Chicago. Harlem. Barbes
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Adventures, Reviews
There’s a bar in my new neighborhood called Barbes. There’s an accent over the ‘e’, but I don’t know how to make that show up on a Mac. Anyway, they have live music there basically every night, and it’s interesting music. Behind the bar is the performance space, and it’s in a tiny room, probably about the size of my old apartment. 20 people can sit, plus maybe a dozen can stand in the back. What I’m saying is, it’s small.
Last night Herman and I went to see Brian Carpenter’s Ghost Train Orchestra. It’s a TEN PIECE BAND (remember the description of the space above?) featuring a tuba, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, saw, banjo, clarinet, sax and percussion. They played music from the 1920s band era, mostly written by band leaders from Chicago and Harlem. To me, the songs all had a sound that made me feel like I was in New Orleans. It was loud and wonderful, and so not the kind of music that one expects to hear in a bar in most places.
If this sounds good to you, they’re playing at MOMA at 5:30 and 7:30 on Thursday July 24. I know I’ll be there.
