Apparently almost every other Palo Altan and their dear Aunt Sally is musical.
On the eve of the summer solstice, downtown Palo Alto was abuzz with music. Scattered in various courtyards, sidewalk corners, and store fronts local musicians gathered to play for the general public free of charge at the Palo Alto World Music Day.
The levels ranged from amateur to pro to everything in between. The youngest musicians very young—an Indian family with kids as young as 9 or 10 played Bengali music outside a Citibank branch. 5th and 6th graders in the division of the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra played Baroque music at a University Avenue plaza.
A few blocks down, “old farts” played harmonicas, accordions, and banjos. A cappella choirs of retirees serenaded passerby outside Borders Books. High-school bands jammed on original songs across the street while barefoot Hippy girl bands from Santa Cruz warbled their peaceful tunes. There were plenty of blues. Plenty of folksy Americana bands were to be heard, each one with a songwriter-guitarist singing his or her heart out to friends, family, and whoever else wanted to listen.
On the main stage the Singing Wood Marimba Choir, playing music from Zimbabwe stood out. “Mad Molly” ran a quirky dance workshop with bandoneons creaking music in the background.
The Palo Alto Jazz Quintet played smooth and great sounding, if somewhat cheesy improvisations to a large crowd blocking the sidewalk. The Quark Quartet played some decent Mozart on the same block, while a soprano shrieked somewhere in the distance.
It was a good day for music. None of the music was too loud or offensive or outside the mainstream—this is Palo Alto aka “yuppieville” or “Shallow Alto” after all. But there was nothing shallow about this music day. No harm in gentle tones and good vibes for fit, happy Palo Alto families to celebrate the summer.
Next year I might plan to concentrate on three or four acts instead of running around trying to catch as many different styles as possible. It was a bit like wandering inside a huge crowded iPod and pressing shuffle every 50 paces. My ears are pleasantly dizzy.
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