With sunshine and warm temperatures abounding after a rainy week, thousands of Blues and BBQ aficionados ventured to Pier 76 on Manhattan’s West Side on Aug. 10 for the 24th annual Hudson River Park Blues BBQ Festival.
The day-long festival, which dates back to 1999, was sponsored by Hudson River Park Friends, the Jazz Foundation of America, and Lagunitas and is the largest and longest-running free blues festival in the New York Region and one of Hudson River Park’s season programming signature events.
Andrew Ronan, vice president of Partnerships Programming and Events at Hudson River Park Trust, told amNewYork Metro that this year, they added new family-friendly activities including the Blues Dance Floor, BBQ Marketplace, and Jalopy Theater, an instrument “petting zoo.”
“[Blues BBQ] is the largest event that we produce in the park, and it’s been such a popular long-time event in the park that we are identified with it,” Ronan said. “It’s great to see everybody come out, and it’s a great day for thousands of people to come and enjoy.”
While listening to the tunes of the grandfather of many music genres, foodies had their pick from BBQ joints like Mighty Quinn’s, Blue Smoke, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, Kimchi Smoke’s Korean-style barbecue, Jase’s BBQ featuring flavors from Trinidad and Tobago, Bark BBQ showcasing Dominican-style Texas barbecue, Cuban-inspired barbecue from Big Papa Smokem, and locally sources artisanal meats from Dickson’s Farmstand. La Newyorkina, a Latin-women-owned company, sold handmade natural Mexican ice cream, a welcome treat on a hot summer day.
The BBQ Marketplace featured hot sauce companies such as Mama Lams, SD Sauce, Kitchen Garden Farm, and Cursed Cauldron, where attendees got to sample and purchase the spice concoctions.
Hudson River Park curated the line-up of the festival’s mainstage, which showcased the diversity of the blues genre with performances by the Alexis P. Suter Band, Zydeco accordionist Dwight Carrier, known as Blackcat Zydeco, Chicago Blues Hall of Fame inductee Sheryl Youngblood, six-time Blues Music Award winner Joe Louis Walker, and closing act, the Altered Five Blues Band.
The Alexis P. Suter Band kicked off the festival on the main stage, energizing the crowd with its blend of Blues, Soul, Roots, and Rock music.
The band, comprised of Brooklyn-raised singer and songwriter Alexis P. Suter, guitarist Jimmy Bennett, drummer Ray Grappone, bassist Peter Bennett, pianist and keyboardist Dan Weiss, and vocalist Vicki Bell, has been playing together for 20 years.
Suter, whose mother, Carrie Suter, a Juilliard-trained singer who sang with the likes of Harry Belafonte and Mahalia Jackson, told amNewYork Metro that she got her start in Gospel. In the 1980s and 1990s, Sutter played house and dance music and was the first African-American woman to sign with Epic/Sony Records Japan in the 1990s.
Shortly after, she met Ray Grappone and Vicki Bell. They joined forces, began playing Blues, and caught the eye of Levon Helm. From there, the band took off and has played at Beacon Theatre and The Paramount, among other venues.
The vocal powerhouse said that the Blues can be happy or sad.
“A lot of people affiliate it with being sad. The dog died [or] my wife left me. Blues is happy, too,” Suter said. “I got the happy blues, you know, I’m with my family, yo. Blues can be whatever you want it to be. It’s like clay. And whatever you want it to be, it is for you. For me, it’s a whole lot of things. I can’t just pinpoint one thing. There are so many things. It’s like a box of crayons.”
The second stage, curated and presented by the Jazz Foundation of America, showcased blues and soul musicians, including The Phil Young Blues Experience, Tina Fabrique, Charlie Burnham, Beareather Reddy, and Gordon Lockwood.
Mark Bowers, the guitar player with The Phil Young Blues Experience, told amNewYork that he began playing the guitar when he was five. His parents were musicians -his dad, Cass Bowers, played with American jazz singer Cab Calloway- and wanted their 13 kids to learn an instrument.
“Since my dad was a drummer, my older brother was a drummer, and my sister was a drummer, I had to pick another instrument. I tried bass, but my older brother was a better bass player than me, so we just decided to switch off. I picked up his guitar, he took my bass, and we never went back,” said Bowers, who has toured with musicians like Mary J Blige, Christina Aguilera, and New Kids on the Block.
Bowers described the Blues as the “springboard” for all music genres.
“It’s through Blues that I learned how to play jazz, how I learned how to play Rock, R&B, Funk, Reggae, Salsa, [and] Merengue,” Bowers told amNewYork Metro. “I always, no matter what project I’m working on or who I’m working with, I always use the Blues as a cross reference. That’s my go-to music, and it served me well.”
Next to the main stage, Blues Dance New York had set up a dance floor where festival goers got their groove on and learned how to dance to the rhythm of the Blues.
Sabrina Ramos, director of Blues Dance New York, described the Blues as “uniquely” American with a deep cultural history. Odysseus Bailer, an instructor and DJ with Blues Dance New York explained that Blues music and dance originated in Black American culture and was the “voice of a people,” expressing their feelings from happiness to sorrow.
“Music and dance out of black American culture has always had a strong political touch and element to it because it’s really about striving for equality, not just personally but also in everyday life as far as education, economics, politics, and the music speaks to that,” Bailer told amNewYork Metro.
Mother-son team Pamela and Brandon Maxey learned about the festival through friends. Both were looking forward to a relaxing and fun afternoon.
“Music is healing for the soul whether it’s Blues, R&B, [or] Rock,” Pamela Maxey said, and Brandon added, “Live your life like it is your last day.”
