This was a night that people will be talking about for a long time, and for all of the very best reasons. An estimated 300 people attended a concert last night at the Unitarian Church on Church Street in a moving and enthusiastic show of love and support that raised $18,000 for the victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti.
I arrived a little after 7 pm, just as Montclair High School’s a capella group, Passing Notes, took the stage.
They were singing “Hey Ya” and their clarity and grace utterly charmed the packed house. Next up were the Reticents — easy to see why this band has such a following. They rocked the house with their Dylan covers and other great songs, ending with a fantastic, rousing version of Nick Lowe’s anthemic “What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love and Understanding?” Songstress April Peters followed and sang one inspiring song about taking the opportunity to love. Ms. Peters has a gorgeous, fluid voice. If she plays around here again, I’d try to get a ticket and go. After that, grammy-nominated opera and Broadway singer Stephen Bryant took the stage, singing “Feelin’ Good” from “The Smell of the Greasepaint, The Roar of the Crowd” and “Imagine.” He finished his set by bringing some members of the Passing Notes and other participants back on stage for his last number, “Shed a Little Light,” a James Taylor tribute to Martin Luther King. Finally, the concert’s last act took the stage–Christian McBride with Steve Turre, Melissa Walker and the rest of the fantastic ensemble, including a young sax player who is a Jazz House Kids alumnus.
Mayor Jerry Fried acted as emcee and volunteers walked around collecting checks and cash for Haiti relief. In between performances, Mayor Fried also introduced some Haitian Americans who had lost or nearly lost close friends and family members in the cataclysm. Their stories helped to underscore the urgency of the situation. And of course throughout the evening there were references to the memory and the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Organizers of this event included Fried, Cindy Stagoff and Outpost in the Burbs. Alma Shneider of “Take Back the Kitchen” helped organize a fabulous bake sale that brought in $856 towards relief.
One of my favorite moments was when a group of Montclair firefighters, in full firefighting gear, arrived to present a large check for the relief effort.
In the slide show that I posted above you can get a sense of the great teamwork, community feeling, generosity and talent that helped to raise so much money and awareness for our brothers and sisters in Haiti. Let’s hope that all of our collective efforts can make a difference. And again, appreciation and congratulations to all who worked so hard to make this such a warm and wonderful event.
The kid playing sax with Christian McBride, Steve Turre and the other local jazz giants is Julian Lee, a Montclair High freshman. He is a wonderful musician.
Fran…you are so right, what an amazing night it was…how so many people from the community came together, and volunteered to help others.
Great slide show you put together too.
I was there, video taping as much as I could, and hope to share it with all on a future episode of Inside Montclair…I’ll be posting when it might be airing on Tv – 34.
Good Job to All.
It truly was a great night! Thank you for capturing it so beautifully.
A special thanks to the Baking Brigade for helping us put out the most delicious and loving bakesale of all time:
Deb Garrison
Deb Georgiou
Peg rosen
Carrie cantor
Karen merz
sarah Damaskos
Pam Cytron
cheryl Petricoff
Linda Hughes
Tanya Coke
Stacey Pinilis
Adrienne Riofrio
Maureen Connelly
Cathy Asher
Deborah hahn
Alison Bermack
Ulrike Lechert
Lauren Kaiser
leslie kunkin
Jennifer Gannett
Suzanne Aptman
Alma Schneider
Jennifer Snyder
Jackie Mroz
Jo Senecal
Elena Tapper
And Nicholas Hall, Leslie Scammell, Melina Macall, Jackie Wolf, Julie Earl and anyone else I forgot to helped run the show. You all ROCK!!!!!
This skeptical soul wonders what will become of the daily, year-in and year-out complete misery that is life in Haiti even without temblors when the relief workers and the news crews all pull out of there, as they inevitably will. Can any of us even name a recognizable product from Haiti (save, perhaps, Barbancourt Rum) which actually contributes to its GNP?…Nah, didn’t think so.
There’s a great line in the movie version of “The Serpent And The Rainbow,” when Zakes Mokae, as the head of the Tontons Macoutes, asks Bill Pullman, as the inevitably intrusive American in such situations, why he in fact came to Haiti in the first place.
And Pullman sputters that he came to see firsthand the oppression of the Haitian people.
Mokae shakes his head amusedly. “All we have here in Haiti,” he says, “are happy, happy island people.”
well, there’s this:
http://www.oreworld.org/mango.htm
and Jerry Fried reports “We are a little over $20k. We raised $862 on baked goods alone!”
Will the Montclair government station air Wayne’s program? Stay tuned to find out.
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