The life harmonic
Bill Murray & friends wow Villagers with pop-up show
Bernstein’s “I Feel Pretty,” sung by Murray, a real switch from the classic interpretation
BY TEQUILA MINSKY
On a sunny, mild winter
afternoon last week,
under the arch, an accomplished
cello player is attracting
a slew of listeners. It
is a typical Washington Square
Park musical moment. He’s
playing Bach G-Major Prelude.
Someone sets up a chair near
him and a violinist appears
and together they play Handel’s
Halvorsen. The aggregation of
listeners grows to an arc. Then, a
pianist on a keyboard completes
the trio for Piazzolla’s Muerte
del Angel.
The violin and keyboard move
to a popular music genre riffi ng
on Gershwin’s It Ain’t Necessarily
So. A songster appears and
begins to sing the lyrics.
The crowd grows.
Meanwhile, George Schneider,
visiting from Washington
State, is walking through Washington
Square Park, and hears
some music and sees a few dozen
people listening. Naturally, he
wanders over.
“As I get closer, I note that
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
the guy singing really isn’t very
good —out of tune, raspy voice,”
he observes. “I’m thinking, ‘with
Covid persisting for so long, New
Yorkers are starved for live music
and apparently will listen to anything!’
” Then he takes a closer
look. Schneider is encountering a
mini fl ash-mob.
And, he realizes that beanieclad,
scratchy voiced singer is
Ghostbuster and Caddyshackfamed
Bill Murray. Schneider
believes he is experiencing what
is a tradition for Bill Murray, a
surprising pop-up. But it is much
more than that.
This cluster of New Yorkers
are sampling music from the concert
documentary fi lm with these
musicians—renowned cellist
Jan Vogler, violinist Mira Wang,
and pianist Vanessa Perez, and
Bill Murray, performing at the
Acropolis in Athens. The fi lming
of New Worlds: The Cradle of
Civilization took place at the fi -
nal concert of the quartet’s 2018
European tour.
These four toured nationally
and internationally during 2017-
2018, playing 63 gigs in 20-some
countries with a program of classical
and popular music, spoken
word, song, and poetry. In 2017,
Bill Murray and Jan Vogler released
the album Friends, New
Worlds, the number one classical
album that year.
How did this come about?
A few years back, these unlikely
collaborators met at the Berlin
airport when Murray, intrigued
by Vogler’s huge cello case being
carried onto the airplane,
discovered the cello had its own
fi rst-class window seat. Cellist
Jan Vogler sat across the aisle
from Murray, and during the long
Berlin-New York fl ight, the two
became friends.
Two years later they took a
Poet’s House-sponsored poetry
walk and Bill Murray recited Walt
Whitman’s A Song For the Open
Road (among other readings),
which inspired Vogler. Later
when Murray visited Vogler, they
discovered they had similar tastes
in music and literature—the
seeds of collaboration were planted.
The two went on to create a
program of classical and popular
music and spoken word. And, after
the 2016 election, they wanted
a program that in part celebrated
American arts and literature.
Nearing the end of the tour
documentary director and NYU
alumnus Andrew Muscato got
involved. Local Greek fi lm crews
fi lmed the last concert of the tour
at the Acropolis and it took a
year before the creatives involved
knew how they wanted to move
forward. Then there was the
pandemic. The fi lm titled New
Worlds: The Cradle of Civilization
premiered at Cannes this
past summer.
Opening nationwide on
Groundhog Day Feb. 2, media
rounds promoting the fi lm
were becoming a bit routine
when Murray and Vogler, seeking
something different, picked
Washington Square Park. Without
a permit, on a day of mild
weather before the arctic blast,
a mini fl ash mob grouped at
the arch for the fi lm sampling
live preview.
Under the arch, each additional
musician added to the
classical repertoire. And, in addition
to Ain’t Necessarily So
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
from Porgy and Bess, Murray
recited Ferlinghetti’s poem Dog,
and also spoke/sang a West Side
Story medley of I Free Pretty and
I Wanna Be in America before
park police put the nix on the
unauthorized performance.
In one of his interviews, Murray
admits he was intimidated
when walking out into the Acropolis,
recognizing that people
have been performing there for
thousands of years. His respectful
yet whimsical homage begins
the group’s last concert as Murray
throws long-stemmed roses into
the audience.
The classical performances
at the Acropolis include pieces
from Franz Shubert, Dmitri
Shostakovich, and Joseph Ravel.
Popular songs and readings range
from pieces by Steven Foster and
James Fennimore Cooper and
James Thurber to Ernest Hemmingway,
Van Morrison, Tom
Waits, and Jimmy Durante. And
of course, Bernstein’s West Side
Story medley, which also includes
Somewhere. After two minutes
of applause, the encore runs for
nearly 20 minutes.
Schneps Media January 27, 2022 15