Memories of a Busker

Busking is the art of street performance, an artistic tradition rich with a history that is centuries old.
Since the emergence of whimsical court jesters and the strolling minstrels of the Middle Ages, audiences have been enthralled by the unique blend of mysticism and magic that buskers have used to entertain. Busking stages have varied from royal courtyards to sidewalk benches. While the kingdoms and monarchs have long since disappeared, this unique form of entertainment thrives globally.
A busker is someone who can turn any place into a stage.
It's a gutsy business to be sure -- but buskers are gusty to begin with. They're the traditional performers who bring entertainment to the street

A lot of people feel sorry for buskers, thinking we perform on the street because we can't get gigs elsewhere, but they've got it all wrong. We love the street. I have played with orchestras in big concert halls such as Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. But the subway is my preferred venue.
I am part of an explosion in street performers around the world. Competition for a piece of sidewalk is greater than it has ever been. And performers are becoming increasingly sophisticated. So many buskers have a cell phone, a digital organizer, a web site and a travel agent.

As a busker, you have the thrill of knowing you're doing something that most people wouldn't do.
Performing on the street teaches you to face down your fear of rejection. On the street people give you money gladly if you are good.
To survive as a busker, you need talent, courage, boundless optimism, and dry weather if you don't have a subway system near you...

59th Street, July, 2005
photographer: Oscar Durand

Usually you have to watch that you don't draw too big a crowd or you'll be shut down - the merchants will complain and the audience could block the passageway.

Busking is the most honest form of entertainment. There is no such thing as a small show. You make the same effort regardless of the size of the audience. That's the integrity of being a street performer.

59th Street, July, 2005
photographer: Oscar Durand

I like the feeling of being a part of the goings on in the streets, to be one small piece of the world.
I love being able to play for anybody who happens to be there. You start from nothing and build an energy.
It's an honest way to do things. No one has to like you and if they do it's a genuine appreciation, an honest reaction.

Busking is something to do for adventure and excitement. Being free to do whatever. It's also a way to cultivate your craft.

Busking is more for urban settings where there's more of an atmosphere of "anything goes," and not these small rural towns where there's nowhere that people actually will be walking past you, they're in their cars...

You give yourself to the street for free. You perform your heart out, sometimes you get compensated, sometimes not. But your giving does not dependent on what is returned. What compels a busker is their love of music and of people. Musicians must play and must have an audience. Sharing music with others is a very spiritual and uplifting experience.

It's hard work, and not everyone is cut out for it. You have to not take anything on the street personally.
It takes courage to stand alone on a street corner and to start entertaining people, interacting with those around you, breaking walls of personal space, and luring them into a collective and spontaneous group experience on the street, in the moment, with you.

A bad busking act is when the performer doesn't make an effort to connect with the audience. Like musicians who play for themselves, not acknowledging the audience, just burying their heads in their instruments.

In New York, you've got to really move the people. New Yorkers make an honest audience. I've played with everyone from Maestro Zubin Mehta to 'Prairie Home Companion'. When you buy a ticket to a show, no matter what, you've already paid to get in, so you politely clapp your hands, and you are pre-conditioned to think what you're seeing/hearing is good. In the New York streets the people are raw and honest every day. The street doesn't lie and it's not going to be polite with you - if you suck, you'll know it.

Busking teaches you important things about people. You can recognize trouble and you become sharp. Your bullshit radar becomes more acute.

Taking people walking down the street and molding them into a living and breathing work of art. Unifying them and connecting us all in a spontaneous magical experience.

There's nobility in being a street musician. It's not just about making money and surviving. Not at all. It's the opposite. If you intend to make money, generally you won't make much money and won't meet anyone. But if your intention is to go out and sing your heart out and enjoy yourself, the world opens up. Which is a lesson for life.

When I play in the subway I come in direct contact with a lot of people I don't know. Being kind to strangers has a unique reward. These people and I have no history together, no lingering resentments, no expectations - it's just pure connection on a light and happy level. That's exactly what many people need, which is why it is easy for me to give it to them.

59th Street, July, 2005
photographer: Oscar Durand

Real Good for Free
©1974 by Joni Mitchell

I slept last night in the Fairmont Hotel
I went shopping today for jewels
Wind rushed around in the dirty town
And the children let out from the schools

I was standing on the noisy corner
I was waiting for the walking green
Across the street he stood and he played real good
On his clarinet for free

Now me, I play for fortune
And those velvet curtain calls
I got a black limousine and sixteen gentlemen
Escorting me to these halls

And I play if you have the money
Or if you're some kind of friend to me
But the one man band by the quick lunch stand
He was playing real good for free

Nobody stopped to hear him
Though he played so sweet and high
They knew he'd never been on their TV
So they passed his good music by

I meant to go over to him and ask for a song
Maybe put on some kind of harmony
I heard his refrain as that signal changed
He was playing real good, for free.

14th Street, March 11th, 2005
photographer: Ricardo Oyarzo

When you see Natalia Paruz playing her Musical Saw, she is smiling. Passengers hear the sound of the instrument throughout the whole tunnel and when they follow the sound, they will find Natalia sitting there, the saw - without teeth; she was ticketed for $150 once by the police once for carrying a weapon - clamped between her knees, smiling. Maybe she smiles because walkers-by look so astonished at the sight and the sound of the saw. After seeing NataliaÂ’s face, riders return the smile. Or is it Natalia returning the ridersÂ’ smile? You canÂ’t tell. She just smiles and that creates an inimitable aura around her - fortified by the sawÂ’s sound.

59th Street, July, 2005
photographer: Oscar Durand

New York City has been referred to as the city that never sleeps. In many parts of the city, we can feel the vibrations of its energy 24 hours a day. In some subway stations, people sing, play instruments and even dance.

Recently, the "sawlady" is becoming very popular. She brings a saw, warps it, and makes her own music; the sound vibrates all over the subway station. This is an artist who probably could not afford to buy a musical instrument. But, she realized the power of her imagination and invented her own music, capable of creating enough vibrations to make us stare in awe....

PRAYER IS THE GREATEST FORM OF COMMUNICATION BECAUSE IT SETS IN MOTION OTHER DIMENSIONS WHICH MAY EVEN BE CALLED SUPERNATURAL.
There are many forms of prayer. Certainly, we do not need to go to church, or temple to pray. All we need is faith in the power of our imagination, and passion. This is what the "sawlady" does when she plays at the subway station. This is the form she chooses to communicate with other dimensions, while scientists, for instance, use their laboratories, and mathematics, as I already mentioned.


Listen to a recording of Natalia done at the Union Square subway station May 5th, 2005, playing 'Green Sleeves'.

From Wikipedia:
The new millennium has experienced a divergence with both a rebirth and an oppression of this art form occurring in the U.S. Many cities are encouraging buskers because they provide a form of entertainment and are considered a tonic to the stresses of shopping and commuting, an influence which is favourable for shopkeepers.
In the early 90's PBS affiliated stations aired a program called "Street People". It revealed some very interesting information on studies done at Harvard University. They studied street people of all sorts in and around New York City; buskers, street vendors, panhandlers, beggers and the homeless, cops, cabbies and maintenance workers. The studies showed that crime rates tend to decrease around areas in which buskers routinely perform. The old adage "Music Soothes the Savage Beast" was found to be true.
The studies also showed that buskers attract and are supported by a better educated, more intelligent, wealthier class of people. (I disagree with that - from my experience buskers attract everybody, regardles of level of education and wealth).
Those Harvard studies were one of the motivating factors in some court decisions to allow buskers to perform in the New York Subway System.