Salocin

Rittenhouse Square Muzak

The heat brought people to Rittenhouse Square, and Philadelphia Weekly - the local newspaper - arranged for there to be a concert, but then storm warnings caused a rescheduling, and a local instrument-wielding person got on stage and sang for the crowd. He was soon joined by others also wielding instruments, but together they made sounds less pleasant to hear than might have been the case individually.

The guitarist in the middle was the first to the scene, and he sang - not particularly well, but sufficiently well to draw a few people to him - a few songs from his repertoire. A bit later, he was joined by the drummer on the far right, who can hold a beat, but not the same beat as the guitarist. The trumpet player on the far left was the next addition, and he would ad-lib in the gaps between verses, when the guitarist would stop singing. A second trumpeter joined him, and did something similar, but very different, and at the same time. Finally, the man you see crouching down by the guitarist is holding a flute case in his hand, and he started playing something that was entirely his own construction, and had absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the noise.

It all sounded ok from a distance, because I could only ever make out one instrument at a time, but when I approached them as I left the square, the true nature of the cacophony assaulted me, and I fled for the safety of my CD collection. There's a lot to be said for a recording studio and 500 takes of each song.

And yes, I know it's blurred, but I was far away, on maximum zoom, and they wouldn't stay still. I took 5 pictures and this is the least blurred of the lot.

Posted by nlvp at July 24, 2003 01:41 AM