On Sunday 25th May, a group of nearly thirty NYJO musicians from both our Under 18s and Emerging Professional programmes headed to Brockwell park in Herne Hill to perform at Cross The Tracks Festival! Whilst NJYO musicians are used to regularly playing on stages, this was different… Led by one of NYJO’s brilliant Resident MDs, Vij Prakash, the ensemble performed at various points around the festival site throughout the day. They started off at the main entrance, welcoming festival goers to the site, then travelled to the family area for two more sets, and ended the day beneath the iconic Cross the Tracks sign.
This project was inspired by the Second Line tradition, which is processional music involving horns, trombones, saxophones, percussion and, in this case, a sousaphone with NYJO gaffer taped to its bell! It is all about generating the atmosphere from within the crowd, rather than performing in a more formal way. The NYJO festival ensemble consisted of about 30 players, several of whom had never attended a festival before! Vij rehearsed the group the day before with numbers inspired by performers at this year’s festival, such as Ezra and Jordan Rakei.
This year, the project was managed by NYJO’s Programmes and Engagement Coordinator, Kenyah Johnson. Going into it, Kenyah had two main goals: one was for the group to contribute to the festival buzz and the other was to create an opportunity for NYJO musicians to play at a festival in a non-traditional way.
“We wanted people to feel welcome”, she said, “and being able to provide music in this more relaxed way, you’re closer to your audience and it’s really, really personal.” These two strands of the day were tightly intertwined and Kenyah discussed the importance of the musicians taking pride in contributing to the Cross the Tracks atmosphere. She said: “That’s definitely something that we want to do at NYJO: provide them with this opportunity to be like, ‘Yeah, I’ve played at this festival, I’ve got to impact somebody else’s day and I felt good about doing this’”.
“These learning opportunities are really helpful,” Kenyah added, “They’ve got to experience the festival, they’ve done a two hour set, and then they can go and enjoy themselves. So it’s a balance of working hard and playing hard.”
One of the U18s musicians in the group was Obe, who was really keen to build his arranging skills within a new conext. With the help of Vij Prakash, he arranged and led a piece that the group played in each set. As the day went on and the crowds grew, his confidence blossomed until, as Kenyah described, he was “just absolutely loving it”.
If you would like to catch NYJO at another festival this summer, then come and join us for a celebration of Township Jazz at We Out Here Festival in August!
Photo Credits: Luke Dyson
@lukedyson
www.lukedyson.com