Soapbox Gallery New York

My friend, Jimmy---a sculptor and musician---renovated a gallery space in Brooklyn to serve the neighborhood’s growing needs, those being a live music, lecture and performance space, with a studio for himself in the back.

The space is dead simple---white, not over lit, and beautiful with Jimmy’s work adorning the walls. In fact, at the performance I attended the other night, the two musicians, though plainly visible, were beautifully silhouetted against a dimly lit wall making it the color of beeswax. Soothing, it was.

Hayes Greenfield, the saxophonist, normally plays as a soloist but this time a drummer accompanied Hayes, who keeps close at hand a suitcase full of electronic gear that allows him to modify his sound, create loops and multiple tracks so that he can accompany himself.

I was reminded of Charles Lloyd’s “Forest Flower”---recorded back in the sixties---lonesome and transportive sounds, mostly in a lower register, that transfix me.

At other times Jimmy presents poets, politicians, pianists and drop-in artists who are all announced on his website.

Refreshments are usually available and there is a charming pie and coffee shop a few doors along the street called Four and Twenty Blackbirds. Very Brooklyn.

If you are already hoofing around Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill, or The Staples Center neighborhood, that is a good reason to attend. Headline acts can be heard in every city but you won’t rub elbows with locals and performers---both in the audience and onstage---elsewhere, like you will here.