Live Music is Not Dead: Meet Me in Paradise!

Live music is just that. And it’s not dead.  But sometimes it’s hard to find live music locally at a bar, tavern, restaurant or café.  Why? Musicians need to be paid just like any other professional and this extra expense for a business is often not feasible.  But if a proprietor can find a way, in some way, to pay a single musician or a even big band, the rewards for customers are invaluable. 

Watching and listening to a singer or group or both is not just a one-way experience.  The performers feed, so to speak, on the audience and the audience's reactions.  An attentive audience and an engaging performance creates a circle or energy that travels round and round between the tables and the stage.  Live music, especially, can relax or stir the soul.  It can evoke memories or inspire dreams and excite imagination.  Of course, if musicians are too loud and customers can’t hear each other speak, the experience can go sour for those who are in attendance.  On the other hand, if the audience, or more likely someone in the crowd becomes too loud, as in drunk and boisterous, or rude and crude, the band must play on amidst the various distractions such a boor can bring.  Last but not least, a reputable establishment will sign an agreement with one of two music organizations, BMI or ASCAP, so composers can be paid their due or songs played live. 

Sometimes people ask me where I like to play best.  I say, any establishment that treats me and my band members with respect (and pays us!) and sees our presence and an addition to the ambiance and patrons’ experience, is the kind of establishment I like to be associated with.  True,  not every establishment or patron likes every kind of music, so the choice of the kind of live music does come into play when a group or individual musical artist is chosen.  And certain bands prefer certain types of crowds and surroundings, so no one can expect to perform everywhere, and not all bands will want to play at all places.

This Saturday, if all of Westchester doesn’t get snowed in (!), my Jazz group, The Mary Crescenzo Band, will be performing at Paradise Restaurant, 135 Broadway, in Verplanck, New York.  Paradise has been in business since the 60’s at its present location, and has been owned since its inception by the Margiotta family – so they must be doing something right.  As immigrants from Italy, Mom and Pop Margiotta decided to move up to “the country” way back when for its fresh area for health reasons.  The family stayed, extended family members joined them, and today, Momma Margiotta is in her eighties and still going strong as is Papa Margiotta - so the air, as well, must have done something right. 

Managed now by their son chef Joseph, Paradise feels like home (an Italian-American, home that is.)  You’ll find a warm and friendly staff, and wonderful, abundant home-style Italian dishes.  And check out the Sinatra wall at Paradise!  We’ll fit right in with Sinatra in the background, doing standard Jazz, swing, and ballad tunes from the Great American Songbook, many of the songs made famous by Ol’ Blue Eyes.  You can find out about this special Saturday night, supper club evening’s prix fixe, and make a reservation by calling Paradise at 914 539 0649. See you live in Paradise!