From Latin rhythms to shipyard symphonies, Hoboken has produced a veritable plethora of sounds over the last 100 years. To celebrate the city’s vicissitudes, the Hoboken Historical Museum is presenting "When Hoboken Was Hoboken," a free multi-media performance that explores changes in Hoboken and the reaction of residents to those changes. The performance, which features live music by percussionist Nick Birmelin and the Hoboken-based band Hippopotamus/Project3 along with vintage film and slide images of the city, will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 4 at Maxwell’s (1039 Washington St., Hoboken).
"During the time I’ve lived here, not only has the physical landscape changed dramatically, but so has the population," Holly Metz, the project’s coordinator, said last week. "There is that expression that the old-timers use, ‘When Hoboken was Hoboken.’ Each person who says that has their own interior vision of the city. My idea of Hoboken is a quiet city, with no 24-hour stores. When I first moved here women would walk down Washington Street in their slippers. That’s when I gave my heart to the city. I thought, ‘I want to live in a town where people feel so comfortable to walk around in their slippers.’"
Six months ago, the Historical Museum began to gather vintage film footage and slide documentation of the city. The material includes images of social clubs from the 1900s to the 1970s; a moody black and white film from the 1960s in which an unknown cameraman drives through the streets of Hoboken recording children at play in the streets; the bars along the "Barbary Coast" and workers leaving shipyards and factories; sweeping aerial views shot by filmmaker Nora Jacobson in the 1980s; and portraits of the city’s once prominent Latin community by Bruce Tamberelli. The individual works were edited together by Stephen Jablonsky, a designer, photographer and musician.
After collecting sounds and listening to residents’ stories, Nick Birmelin, a visiting artist under the Artist as Catalyst Program of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, arranged and composed original music to accompany the images. Birmelin worked with the Hoboken-based band Hippopotamus/Project3 featuring Bill Fiorella (tradition flutes and guitars), Dominic Cabrera (percussion), Liz Bustamante (keyboards, percussion), Mark Maloof (guitar), Colin Kohnhurst (bass) and Pat. James Longo (kit, percussion) to create a complex audio portrait of the city’s shifting memories and populations.
"I’m very proud of this project," said Metz. "This is one of the cooler things I’ve been associated with."
"When Hoboken Was Hoboken" will be presented at Maxwell’s (1039 Washington St., Hoboken) on Tuesday, Dec. 4 at 9 p.m. For more information call 656-2240.