Samuel Jones at Tribeca Park

Writer and composer Samuel Jones, recently posted his very moving and inspirational improv performance at Tribeca Park of "You can Play Me, I'm Yours". His video was also listed as one of the "Highlights" at the Street Piano's website. I think it is THE highlight of the whole art event, capturing the spirit and essence of these past few weeks in song. It's all of what the Sing for Hope Organization could hope for. You can hear the studio version of "You can Play Me, I'm Yours" and learn more about the very talented Samuel Jones at 1creativesound.com.

And let's not forget the wonderful sound behind that great voice. At the pianos: Jerusha Ramos and Vaughn Moore.

Piano - Fin - I promise

Went out early this morning to put the final touches on my piano. All of the pictures are right HERE.

Final Day of Making: "Play Me, I'm Yours"

Having taken Luke Jerram's words to heart, "Piano's are a canvas for everyone's creativity", and "When the pianos land on the street they'll belong to the people of this great city".... I spent much of the day finishing the piano I had started to paint yesterday. By taking elements from Tribeca Park and creating a Narrative of forms and shapes this is what I have come up with so far:

UPDATE: I recently found out the talent behind these pictures. See my Samuel Jones post above.

more "Play Me I'm Yours"

I returned to Tribeca Park a few more times after last weeks post.. I had it in my head that I wanted to 'do' one of the piano's. It was the honey blond wood one, it has lots of discolorations and smudges and not much artwork on it at all. Another artist had painted where the sheet music goes a light blue.. and then drew over that.. but never finished. I left that portion of the piano as well as some of the original wood above the foot pedals.

For the base color on the piano, I am using some of the paint left over from my living room. I'll then use the surrounding architectural and floral elements in the park and create a narrative across and on all sides of the piano.

Luke Jerram, the artist behind the street piano project, had this to say about the piano installation here in NYC:

“I’m so excited to see what will happen. The pianos are a blank canvas for everyone’s creativity so it’ll be interesting to see just how much talent is out there. I’ve always had the feeling that this artwork was meant to be presented here. When the pianos arrive on the steet they’ll belong to the people of this great city. Enjoy!”

After reading Luke's intent, here is the beginning of my piano canvas. A nice clean coat of Benjamin Moore orange. I've been at the park since 6pm... I'll return in the morning and apply the pattern.

to be continued...

Play Me, I'm Yours

Earlier this evening as I ran along the Hudson river, I noticed a nice line up of handsome bears for tonight's Muscle Bear Cruise on the "Sea Tea", Now that would have been fun to go to. But since tomorrows night out will be more than enough for me, I thought I'd do a quiet evening close by.

Having been so intrigued by this whole piano in the park thing I saw early this afternoon, I walked back up to Tribeca Park and sat and listened to people play the piano. Several people stopped by to play (and well, I might add), and chat, and listen, have a smoke.. all the while, it's a very warm and humid evening,, the Empire State building aglow in lavender far in the distance.. how nice is this? How very New York.

My post earlier in the day:

New York City is placing pianos in 60 parks and other public spaces throughout the city and inviting anyone to decorate and play them.


The two-week project, dubbed “Play Me, I'm Yours,” kicks off June 21 with a one-day music festival to feature 1,000 free performances citywide. Artists, volunteers and any member of the public may decorate the street pianos and will be encouraged to play them, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office said in a news release.

I've seen the news coverage of these piano's in the parks. So, I'm walking home today and there were two piano's right here in Tribeca Park, that little triangular park at W. Broadway, Walker st. and 6th Ave.. just below Canal Street. I see one of the piano's is empty, I sits me down and remembered a childhood nursery song "Hello, is this Aunt Sarah?" I'll blame my bad playing on that broken lower "C" key.

"Play Me, I'm Yours" is the program, dial 311 or go to NYStreetPianos to find a piano near you.