[FA Worldmusic] NY Times Feature - Bill Bragin "ADowntownImpresario's New Uptown Canvas"

Fri Feb 29 16:58:40 AST 2008

Congrats Bill, you so deserve more exposure like this. I had the opp to go
check out Passing Strange too, and it rocks, indeed. Very energetic, fun
show that's brought together very cleverly. Highly recommended.
Mehmet-

On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 12:09 PM, Ian Menzies <ian at menziesmixedmedia.com>
wrote:

> Kudos from up north Bill. It will be a pleasure to watch, as you fill up
> your new "canvas".
> Ian
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fa-worldmusic-bounces+ian=menziesmixedmedia.com at folk.org
> [mailto:fa-worldmusic-bounces+ian=menziesmixedmedia.com at folk.org]On
> Behalf Of Marco Werman
> Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 7:11 AM
> To: Evangeline Kim; fa-worldmusic at folk.org
> Subject: Re: [FA Worldmusic] NY Times Feature - Bill Bragin
> "ADowntownImpresario's New Uptown Canvas"
>
>
> More great exposure in a great story.  Keep it all coming BB!
> Marco Werman
> Ps:     nice picture too...very "now is the winter of our 'content'"
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fa-worldmusic-bounces+marco.werman=bbc.co.uk at folk.org
> [mailto:fa-worldmusic-bounces+marco.werman=bbc.co.uk at folk.org] On Behalf
> Of Evangeline Kim
> Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 12:57 AM
> To: fa-worldmusic at folk.org
> Subject: [FA Worldmusic] NY Times Feature - Bill Bragin "A
> DowntownImpresario's New Uptown Canvas"
>
> Here's the link to the article and a cool photo of Bill at Lincoln
> Center outdoors on a snowy day:
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/arts/music/27brag.html
>
> Bravo, Bill!  And for all of you who aren't in  NYC, when passing
> through here, do check out the astoundingly great and freshly innovative
> rock musical, one of his Public Theater 'signature achievements,'
> "Passing Strange" now on Broadway at the Belasco Theater.  I attended a
> press preview on Wednesday evening -- and it rocks!
>
> Best,
> Evangeline
>
> And here's the Times feature text:
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----
> ---
>
> February 27, 2008
> A Downtown Impresario s New Uptown Canvas By BEN SISARIO Between sets
> backstage at Joe s Pub one evening recently, the crew was busy carrying
> out a menagerie of African drums for one act and carefully loading in a
> piano for the comedy-cabaret group coming up next. Inches away, fans
> crowded the merchandise table while the artists squeezed through to
> their dressing rooms, and patrons from a play down the hall rushed to
> the restrooms at intermission.
>
> Cross-cultural juxtapositions like these are part of the plan at Joe s
> Pub, the tiny, upscale club at the Public Theater that for nine years
> has served as a center of downtown eclecticism, presenting a nightly
> travelogue of world music, jazz, singer-songwriters and genres in
> between, from unknowns to superstars like Elvis Costello and Norah
> Jones.
>
> Its philosophy is largely the work of Bill Bragin, a 40-year-old music
> obsessive from Long Island who has become one of the most influential
> figures in the New York live-music business, wooed by talent agents and
> record company executives eager for the endorsement of a prominent
> booking.
>
> But in an unusual move, Mr. Bragin left Joe s Pub for Lincoln Center at
> the beginning of this year, where he will oversee two summer series,
> Midsummer Night Swing and Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Many in the
> industry are now waiting to see if he can bring his golden touch to such
> a large and rigid uptown institution.
>
>  Bill had a vision,  said David Bither, senior vice president of
> Nonesuch Records. One of that label s stars, Audra McDonald, was the
> club s first booking when it opened in 1998, and Mr. Bither said he had
> discovered one of his newest artists there, the singer Christina
> Courtin.  It s not a jazz club, it s not a cabaret, it s not a poetry
> club,  he added,  but it is all of those things.
>
> The Public has appointed Shanta Thake, Mr. Bragin s second-in-command
> for five years, as his successor. And Mr. Bragin s move comes just as
> one of his signature achievements, the rock musical  Passing Strange,
> transfers to Broadway, opening Thursday at the Belasco Theater. As with
>  Passing Strange,  by the acid-tongued indie songwriter Stew   a show he
