood was very serious. But then she turned it around.

Have any of you watched any Harrison Ford movies?” she asked, to introduce the next song, which began with the words Holy Grail.

Appropriate to the day of the concert, Menta began with a song about her father, who had died on Father’s Day several years ago. She explained that she belonged to a big, raucous family that supported her and her siblings’ musical interests by always being willing to host bandmates at their house. It gave her friends the impression of the Menta household as something of an open book. But in reality, my dad was intensely private,” Menta said. The face that he showed to everyone was not all there was to know about him.”

She then sang a moving tribute to him — a soldier who fought in Italy during World War II and never described the horrors he saw there, but did describe that he had managed to visit the town where his own mother had grown up, and even went in the house. He made sure his children knew about their roots. He protected them from the blood that had been spilled there.

As the songs and stories bounced from funny to sad with several stops in between, it seemed fitting that the first set end with all the performers together on Will The Circle Be Unbroken,” a funeral song that always sounds more like a celebration when people sing it.

Pinto’s evolving plan is to have local artists opening up for national people — and see the place packed,” he said, with people coming there to feed their spirit.”

Visit mActivity’s events page to learn more about the East Rock Concert Series and to purchase tickets.

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