> helped shepherd in its earliest stages at the Public Theater   Mr.
> Bragin s own uptown transfer is a natural and carefully thought-out
> move, he said.
>
>  The way I define myself and my work is as an arts presenter, not a
> nightclub booker,  Mr. Bragin said in an interview.  This was exactly
> the right move.
> It s multidisciplinary, it s multiethnic. I have always been a
> generalist working in those boundaries between popular art and high
> art.
>
> With curls of jet-black hair and a boyish excitement in his voice, Mr.
> Bragin is known as a musical omnivore who is often several steps ahead
> of the hype.
> He got his start promoting concerts at Haverford College outside
> Philadelphia, and while still a student there, began working at Festival
> Productions, which presents JVC Jazz and other major festivals.
>
> He booked five seasons of Central Park SummerStage, beginning in 1994,
> and then went to Symphony Space before starting at Joe s Pub shortly
> before Sept.
> 11, 2001. Operating under the aegis of a nonprofit arts institution, the
> club was ailing financially when Mr. Bragin took it over, and his first
> job was to bring accounts into the black.
>
>  There was a managerial statement to Joe s Pub: basically, you figure
> out how to pay for yourself, and you can keep going,  said Oskar Eustis,
> who took over as artistic director of the Public Theater in 2004.
>  Bragin did that brilliantly.
>
> He did it by tripling the number of presentations to more than 700 a
> year, which increased revenue, and expanded its musical reach. Its
> diversity has limits, though. An intimate room with red, romantic
> lighting; pricey drinks; and a capacity of 150, Joe s Pub specializes in
> mellow music   very little hip-hop and rock   that appeals to upmarket
> adults.
>
> The annual operating budget of the Public Theater is $19.5 million. A
> spokeswoman declined to break down what portion of that is for Joe s
> Pub, which has fund-raising money specifically earmarked for its
> programming and also takes a portion of the profits from the
> independently owned company that operates the food and beverage service
> at Joe s.
>
> By embracing Mr. Bragin, whose new title is director of public
> programming, Lincoln Center is aiming to capitalize on the Joe s Pub
> cool factor and further its slow and sometimes fitful effort to attract
> younger audiences.
> Jane S. Moss, the vice president for programming at Lincoln Center, who
> hired Mr. Bragin, said it was also a chance to give greater credibility
> to two outdoor series that have often been perceived as lightweight.
>
>  We are eager that they not be perceived simply as a kind of
> community-outreach audience access point but as significant artistic
> entities in their own right,  she said.
>
> Mr. Bragin says the substance of his presentations will not change with
> the move uptown, only the scale.  The metaphor I ve been using,  he
> said,  is that you re painting watercolor miniatures on the one hand,
> and you re painting murals on the other.
>
> Some in the live-music business note that the freedom Mr. Bragin enjoyed
> at Joe s Pub might be curtailed on a bigger and more public stage.
>
>  Because Joe s is so small, you can take a lot of risks,  said Danny
> Melnick, the president of Absolutely Live and the former artistic
> director of Festival Productions.  You could do a lot for 100-odd people
> that you can t do for 2,000 or 3,000 people.
>
> Mr. Bragin said the opportunities on a big stage could be even more
> extensive, and his influence could also widen the range of summer
> concert offerings in the city, which have already expanded significantly
> in recent years, with series like the River to River Festival downtown
> and the indie-rock concerts at McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn.
>
> The success of his tenure at Lincoln Center   and of any concert, uptown
> or downtown   is ultimately in the hands and dancing feet of the
> audience, Mr.
> Bragin said.
>
>  It s about putting artists together in combinations that might not be
> the most expected,  he added.  But it s also about the community that s
> being built in that period of time. You get people dancing together on
> the plaza.
> The next song comes up, and you grab a partner. You build bridges.
>
>
> Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
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